Remembering Dr. Lester Grinspoon

His Understanding of Cannabis Helped Shape People's Perception

Dr. Lester Grinspoon started his career in cannabis reform intending to prove that cannabis was a harmful substance. To his surprise, his research proved otherwise. 

In the ‘60s, Dr. Grinspoon was a Harvard psychiatrist whose best friend, astrophysicist Dr. Carl Sagan, secretly smoked pot with disregard to the false narrative. As Dr. Grinspoon witnessed his friend getting high, he would protest that, “marihuana,” was dangerous, that it would cause a mental disorder or lead to psychosis. Dr. Sagan would dismiss Dr. Grinspoon’s concerns with a laugh and pass him the joint, telling him to try it and experience the effects himself. 

Dr. Grinspoon revealed what instigated his groundbreaking book in an interview with Vice in 2013: “My wife Betsy and I went to a party with Carl not long after we met, and it quickly became clear that marijuana was a regular feature of social life within his little circle in Cambridge. 

“As a physician, I saw all that smoking going on, and I was really concerned about it. I suffered from a kind of arrogance that sometimes afflicts physicians. Doctors are supposed to automatically be experts on drugs, and so I found myself spieling off the stuff that the government was saying, telling this wonderful group of people that I was concerned about marijuana’s detrimental effect on their health. Because I truly believed pot was a very harmful drug. I actually succeeded in getting two or three of them to at least temporarily reconsider. But whenever I’d say as much to Carl, he’d wave the joint in front of me, and reply, ‘Oh, Lester, have a puff, it’s not going to hurt you a bit and you’ll love it.’“ 

Being the academic he was, Dr. Grinspoon turned to the Harvard libraries, thinking that he would find the scientific evidence that supported the logic behind prohibiting cannabis. Instead, he was surprised to find that there was no sound reason for prohibiting cannabis. The more he dug into the available research, or lack thereof, the more Dr. Grinspoon realized that Carl was right and prohibiting cannabis was wrong. 

His realization became the catalyst for one of the first books to be taken seriously by academics around the world regarding cannabis prohibition, Marihuana Reconsidered. Released in 1971, it was one of the very first dissenting voices of reason in the war on nature and, as a result, Dr. Grinspoon become one of the loudest voices for reform in the academic community. 

Dr. Grinspoon even enlisted the instigator to his research, Dr. Sagan, to write an essay on his use of cannabis. At the time of publication, his contribution to Dr. Grinspoon’s book was anonymous under the pseudonym “Mr. X,” and remained so until his passing. Dr. Sagan wrote an intellectual insight into the wonderful qualities of cannabis that can help humans contemplate their very being. Mr. X became legendary in the circle of enlightened cannabis users looking to inspire their own peers to go beyond their preconceived notions of “marihuana” and give it a try for themselves. 

In the summary of his essay, Dr. Sagan points out the safety and effectiveness of cannabis to be able to bring out a sense of sensitivity, insight, and serenity to its users. And in a very telling example of Dr. Sagan’s enlightenment, he uses the term “cannabis” and not “marijuana” throughout his essay, which was a form of blasphemy in 1969. 

“There is a very nice self-tittering aspect to cannabis. Each puff is a very small dose; the time lag between inhaling a puff and sensing its effect is small; and there is no desire for more after the high is there. I think the ratio, R, of the time to sense the dose taken to the time required to take an excessive dose is an important quantity. R is very large for LSD (which I’ve never taken) and reasonably short for cannabis. Small values of R should be one measure of the safety of psychedelic drugs. When cannabis is legalized, I hope to see this ratio as one of the parameters printed on the pack. I hope that time isn’t too distant; the illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” 

Dr. Sagan may not have known it at the time, but he succeeded in enlisting one of the most brilliant minds at Harvard to become one of the loudest champions of cannabis law reform the government had ever seen.

Part of Dr. Grinspoon’s passion would be the motivation of his best friend Dr. Sagan, but unfortunately, during the writing of Marihuana Reconsidered, Dr. Grinspoon’s son Danny was diagnosed with cancer. This would prove to be a very personal turning point for Dr. Grinspoon and his wife Betsy. 

