This is too perfect. I'm listening to an NPR program about medical marijuana. Diane Rehm is interviewing a distinguished panel of experts. And one of them, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate professor of psychiatry (emeritus) at Harvard Medical School, is calling in from his present location at the Burning Man festival.
Burning Man is the Labor Day weekend bacchanal that started out as a bonfire on San Francisco's Baker Beach in 1986, and then got so out of hand that it was moved to the Black Rock desert 100 miles north of Reno, Nevada. Imagine 1960s Haight Ashbury druggieness overlain with New Age shamanism and transported to an Anarcho-Libertarian utopian community. Not my cup of tea, but it's okay with me so long as they keep it in the desert. (Not all the participants are impressed by Burning Man. Here's an unfavorable review.)
But to get back to Dr. Grinspoon, after a quick Google search I am bowled over by his credentials. According to an impeccable journalistic source, Dr. Grinspoon has a special strain of gourmet cannabis named after him. A laid-back salute to his long advocacy on behalf of the weed's almost magical medicinal properties.
Spark up another J, Dr. G., the holiday weekend won't be over for another four days.