{"id":8238,"date":"2018-04-30T00:32:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=17225"},"modified":"2018-04-30T00:32:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:32:20","slug":"at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship\/","title":{"rendered":"At 89, Legendary Psychiatrist And Marijuana Advocate Still Wonders About Harvard Professorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>\u201cI want a goddamn strong statement on marijuana,\u201d the distinctive voice on the tape growls. \u201cI mean, one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was May 1971, and Richard Nixon was fuming over a review included in his morning news summary of the book \u201cMarihuana Reconsidered,\u201d in which 42-year-old Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon savaged the US government\u2019s case for keeping cannabis illegal.<\/p>\n<p>The book was immediately popular \u2014 The New York Times called it \u201cThe best dope on pot so far\u201d \u2014 and the author\u2019s Ivy League pedigree made it hard to dismiss as a hippie screed. But it also raised hackles at Harvard (more on that in a moment) and, plainly, in the White House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish,\u201d Nixon ranted in a conversation captured by the Oval Office recording system. \u201cWhat the Christ is the matter with the Jews? . . . I suppose it\u2019s because most of them are psychiatrists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nixon had circled Grinspoon\u2019s name on the review, writing, \u201cthis clown is far on the left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now 89, Grinspoon hadn\u2019t known of the Nixon barb until recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImagine that,\u201d he said, laughing uproariously. \u201cI got the attention of one of the world\u2019s biggest [jerks]. It\u2019s a red badge of courage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Snubbed, twice<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A psychiatrist, Vietnam War opponent, and son of a Russian Jew, Grinspoon made a rich target for Nixon. But the book also earned him critics at Harvard Medical School, where colleagues greeted the pro-pot tome skeptically. Though more muted than Nixon\u2019s ravings, their disapproval ultimately had more influence on his career.<\/p>\n<p>Grinspoon says he was twice denied a promotion to full professor, once in 1975 and again in 1997, despite a career that included pioneering research on schizophrenia, dozens of books and papers, and leadership roles at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and other prestigious institutions. He retired in 2000 as an associate professor.<\/p>\n<p>The school never offered him an official explanation, but his allies believe an undercurrent of unscientific prejudice against cannabis among faculty and school leaders doomed his chances; Grinspoon remembers a dean telling him in 1975 the promotions committee \u201chated\u201d his book because it was \u201ctoo controversial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, Grinspoon\u2019s controversial vision \u2014 legal marijuana \u2014 is the law in nine states, including Massachusetts. And now, his friends and sympathetic former colleagues say, it\u2019s Harvard\u2019s turn. They have mounted a campaign to get the medical school to award Grinspoon a symbolic full professorship, arguing the honor is more than merited by his academic work \u2014 not to mention his pivotal role in the movement to legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe bore the academic torch through the dark years of the drug war when it was heresy to speak the truth about marijuana,\u201d said attorney Dick Evans, a cannabis advocate who has worked with Grinspoon since the early 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing Grinspoon now, Evans added, \u201cwould not only be an act of supreme decency, but also an act of institutional humility \u2014 and I think Harvard\u2019s capable of both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018Too controversial\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Raised in Brookline, Grinspoon joined the Harvard faculty after receiving his medical degree from the school. In the 1950s, he was among the first American doctors to prescribe lithium for bipolar disorder; he later coauthored a book on schizophrenia and cofounded the well-known Harvard Mental Health Letter.<\/p>\n<p>He was something of a campus renegade, speaking out against the Vietnam War. He ran for president of the American Psychiatric Association as head of a liberal faction that thought the group was obligated by professional ethics to oppose the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>His antiwar activism led Grinspoon to befriend another progressive on campus: Carl Sagan.<\/p>\n<p>Sagan, who would later become perhaps the most popular scientist in the United States as the host of television shows such as \u201cCosmos,\u201d was a prolific but closeted pot-smoker. Writing under the pseudonym \u201cMr. X,\u201d Sagan said pot enhanced his creative thinking and advanced his scientific work.<\/p>\n<p>In the \u201960s, though, Grinspoon was shocked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I saw him smoking for the first time, I said, \u2018Carl, you musn\u2019t do that! That\u2019s a very dangerous drug,\u2019?\u201d Grinspoon recalled. \u201cHe took another puff and said, \u2018Here, Lester, have some, you\u2019ll love it and it\u2019s harmless.\u2019 I was absolutely astonished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grinspoon stormed off to the medical school library to prove Sagan wrong. Instead, he found his assumptions about the drug had little basis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have concluded,\u201d Grinspoon would later write, \u201cthat marijuana is a relatively safe intoxicant which is not addicting, does not in and of itself lead to the use of harder drugs, is not criminogenic, and does not lead to sexual excess.\u201d The real harm, he added, was \u201cthe way we as a society were dealing with people who use it,\u201d referring to the incarceration of marijuana users.<\/p>\n<p>Thus began an obsession with the subject that ultimately resulted in \u201cMarihuana Reconsidered,\u201d a blend of literature review and cultural critique rendered in crisp, explanatory prose. The book went through several printings and earned Grinspoon numerous appearances in the media and before lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Grinspoon came to his conclusions without having, at the time, tried marijuana. He reasoned his credibility would be undermined if he was labeled a \u201cdope-smoker.