CNN contributor Dr. Sanjay Gupta followed up on his reversal of course regarding medical marijuana in an interview with Anderson Cooper on Tuesday by slamming federal policy regarding medical marijuana.

“The U.S. holds a patent [on marijuana] on one hand, and on the other hand, same government says it has no medical applications,” Gupta told Cooper. “Journalists are trained to hate hypocrisy. This is hypocrisy. I’ve never seen it quite like this.”

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The Department of Health and Human Services, Gupta explained, holds a patent on medical marijuana as “a protectant for the brain, giving voice to an argument made by medical marijuana proponents. The pro-marijuana site Weedist reported in May 2013 that the patent states that, “cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”

Gupta, who issued a public apology on Aug. 7 for taking part in medical misinformation regarding the drug, also empathized with the argument that it should be kept out of the hands of minors.

“I don’t want kids taking this stuff,” Gupta told Cooper. “I don’t want anybody whose brain hasn’t fully developed — which usually is the mid-20s — taking this stuff. It’s not about this. But the trade-off shouldn’t be, because of those concerns, [that] we will then deny people therapy that may be the only therapy that works for them.”

Watch Gupta renew his defense of medical marijuana, aired Tuesday on CNN, below.