In the course of Danny’s cancer treatment, he became reluctant to go to treatment and had developed a great degree of anxiety over the side effects of the chemotherapy he was experiencing. Danny’s mother Betsy, broached the subject to Lester about getting their son some cannabis to see if it would help alleviate the side effects of his treatment. Initially, Dr. Grinspoon was completely against it, thinking it would be the end of his career at Harvard and potentially cause them both to face criminal prosecution. 

Going against her husband’s will, Betsy took it upon herself to get some cannabis for her son from some of his friends. Betsy gave it to him without Dr. Grinspoon knowing and Danny became one of the first modern-day medical marijuana patients. When Dr. Grinspoon saw the difference in Danny’s overall attitude towards his treatment, he asked his wife what had happened. She told him that she went behind his back and got some cannabis for Danny and it was making a positive difference in his treatment. At that point, Dr. Grinspoon became very personally connected to the battle for the right to use medical cannabis for the rest of his life.

Because of the connection created from the use of cannabis for his treatment, Danny became more interested in his dad’s soon-to-be-published book. Marihuana Reconsidered was dedicated to Danny and sent Dr. Grinspoon on a new path of research focusing on the medical utility of cannabis. 

Dr. Grinspoon became a champion of law reform surrounding cannabis and even annoyed President Nixon, who once stated, “Every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish,” after seeing a copy of Marihuana Reconsidered. 

In the ’70s, Dr. Lester Grinspoon was also an expert witness for John Lennon during his extradition trial; his expert testimony helped Lennon win the right to stay in the United States.

Dr. Grinspoon joined the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and spoke openly for reform. As a doctor, he was a lone voice in a very inhospitable environment during the ’70s and ’80s as the War on Drugs was starting to take off and so many otherwise intelligent people failed to see the science presented to them in regards to cannabis and its history. 

In November 1994, NORML hosted “National Medical Marijuana Day” in Washington, DC. it was basically a meeting of the minds and then a protest outside of the White House. The Federation of American Scientists put forth a position paper on “Whole Raw Cannabis” and it felt like legalization was just around the corner. Dr. Lester Grinspoon was taking part in the reorganization of NORML and doing his part to steer the conversation towards the medical usefulness of the plant. 

I first met Dr. Grinspoon at that 1994 event. He had witnessed me speaking about my use of cannabis during cancer treatment and took a liking to me straight away. We not only enjoyed conversation in the crowd, we got to spend time together and smoke some of the California Cannabis I had grown earlier that year. There is something special about cannabis that brings people together. It gave us a quiet time at a crowded event and we became friends from that day on. 

Through the years, I was a rather aggressive activist for medical cannabis and Dr. Grinspoon was always there to write me a letter of recommendation, as he did to a judge in 1995, when I was making an argument to the court in Ohio that my international cannabis prescription made me legal in his state. Thanks to Dr. Grinspoon’s help, the judge was persuaded to release me from jail and subsequently crushed the case against me. 

In 1997, when I became one of the first cannabis patients arrested for cultivating cannabis after the passage of Prop. 215, Dr. Grinspoon wrote me letters of recommendation for medical use of cannabis to the federal courts, and during the five years that I was in prison, he was one of my pen pals. 

When I was released from prison, I was approached by a few gentlemen who were interested in making a documentary about cannabis and they were nice enough to let me line up some doctors, celebrities, and other cannabis experts for their project. Immediately, I called Dr. Grinspoon and asked him if he would let me send a small film crew to interview him, to which he agreed. While I don’t believe Dr. Grinspoon expected much of the project initially, the documentary, The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, ended up winning numerous awards, going around the world, and being used as a tool to educate one another about the history of cannabis. 

After the success of The Union, we decided to do a second documentary titled The Culture High and Dr. Grinspoon was eager to participate once again. During the production of the film, Dr. Grinspoon and I were both honored with the Cannabis Culture Awards in Barcelona alongside Sir Richard Branson in 2012. 

Dr. Grinspoon could not attend due to health issues, but he was definitely there in spirit, while I was there, I asked Richard Branson if he would consider being in our next documentary and he agreed. 