\u201d He would first try it two years later, around the time he was also administering marijuana to his young son, who was dying of cancer. Eventually, he came out publicly, hoping it would help dispel stoner stereotypes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have and I do smoke marijuana,\u201d Grinspoon said during an appearance on the \u201cToday Show\u201d in 1973, a moment he said was \u201cjaw-dropping\u201d for host Barbara Walters.<\/p>\n<p>Two years later, Grinspoon was rejected for a full professorship. The promotions committee \u201cloved the schizophrenia book, but they hated \u2018Marihuana Reconsidered,\u2019 \u201d he recalls his boss telling him. \u201c\u2018They said it was too controversial.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was crushed,\u201d Grinspoon said. \u201cI don\u2019t give a damn now, but it hurt terribly at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard may have had its reasons. The previous decade, Timothy Leary had embarrassed the school with his questionable research into hallucinogens, often carried out while under their influence. After being dismissed in 1963, he went on to become a counterculture icon.<\/p>\n<p>But Grinspoon was no Timothy Leary. He was an earnest academic who wore a tie, and insisted he never promoted the use of marijuana, but rather the elimination of draconian prohibitions. That distinction was lost on many.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere always was a feeling that his interest in marijuana was a little out of the way compared to his colleagues,\u201d recalled James Bakalar, Grinspoon\u2019s longtime coauthor and collaborator. \u201cThey regarded it as eccentric. It wasn\u2019t \u2018mainstream psychiatry.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grinspoon would go on to help revive the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws after its disastrous brush with the Carter administration. He also authored another book on marijuana, and in 1997 even quit Harvard\u2019s addiction-studies program to protest the school\u2019s bestowal of an award on Bill Clinton\u2019s antidrug policy adviser.<\/p>\n<p>After retiring, Grinspoon launched a website where he published occasional reflections on marijuana and his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most important people in the history of marijuana reform,\u201d said Rick Cusick, a former associate publisher of High Times, who was the first to link Nixon\u2019s recorded rant with the publication of \u201cMarihuana Reconsidered.\u201d \u201cHis book started the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Still unrecognized<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While praising Grinspoon\u2019s work, a Harvard Medical School spokeswoman said the school\u2019s policy \u201cdoesn\u2019t allow us to retroactively grant a professorship or any other appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several former colleagues backed Harvard, saying full professorships go to candidates who conduct the kind of hard-core science that attracts federal grants. Grinspoon, they said, did little hands-on research, but rather synthesized the work of others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to have very good, empirical research work, not hearsay,\u201d said Dr. Ming Tsuang, Grinspoon\u2019s chief in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>His supporters say this is a blinkered view, arguing Grinspoon conducted work at significant professional risk and helped to inspire new research into medical uses of cannabis. They said Grinspoon helped redefine the relationship between academia and advocacy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17227\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17227\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Keith Bedford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Grinspoon has long blamed former Harvard psychiatry chairman Dr. Joseph Coyle for vetoing his promotion in 1997. Coyle disputes that account, saying a committee of Grinspoon\u2019s peers declined to back him because of a lack of original research.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Coyle acknowledged in an interview that the thinking at the time on marijuana \u201ccould have been an element.\u201d While he stopped short of endorsing a full professorship now, Coyle said Harvard could at least go over the matter with Grinspoon.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters also argue that the seeds Grinspoon planted decades ago are only now germinating, with support for legalization recently topping 60 percent in Massachusetts, and pot retailers soon to open for business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be a state marijuana regulator if people like Dr. Grinspoon hadn\u2019t made sacrifices,\u201d said Shaleen Title, one of the five commissioners leading the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. \u201cHarvard should recognize that he was right all along.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But if Grinspoon\u2019s views on marijuana have been, for many, vindicated, and Nixon, for almost everyone, discredited, Harvard Medical School\u2019s role in the drama of Grinspoon\u2019s life is more complex. Despite declining to promote him, it was his professional home for decades. In fact, he supports the campaign to make him a professor mainly out of affection for Harvard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstitutions that can acknowledge they\u2019ve made a mistake are always doing something noble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Grinspoon lives in a Newton retirement community with his wife, Betsy. His health is declining, but his personality \u2014 warm and quick to laugh, with instinctive compassion for the vulnerable but little patience for those he deems fools \u2014 hasn\u2019t faded. That\u2019s probably why at the dusk of his life, Grinspoon still finds himself fighting the same old war.<\/p>\n<p>During a recent dinner with friends that concluded with a joint, Grinspoon recounted his attempts to get elderly neighbors to smoke with him and impishly confessed to trying to grow a marijuana plant in the courtyard of the senior living complex.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt had been there about three weeks, growing nicely, and I came back and somebody cut it down! Who would do that?\u201d Grinspoon said. \u201cThat\u2019s all going to change. It\u2019s changing so rapidly I can scarcely believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship\/\">At 89, Legendary Psychiatrist And Marijuana Advocate Still Wonders About Harvard Professorship<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI want a goddamn strong statement on marijuana,\u201d the distinctive voice on the tape growls. \u201cI mean, one on marijuana&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/at-89-legendary-psychiatrist-and-marijuana-advocate-still-wonders-about-harvard-professorship\/\">At 89, Legendary Psychiatrist And Marijuana Advocate Still Wonders About Harvard Professorship<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}