Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) August 21, 2013 -- Renowned professional poker player and author Annie Duke released a statement on the controversy of medical marijuana, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s changing opinion of it as chronicled in a recent LA Times article. Duke writes:
“Regardless of your political views on whether medical marijuana should be legal, we should all be applauding Sanjay Gupta for being willing to change his opinion on the topic. Our beliefs are formed by our past behaviors to a much larger degree than most of us would like to admit (if you want to read a bit more on the topic you can start here). Anyone who has so publicly spoken out on any issue would be hard pressed to change their belief and the ability to do so, regardless of whether the change was from con to pro or pro to con, is remarkably admirable.
“Beyond that, Gupta makes a compelling point about the Availability Bias. Since medical marijuana became illegal in the 70’s, just 6% of the studies Gupta counted up looked at the potential benefits of medical marijuana use. The rest investigated the potential harm. That means that most of what the public has heard about pot smoking in that last 40 years has been negative because the studies have been biased to explore the downside of using medical marijuana most likely because it has been an illegal drug. Since the data that is available is negative, the inherent bias in the research leads to a profoundly distorted view, which Gupta admits contributed to his opinion on the topic.
“While I am certainly no expert on the topic myself, I would be surprised if Gupta isn’t right that prescribing Oxycodone for pain has more downside than the use of medical marijuana given what we know about the dangers of certain prescription drugs.”
To read more of Annie Duke’s opinions, visit http://www.annieduke.com/blog.
About Annie Duke
Annie Duke has a strong track record of success in the world of poker. She first burst onto the scene at the 1994 World Series of Poker, where she cashed in three events included making the final three tables of the Main Event. A decade later, she won her first WSOP bracelet and in 2010 became the NBC National Heads-Up Champion bested runner-up, Erik Seidel. Duke has appeared on Celebrity Apprentice and tutored Hollywood A-listers including Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on the finer points of the game of poker. She is also the author of three books on poker: Decide to Play Great Poker; Heads-Up Tournament Poker; and The Middle Zone. She also authored an autobiography How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker.
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Jenifer Sarver, 512-879-0992, [email protected]
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