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marijuana use.
Grinspoon had planned another work, on the use of pot by artists and
professionals, but says he's been busy with the release of _Forbidden
Medicine_. He did, however, conduct some related interviews. One
problem, Grinspoon says, is that "recreational use is too general a
term" for what people do with marijuana. "There are people who write,
and musicians who find it terribly important to their work, people
who believe that some of their best ideas come from smoking marijuana.
It's difficult because we're pigeonholed into the terms 'recreational'
use and 'medical' use."
As a physician, however, Grinspoon worries that a shift in the terms
of debate from medical use to recreational or other use might be
premature. "I'd be a little concerned about that," he admits, adding
that his main concern is getting marijuana into the hands of patients.
But it may be too late to restrict the marijuana debate to pot's
puritanical uses. Anti-drug warriors have already raised suspicion
about the motives of medical marijuana activists. The highly visible
Michigan Office of Drug Control Policy published in a paper titled
"The Marijuana as Medicine Scam" that "the marijuana as medicine issue
is a carefully orchestrated campaign by an organized and well-
financed pro-drug culture lobby, primarily supported by aging hippies,
lawyers and marijuana users who are imposing a cruel hoax on sick and
dying people to gain support for their drug of choice for selfish
personal use."
Some believe the smoke might clear if those who smoked marijuana to
get stoned fought as actively for the reform of marijuana laws as
those who claim hemp will save the world. Americans who think pot
smokers are mostly "aging hippies" might change their minds if they
knew that their bosses, co-workers, dentists, stockbrokers and
attorneys smoke pot, and do fine.
"I think there's a parallel there to homosexuality," Grinspoon notes
of stereotypes surrounding marijuana users. Being gay, he observes,
became much more acceptable "when professional, working people came
out of the closet. They demonstrated that people can be gay and be
perfectly respectable citizens. That corrected the old, abused
stereotype. Until people are really ready to stand up and be counted,
marijuana will continue to have a stigma."
Ironically, it is this stigma that stymies the efforts of those who
push hemp for paper, hemp for clothing, hemp for fuel and hemp for
medicine. Dr. Eric Voth, anti-drug crusader for the International
Drug Strategy Institute, penned a letter to Dr. Grinspoon in 1994
attacking his efforts on behalf of medical marijuana. The letter
closed with: "I have often mused about whether you actually smoke
marijuana, how long you have smoked marijuana, and how much you
smoke. I am quite interested in the answer to this question." Voth
implies that if Grinspoon were a marijuana user his work and stature
on the subject would go up in a cloud of smoke.
Some argue that one step in the hemp advocacy movement is to overcome
the countercultural stigma associated with marijuana by initiating a
wave of "outings." Americans don't have to be afraid that marijuana
will permeate our society, they say. It already has.
Smoking Out Back
The obvious drawback to confessing marijuana use is admission of
criminality - although penalties for casual use in California are
mild. Possession of an ounce or less of pot is a misdemeanor. Growers
face felony charges, and some of the smokers I spoke with do grow
their own. Still, California courts are funneling busted dope-growers
into diversion programs which offer pot criminals drug-counseling
classes in exchange for cleared records.
Despite their enthusiasm to have their say in this article, however,
most professional pot smokers I interviewed were adamant that they
retain their anonymity. They report that co-workers and associates
are not aware of - and in some cases would condemn - their marijuana
use. They fear social stigma, the government and losing their jobs.
"I would be mortified if confidentiality is not absolutely insured,"
wrote one manager in an email from a Sunnyvale corporation.
The extremely cautious will only call from pay phones and Frederick
insisted we meet in person. Concerns are expressed about email
messages that might be seen by superiors. Some mention their company's
drug-testing programs: "My company now enforces urine testing for new
hires. Though there's no current implications for existing personnel,
I'd just as soon keep my name and company out of this."
People fear they might be stigmatized as flaky. "You think, 'Well, I
don't care.' But ad clients are generally conservative and if I
forgot something, they might think it's because I get stoned," says
Mickey, who volunteers after hours for the medical marijuana movement.
Baby boomers apparently learned more from the '60s than how to roll
joints. Many harbor a profound distrust of the government and police
agencies. Mickey says when she's petitioning, she notices some
people, "always in my age group," agree with the cause but won't sign
up. "The baby boomers are real suspicious about where their names will
end up," she says.
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