Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana is now going mainstream and that's to a large extent due to the efforts of physicians and journalists such as Sanjay Gupta. Gupta is the creator of a CNN program titled "Weed" which is being screened on CNN. Having watched this emotionally charged program I can only come to the conclusion that the world, according to Gupta, can be divided into "good" marijuana social entrepreneurs and "bad" cold-hearted doctors and scientists. Those doctors and scientists come across as cerebral and unemotional whereas the poor patients and their advocates are featured as the vanguards of medicine and science. In Sanjay Guptas's world individual case reports supersede any clinical study and the subjective improvement of individuals is served as clinical evidence. Yes, it is true that case reports, defined as the scientific documentation of a single clinical observation, have a time-honored and rich tradition in medicine and scientific publication. Yes, case reports and series have a high sensitivity for detecting novelty and therefore remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress BUT there findings have to be validated by rigorous randomized clinical trials!! This applies to marijuana, too. Systematic review and meta-analysis of double-blind randomized controlled trials that compare cannabis preparation to placebo are often not as convincing as the case reports of marijuana use may suggest. For example, a systematic review and meta-analysis of double-blind randomized controlled trials that compared any cannabis preparation to placebo among subjects with chronic pain revealed that cannabis treatment is moderately efficacious for treatment of chronic pain, but beneficial effects may be partially (or completely) offset by potentially serious harms. More evidence from larger, well-designed trials is needed to clarify the true balance of benefits to harms. These forms of critical differentiation are missing in Dr. Gupta's reporting. Meanwhile Dr. Guptas proudly declared that he wants to "double down" on his reporting and we will have to endure more of his unscientific rants. But don't worry! CNN will win big in the primetime viewership rating scale and can thereby charge higher advertising rates on Gupta's programs. What can we learn? Marijuana is big business for all involved, except for us doctors who have to clean up the mess and get paid pittance from the health insurance companies for our efforts. Yours Bernd