When the final edit had just been made available to the producers, I happened to be in New England and was able to drive to see Dr. Grinspoon. I downloaded the movie using my cell phone onto my laptop in his parking lot and was able to watch the movie for the very first time with him and Betsy in his living room. They were both so pleased with the final production and the possibility that it could be seen by enough people to really make a difference. 

The Culture High was released in October 2014. To our great surprise, Richard Branson enjoyed the movie so much that he offered to launch it on his personal blog. That endorsement assisted in the documentary receiving worldwide press and a Netflix deal that translated the film into 15 languages and showed in 70 countries for three years. 

Some time later, Dr. Grinspoon was attending an event at Harvard. After the event, a group of students lined up asking if they could get autographs from him. He was astounded—it was something he did not expect as an academic. Dr. Grinspoon was both very surprised and pleased with the enthusiasm of the younger generation and their incredible knowledge about cannabis and its history. He called me the next day and joked that more people knew who he was for being in those two documentaries, then for his entire body of work that preceded, we both laughed, and it was beautiful to see him getting the positive recognition he deserved for being such a powerful voice of reason for so very long. 

One morning, Dr. Grinspoon called me asking me if I wanted to read his latest paper titled “Cannabinopathic Medicine,” which is a wonderfully well-written summary of cannabis history and the future in which Dr. Grinspoon sees it going. In it he coined a new term: 

canna•bin•o•path•ic
/•kan •ben •paTHik/


Adjective: 1. Relating to or using cannabinoids and certain terpenes to treat the endocannabinoid system, 2. "cannabinopathic medicine" 

 

After reading his essay, I was naive enough to ask him if I could publish it in my next book. we were conversing over Skype, so I could see him chuckle as he answered me; “Well Todd, the New England Journal of Medicine is considering publishing it and I suppose if they say no, you can.” For a moment, I felt like a complete idiot and completely out of place for asking and told him so, but he just laughed at me and told me that he meant it. 

Less than a year later, he called me up and told me that they had turned it down and that I was free to put it in my next book. It was then that he started helping me with outlining what has become our next book: From Cancer to Cannabis: The Essential Guide to the Endocannabinoid System, set to be published this year. 

It’s hard to measure the impact that one person has on the world, but it’s easy to see the impact Dr. Grinspoon has had in the 50 years of his helping shape the world’s understanding of cannabis. In “Cannabinopathic Medicine,” he summarizes his optimistic view of the future where cannabis use is accepted and better understood by everybody. 

“Two powerful forces are now colliding: the growing acceptance of cannabinopathic medicine and the proscription against any use of the plant marijuana, medical or non-medical. As a result, two distribution systems will emerge for medical cannabis: the conventional model of pharmacy-filled prescriptions for FDA- approved cannabinoid medicines, and a model closer to the distribution of alternative herbal medicines. The only difference, albeit an enormous one, will be the continued illegality of whole smoked or ingested cannabis. In any case, increasing medical use by either distribution pathway will inevitably make a great number of people familiar with cannabis and its derivatives. As they learn that its harmfulness has been greatly exaggerated and its usefulness under-estimated, the pressure will increase for drastic changes in the way that we as a society deal with this drug.” 

 

Lester Grinspoon
June 24, 1928 - June 25, 2020
 
Dr. Lester Grinspoon was an American psychiatrist best known for his long tenure as an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He concurrently served as a senior psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, Massachusetts for 40 years. Grinspoon was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychiatric Association. He was founding editor of The American Psychiatric Association Annual Review and Harvard Mental Health Letter. Grinspoon was editor of Harvard Mental Health Letter for fifteen years. (From his WiKi page) 

Lester and his co-author James B. Bakalar, wrote the following books: Marihuana Reconsidered (1971), Speed Culture: Amphetamine Use and Abuse in America (1975, written with Peter Hedblom), Cocaine: A Drug and Its Social Evolution (1976), Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered (1979), Psychedelic Reflections (1983), Drug Control in a Free Society (1985), The Long Darkness: Psychological and Moral Perspectives on Nuclear Winter (1986, written with the American Psychiatric Association), Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine (1997)

 

 

As published in:
Grow Magazine, Vol. 5 Issue 3
July 2020