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The Grinspoon Symposium: Keynote Address by Dr. Carl Hart, Ph.D.
June 24, 2022 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
On what would have been Lester Grinspoon’s 94th birthday, the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center (SCUA) and the UMass Amherst Libraries are hosting the day-long symposium honoring him, planned in partnership with the Grinspoon family and longtime activist and friend Allen St. Pierre. The symposium brings together in conversation experts and activists who knew Grinspoon or were inspired by his work as a psychiatrist, researcher, writer, speaker, and advocate for reforming marijuana laws, as well as those whose work takes a visionary approach to the role that cannabis and psychedelics can play in society.
Starting things off in the morning, two of Grinspoon’s sons, astrobiologist David Grinspoon and physician Peter Grinspoon, will welcome attendees with a talk about their father; the afternoon will feature a multifaceted tribute to Grinspoon.
The symposium will culminate in a keynote address from Carl Hart, the renowned psychologist and neuroscientist and author of works both scientific and popular, including Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear, followed by a reception.
The Grinspoon Symposium will also raise awareness of the drug policy archives held in SCUA and foster the use of and scholarship in those collections, including Grinspoon’s own papers. The Lester Grinspoon Fund was established to support processing and digitizing his papers.