Lester Grinspoon Fund for Drug Policy Collections

The papers of the late Dr. Lester Grinspoon, the Harvard psychiatrist who became a celebrated advocate for reforming cannabis laws, are part of the growing Drug Policy Archive at Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA), in the UMass Amherst Libraries. 

The Lester Grinspoon Fund for Drug Policy Collections will celebrate Grinspoon's legacy and support SCUA’s ongoing efforts to preserve the history of a wide range of drug policy-related work and activism, including the movement to end cannabis prohibition. Grinspoon, whose papers are held by SCUA, was a founding father of the legalization movement and was responsible for groundbreaking research demonstrating the medical and social benefits of cannabis and other psychedelic drugs. Initial funds raised will enable SCUA to digitize Grinspoon’s writings, correspondence, and photographs, making all this material available freely online, along with other collections in the Drug Policy Archive, which thus far includes the records of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project, among others.