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1996-05-06
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Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 14:54:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leora Lawton <LLAWTON@USCVM.BITNET>
Subject: lester grinspoon
Sender: Drug Abuse Education Information and Research <DRUGABUS@UMAB.BITNET>
Message-id: <01H0UI8N70HU8WZ4X1@YMIR.CLAREMONT.EDU>
From today's local [Boulder] paper, by Linda Cornett, w/o permission:
Tsk. Those foolish kids, throwing their lives away on that dangerous
drug marijuana. Maybe they would pay attention to another voice, one
based on scientific research, psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon reasoned.
Fired with his mission, Grinspoon embarked on a three-year
investigation of cannabis, emerging with a changed perspective. "I
came to understand that I had been brainwashed like the rest of the
country," said Grinspoon, who is now on the staff of the Harvard
Medical School.
Grinspoon wrote a widely discussed book in 1971 about the
conversion of his thinking and in May his latest book, "Marihuana, The
Forbidden Medicine," was released by Yale University Press.
[stuff about his speech and a free, public conference in Denver this
weekend deleted]
Although the (colorado) state law allows cannabis to be used for
medical reasons, federal law prohibits its sale in any form but a
derivative capsule. It is prescribed to reduce the nausea of cancer
paitents undergoing chemotherapy, to reduce the nausea of AIDS
patients and to relieve the symptoms of glaucoma.
Although there is little medical use of marijuana in Colorado, that is
because other, more effective drugs are available and not because
regualtions make the drug unavailable, said Donn Fox, spokesman for
the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Denver.
The DEA has completed a three-year study on whether to loosen
restrictions on cannabis, Fox said, and found no support from any
"bona fide" medical association in the U.S.
"The argument could be made that groups such as NORML are using
the medicinial marijuana issue in an attempt to legitimize marijuana in
our society," Fox said.
Grinspoon responds that cannabis should be legitimized, but that
takes nothing from its medical value. If the pill derivative is less
effective than other drugs, he said, that is because it works better as a
cigarette than a pill.
Now, he said, he is convinced the only rational approach is to treat
marijuana like alcohol.
"If I had to make a choice, I would far rather have someone use
marijuana than alcohol," Grinspoon said. "It's less toxic physically and
its behaviorial toxicity is vastly different--people don't get aggressive
and abusive when they use marijuana.
"There is no such thing as a harmless drug," Grinspoon said, "but
marijuana is far less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco. I believed
rather naively that once people understood that, it would be legalized
within 10 years. Marijuana doesn't make its users behave irrationally,
but it certrainly makes non-users behavior irrationally." [great line!]
Grinspoon said he does not believe marijuana is addictive, although it
is more harmful to the lungs than tobacco smoke. Studies of users,
however, have shown that unlike cigarette smokers, they only smoke
until high and then stop, he said.
Attitudes are changing, Grinspoon said. Massachusetts last year
became the 35th state to legalize the medical use of marijuana.
Oregon reduced penalties for marijuana use to a fine in 1973. In the
Netherlands, marijuana is easily available and seldom penalized,
Grinspoon said.
He believes the U.S. government will eventually decriminalize the
plant.