You know what takes a lot of guts? Admitting you were wrong about something.When a respected scientist admits they got something wrong and is willing to put their reputation and career on the line for the truth, that’s some “profiles in courage” material. This is why the late Lester Grinspoon is revered throughout the cannabis world.
Before Grinspoon became interested in cannabis as a scientist, he said he had no doubt marijuana was a very harmful drug that was unfortunately being used by more and more foolish young people who would not listen to or could not believe or understand the warnings about its dangers. Then a Harvard colleague named Carl Sagan convinced him to try cannabis and soon some of the bullshit faded away. He admitted he was wrong about weed. Then Lester put on his scientist hat, rolled up his sleeves and went to work. The rest is history.
Carl Sagan and Lester Grinspoon
“Imagine being such a stand-up dude you’d be willing to forfeit career advancement and the money that comes with it just to tell people the inconvenient truths about cannabis. The success we’ve seen on medical cannabis and ditching a lot of the drug war propaganda largely comes down to the bravery, integrity and intelligence of individuals like Lester Grinspoon.”
His research convinced him that cannabis had massive healing potential and that all the crap he had previously bought into was just low-grade propaganda funded by special interests whose financial future depended on keeping it off the market. So he wrote a book – Marihuana Reconsidered. It’s about how basically everything people were saying about cannabis was wrong – whether it was coming from Harvard University or the Federal government.
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, Dr. Grinspoon was denied promotion to full professor in 1975 and 1997 all because of his unwavering support for the effort to legalizer cannabis. Grinspoon’s allies believe an undercurrent of unscientific prejudice against cannabis among Harvard faculty and school leaders doomed his chances. In 1975, a dean confided to him that the promotions committee “hated” Marihuana Reconsidered because it was “too controversial.”
Lester’s son, Peter, has carried on with the mission. A Harvard physician, Dr. Peter Grinspoon writes a regular column for Substack that’s always a wealth of information. Click HERE to check it out.