Stephen Jay Gould
Renowned scientist and Harvard Professor Stephen Jay Gould died in May 2002, of lung cancer. Gould was the author of many books on science and evolution, including The Mismeasure of Man, and his massive 1400-page opus The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, published shortly after his death. While many obituaries marked Gould's passing, few mentioned that Gould had been using marijuana since at least 1982. That was the year Gould was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer called abdominal mesothelioma, and told he had eight months to live.
Gould survived and thrived for 20 years after receiving that grim diagnosis, with treatments including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Yet above and beyond these, Gould claimed that it was pot that saved his life. "The most important effect upon my eventual cure," said Gould, "was the illegal drug, marijuana."
Gould testified to the benefits of medical marijuana in August 1998, at the trial of Ontario med-pot patient and activist Jim Wakeford (CC#15,)Jim Wakeford- canadas best hope for medicinal marijuanna. He told the court how "absolutely nothing" worked to treat his severe nausea, except for marijuana, which "worked like a charm."
"It is beyond my comprehension that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need simply because others use it for different purposes," said Gould.
Yet Gould did not admit to being a pot head. "I was reluctant to try it because I have never smoked any substance habitually, and didn't even know how to inhale. Moreover, I had tried marijuana twice? and had hated it." Yet chronic use of medicinal marijuana robbed Gould of none of his intellectual vigor. His critically-acclaimed The Structure of Evolutionary Theory was researched and written over the two decades that Gould was using pot heavily to maintain his health .
Gould was also a signatory to a 1998 advertisement in the New York Times, which took two full pages to appeal for a new international drug policy. "We believe the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself," the ad claimed.
(Other signatories to the ad included Walter Cronkite, former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, former Secretary of State George Shultz, Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco, Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, Mayor Susan Hammer of San Jose, Milton Friedman, and a variety of judges, police, academics and other prominent citizens.)
Renowned scientist and Harvard Professor Stephen Jay Gould died in May 2002, of lung cancer. Gould was the author of many books on science and evolution, including The Mismeasure of Man, and his massive 1400-page opus The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, published shortly after his death. While many obituaries marked Gould's passing, few mentioned that Gould had been using marijuana since at least 1982. That was the year Gould was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer called abdominal mesothelioma, and told he had eight months to live.
Gould survived and thrived for 20 years after receiving that grim diagnosis, with treatments including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Yet above and beyond these, Gould claimed that it was pot that saved his life. "The most important effect upon my eventual cure," said Gould, "was the illegal drug, marijuana."
Gould testified to the benefits of medical marijuana in August 1998, at the trial of Ontario med-pot patient and activist Jim Wakeford (CC#15,)Jim Wakeford- canadas best hope for medicinal marijuanna. He told the court how "absolutely nothing" worked to treat his severe nausea, except for marijuana, which "worked like a charm."
"It is beyond my comprehension that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need simply because others use it for different purposes," said Gould.
Yet Gould did not admit to being a pot head. "I was reluctant to try it because I have never smoked any substance habitually, and didn't even know how to inhale. Moreover, I had tried marijuana twice? and had hated it." Yet chronic use of medicinal marijuana robbed Gould of none of his intellectual vigor. His critically-acclaimed The Structure of Evolutionary Theory was researched and written over the two decades that Gould was using pot heavily to maintain his health .
Gould was also a signatory to a 1998 advertisement in the New York Times, which took two full pages to appeal for a new international drug policy. "We believe the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself," the ad claimed.
(Other signatories to the ad included Walter Cronkite, former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, former Secretary of State George Shultz, Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco, Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, Mayor Susan Hammer of San Jose, Milton Friedman, and a variety of judges, police, academics and other prominent citizens.)
