Word: grinspoon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...this research is after all, personal and subjective. Grinspoon, by necessity, aims for generalizations. Maribuana Reconsidered is a long book, equal parts history, biology and psyche, with a little bit of philosophical speculation thrown in for good measure. You might want to skip a few of the more boring chapters, particularly "From Plant to Intoxicant," which will only interest the most finicky connoisseurs...
More compelling are the case studies from history and literature presented in "Acute Intoxication-Literary Reports." Grinspoon includes everything from Theophile de Gaultier's observations of "a multitude of bodiless heads like cherubims, with such comical expressions" to Alan Ginsburg's musings on the benefits of snibidish, all vigorously footnoted...
...section discussing the motivations of the average user, Grinspoon makes some interesting correlations between the "intellectual" atmosphere of a college and the rate of drug use among its students--they're supposedly directly proportional...
...Grinspoon's account of the drug's effects are both scarier and, somehow, more prosaic: "Micropsia and macropsia (or megaplosia) have been frequently reported [as well as] the sensation that [people and objects] are rushing toward [the user] at tremendous speed, increasing in size as they approach." He doesn't mention that this peculiar sensation can happen stone-cold-sober when trying to get an autograph at Disney World. I was seven. I was so excited. I walked right up to the Mouse and thrust a pen in his face. Suddenly, I heard a disconcertingly masculine voice emanating from...
Unfortunately, much of the prose suffers from an acute seventies tinge. Describing the typical user's reaction, Grinspoon writes. marijuana "heightens (or so they assert) capacity to feel, to appreciate, to perceive, AND TO SHARE." The Brady undertones elude poor Grinspoon, but the subtext of 70s culture adds to the book's entertainment value. This increases with the level of THC in your system...