The Good, and the Ugly.

An end of the year review from ‘Grinspoon on Drugs’

2023 was a wonderful and productive year. We launched this ‘Grinspoon on Drugs’ Substack blog and already have more than a thousand readers. We need to continue to disseminate accurate medical information about topics such as street drugs, vaccines, new treatments, addiction, ketamine, and other psychedelics, the endocannabinoid system, our crumbling medical system, and, of course, cannabis.

There is a ton of work still to do, starting with dismantling our nightmarish War on Drugs. My family has been working on this for more than half a century. We need to get people out of prison for nonviolent drug charges. We need to expunge records, so that people can start to regain their lives.

People need to be truthfully educated about drugs and drug policy to combat (as former Vice President Spiro Agnew would say), the ‘nattering nabobs of negativity’ and the hardcore Prohibitionists who are still profiting from the criminalization of drugs. We need to continue to conduct medical research that explores how cannabis and psychedelics can help people with addiction, depression, PTSD, and other disorders. We need to make these treatments affordable for all. We need to decriminalize psychedelics, as well as other drugs, to make their use safer.  Concurrently, we need to treat people suffering from addiction with empathy and compassion and to make addiction treatment accessible and affordable to all. We need to get law enforcement entirely out of the drug realm, except in cases of violent behavior or impaired driving.

To help accomplish (some of) the above, I am advising or on the board of two great groups, which I highly recommend checking out:

1)    The Parabola Center. Run by my friend, the inimitable Shaleen Title, Parabola is fighting for social justice, particularly in the cannabis space.

2)    Doctors For Drug Policy Reform. Working with, and for physicians, and laypeople, to help us achieve a sensible, non-punitive drug policy

The good

On 4/20/23 I released my book, ‘Seeing Through the Smoke: A Cannabis Expert Untangles the Truth About Marijuana’. To celebrate, we had an epic party, followed by an afterparty, with hundreds attending, complete with a ‘Ganjier’ (which is a cannabis sommelier).

I am incredibly proud of ‘Seeing Through the Smoke’, and spent years on it, trying to do justice to the legacy of the two books about cannabis written by my late father, Dr. Lester Grinspoon. In 1971 he published ‘Marihuana Reconsidered’, which formed the intellectual backbone of the legalization movement, and in 1993 he published, ‘Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine’ which helped pave the way for legalization of medical marijuana in California in 1996. My book goes over the gruesome social history, the harms (real and imagined), the benefits – all using the latest data - and the ways people use cannabis for lifestyle enhancement. It also discusses how cannabis has helped me personally, my dad, and my brother Danny, as he was fighting an unsuccessful battle with leukemia.

I’ve always been interested in working with the media, ever since the five years I worked for Greenpeace between college and medical school, writing press releases in the back of a zooming, bouncing Zodiac Inflatable as we were chasing nuclear container ships. The release of ‘Seeing Through the Smoke’ led to a plethora of bylines and articles.

Listed below are some of the major ones in case the topic interests you. If not, skip down below.

Time: ‘Decriminalizing Opioids Will Save Countless Lives’

Salon: ‘We need a bigger recovery tent: it’s time to think beyond 12-step programs’

Newsweek: ‘I’m a doctor. I hid my opioid addiction for ten years.’

TruthDig: ‘The War on Weed Isn’t Over’

Medpage Today: ‘Doobie No Harm: Doctors and the War on Drugs’.

Yes!: ‘Reversing the Damage of Cannabis Criminalization’

Parade Magazine: ‘Doctor unravels ketamine’s role in Matthew Perry’s Death’

WGBH: ‘How do physicians manage severe pain in patients with a history of opioid use disorder?

I was also featured in the Harvard Gazette:

With my good friend Dr. Marion McNabb, I was on C SPAN Books:

I was also honored to ask to present about cannabis policy to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

The ugly

Much of this heady book promotion came grinding to a halt on August 19^th, with an ugly thud, when I, as a pedestrian, was hit by a distracted driver. I have written two blogs about this.

Blog one: ‘Notes from the Mowed Down’

Blog two: ‘Limping Through Emotional Pain’

Four months later, I am gradually learning how to walk again. Every day I am fighting to get my former life back. The pain has been more than I thought it was possible to experience. This experience will make me a far better doctor.

I have infinite gratitude for my partner Liz, who kept me alive time and time again, by mastering complex dressing changes and tricky intravenous antibiotic infusions, as well as for my friends and family, who checked in on me and visited frequently, which helped sustain my mood.

Looking forward

I am profoundly excited for my upcoming Substack blogs which will cover all aspects of drug policy. My most recent one is, ‘DARE to tell the truth about drugs’ about the contrast between what I learned at home about drugs and what I learned in DARE, and how the DARE program undermined a generation’s respect for authority:

An upcoming blog covers a critical if controversial topic: ‘Does an addiction last for a lifetime?’.  (Short answer: not always or definitely maybe)

I’m looking forward to the videos we’ll be putting out on my YouTube Channel and to the upcoming activism, such as passing the ballot initiative in Massachusetts on decriminalizing psychedelics that we will vote on in November. I love public speaking and I am excited for the lectures I’ll be giving to doctors and patients alike. Wearing my ‘certified coach’ hat, I’m looking forward to health and wellness coaching on issues that span the spectrum of human need and distress. I can’t wait to start the podcast we are planning, featuring a who’s who of drug policy.

Finally, for fun, we have some cool merch that people can buy to support my work, such as stickers, T-shirts, and coffee mugs with the ‘Grinspoon on Drugs’ design. I particularly love the coffee cup.  

Buying this merch will allow me to eventually hasten my exit from my challenging primary care job. Ten percent of the profits from the merch will go to the wonderful advocacy group, ‘The Last Prisoner Project’.

Click here for the catalog.

Thank you so much for your attention and encouragement. This is a reader-supported publication and I, truly, appreciate your support. From, ‘Grinspoon on Drugs’, let’s have a fun, safe, productive, and hard-hitting 2024!