Sanjay Gupta would be no fan of marijuana policy reform as Surgeon General

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is no fan
of drug-policy reform.

CNN's Sanjay Gupta hasn't yet been officially named as Barack Obama's pick for Surgeon General, but the TV talking head and Emory University neurosurgeon has been approached about the job and reportedly is more than a little interested in becoming the nation's chief scold. In that role, he would almost certainly continue the government's tradition of nagging the public about its choice of intoxicants.

You can expect a Surgeon General Gupta to take a relatively hard line on marijuana, for one thing. In Time magazine in 2006, Gupta wrote "Why I would vote no on pot":

Maybe it's because I was born a couple of months after Woodstock and wasn't around when marijuana was as common as iPods are today, but I'm constantly amazed that after all these years--and all the wars on drugs and all the public-service announcements--nearly 15 million Americans still use marijuana at least once a month. ...

The Nevada and Colorado marijuana initiatives have gained support from unlikely places. More than 33 religious leaders in Nevada have endorsed the measure, arguing that permissive legalization, accompanied by stringent regulations and penalties, can cut down on illegal drug trafficking and make communities safer.

Perhaps. But I'm here to tell you, as a doctor, that despite all the talk about the medical benefits of marijuana, smoking the stuff is not going to do your health any good. And if you get high before climbing behind the wheel of a car, you will be putting yourself and those around you in danger.

Gupta's take is certainly less strident than that of some advocates of Prohibition. He's willing to actually discuss the issue, rather than treat the war on drugs as some sort of religious crusade. Ultimately, though, he wants to keep in place laws that threaten people with legal penalties for ingesting substances of which he disapproves.

It's hard to predict whether Dr. Sanjay Gupta would make a good Surgeon General -- it depends on how convincing he is about wagging his finger, which is the job's main responsibility. But Gupta would certainly not represent any new direction for the Obama administration in terms of drug policy.

And by the way ... With television personalities headed to powerful offices in D.C., can we expect Judge Judy to be named to the Supreme Court?

Update: Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project rightly admonishes me for passing over the fact that Gupta allows that marijuana may well have some medical use. In the Time piece, Gupta writes:

True, there are health benefits for some patients. Several recent studies, including a new one from the Scripps Research Institute, show that THC, the chemical in marijuana responsible for the high, can help slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease. (In fact, it seems to block the formation of disease-causing plaques better than several mainstream drugs.) Other studies have shown THC to be a very effective antinausea treatment for people--cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, for example--for whom conventional medications aren't working. And medical cannabis has shown promise relieving pain in patients with multiple sclerosis and reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients.

That marijuana is helpful for Alzheimer's, cancer and glaucoma patients doesn't seem like a major concession at this late date for most of us -- but for a serious contender for a government office, it's almost revolutionary. The federal government has been so hostile to any effort to consider the use of marijuana as medicine that its acceptance in that role by a potential presidential appointee is remarkable. Gupta deserves a nod on that count.

That said, I still want to serious consideration of real drug policy reform that would spare people prison time for mere possession and use.

Contact J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com