Benefits of Marijuana : Grinspoon Speech in Washington DC
Press release from MAP:
Lester Grinspoon, MD, to give Washington DC speech on the Benefits of Marijuana
Lester Grinspoon, MD, is a remarkable scholar and a remarkable person. Nearly alone in his chosen profession, he has long stood in opposition to our government's most irrational, yet ardently held public policy: the criminal prohibition of marijuana. In an important speech to be delivered on April 20 to the NORML Convention in Washigton, DC, he will spell out how, at age 44, while in the ascending trajectory of a promising academic career at one of our leading medical schools, his intellectual honesty forced him into what has become a lonely, yet rewarding crusade.
In a revealing personal account, Dr Grinspoon credits his discovery of cannabis as a defining moment in his life, entirely comparable to marriage, "the gift of children," and his decision to study medicine. In 1967, he knew little of cannabis except what our government claimed. To his dismay, he soon learned its policy of marijuana prohibition rested not on science and medical research but on myth and falsehood. Rather than an article summarizing its dangers to adolescents, his research produced a more positive article in Scientific American. This brought him, along with unwanted notoriety, a motivation to write the 1971 book, "Marijuana Reconsidered," an event which inevitably influenced the rest of his career.
Rather than dwell on the politics of marijuana, Dr. Grinspoon's NORML address recounts his life as a user. He had never smoked before starting his research, and held off for quite a while, even after becoming one of the nation's leading "experts." Eventually, the arguments in favor won out over any reasons for not smoking and some time in 1972 he took his first "hit." The balance of his speech analyzes why most of the approximately eighty million living Americans who defy their government's ban on marijuana to smoke for social reasons in their youth will eventually give it up. More significantly, as a thoughtful older user, he is able to explain clearly why over ten million seasoned adults at all levels of society continue to enjoy marijuana for its innocent (and under-appreciated) enhancement of life's other pleasures - and how many use it to be more creative and productive.
In light of our increasingly tattered federal dogma, these revelations are, of course, heresy. The government would have you believe that long-term marijuana smokers are, at best, poorly motivated "potheads" and losers. Dr. Grinspoon's speech is an eloquent plea for those of us who know better to redouble our efforts to bring an end to a policy that, like McCarthyism in the 1950s, has unjustly damaged many lives and brought disadvantage to many of America's most creative and thoughtful citizens.
Press release from MAP:
Lester Grinspoon, MD, to give Washington DC speech on the Benefits of Marijuana
Lester Grinspoon, MD, is a remarkable scholar and a remarkable person. Nearly alone in his chosen profession, he has long stood in opposition to our government's most irrational, yet ardently held public policy: the criminal prohibition of marijuana. In an important speech to be delivered on April 20 to the NORML Convention in Washigton, DC, he will spell out how, at age 44, while in the ascending trajectory of a promising academic career at one of our leading medical schools, his intellectual honesty forced him into what has become a lonely, yet rewarding crusade.
In a revealing personal account, Dr Grinspoon credits his discovery of cannabis as a defining moment in his life, entirely comparable to marriage, "the gift of children," and his decision to study medicine. In 1967, he knew little of cannabis except what our government claimed. To his dismay, he soon learned its policy of marijuana prohibition rested not on science and medical research but on myth and falsehood. Rather than an article summarizing its dangers to adolescents, his research produced a more positive article in Scientific American. This brought him, along with unwanted notoriety, a motivation to write the 1971 book, "Marijuana Reconsidered," an event which inevitably influenced the rest of his career.
Rather than dwell on the politics of marijuana, Dr. Grinspoon's NORML address recounts his life as a user. He had never smoked before starting his research, and held off for quite a while, even after becoming one of the nation's leading "experts." Eventually, the arguments in favor won out over any reasons for not smoking and some time in 1972 he took his first "hit." The balance of his speech analyzes why most of the approximately eighty million living Americans who defy their government's ban on marijuana to smoke for social reasons in their youth will eventually give it up. More significantly, as a thoughtful older user, he is able to explain clearly why over ten million seasoned adults at all levels of society continue to enjoy marijuana for its innocent (and under-appreciated) enhancement of life's other pleasures - and how many use it to be more creative and productive.
In light of our increasingly tattered federal dogma, these revelations are, of course, heresy. The government would have you believe that long-term marijuana smokers are, at best, poorly motivated "potheads" and losers. Dr. Grinspoon's speech is an eloquent plea for those of us who know better to redouble our efforts to bring an end to a policy that, like McCarthyism in the 1950s, has unjustly damaged many lives and brought disadvantage to many of America's most creative and thoughtful citizens.
