Colbert laments that Sanjay Gupta has 'gone over to the dank side'

Thursday night on "The Colbert Report," host Stephen Colbert excoriated CNN's resident health expert Dr. Sanjay Gupta for coming out in support of legal medical marijuana. Gupta, Colbert said, is a traitor in the "war on nugs" who has "gone over to the dank side."

"Nation," he said, "America is losing the battle against Mary Jane. This year, New Hampshire and Illinois legalized medical marijuana, bringing to 20 the number of states where your pharmacist will soon look like this."

He flashed an image of Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski, but wearing a pharmacist's white lab coat rather than a ratty bathrobe.

"The Dude prescribes!" he quipped.

"And folks, the war on nugs used to have a strong ally in CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who opposed legalizing pot until now," Colbert said before playing a clip of Gupta's appearance on "Piers Morgan Tonight," in which the doctor came out in favor of medical marijuana, saying that the American people have been "terribly and systematically misled" about pot, "and I've done some of that misleading."

"Wait a second!" Colbert said. "We were misinformed by a cable news doctor? Next you'll tell me that I can't get directions to my cousin's house from 'Fareed Zakaria GPS.'"

Colbert lamented that "Ganjay Supta," a global TV idol "has gone over to the dank side."

Watch the video, embedded below via Comedy Central:

[Ed. note: An earlier draft of this post incorrectly identified the actor who portrayed the Dude in "The Big Lebowski" as Jeff Daniels, not Jeff Bridges. The author deeply regrets the error and admits that he should probably be handed over to German nihilists.]