Education and career
Peter Grinspoon was born in 1966 to Betsy and Lester Grinspoon. His father was a psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
In 1988, Peter graduated from Swarthmore College, where he acquired a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. After graduation, Grinspoon worked for Greenpeace for five years.
In 1997, Grinspoon enrolled in the Boston University School of Medicine, and later graduated with Honors. After graduation, Peter trained in the Primary Care Medical Residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
In 2000, Peter began working as a freelance cannabis consultant at Grinspoon Wellness Consulting. In January 2008, he joined the Massachusetts General Hospital as a Cannabis clinician and a Life Coach. Later that year, Grinspoon started his practice as a primary care physician at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Peter Grinspoon spent two years as an Associate Director for the Physician Health Service, working with physicians who suffer from substance use disorders. He also teaches medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Awards and recognition
- 2012 — Compassionate doctor recognition. This certification is granted to physicians who treat their patients with the utmost kindness and based on a physician’s overall and bedside manner scores.
Publications
Peter Grinspoon is one of the contributors to Harvard Mecial Publishing, where he posted 30+ articles. Among his other publications are:
Books:
- Grinspoon, Peter. Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction. New York, Hachette Books, 2016.
- Grinspoon, M D. Seeing through the Smoke. Rowman & Littlefield, 15 Apr. 2023.
Articles
- A NP, CJ Hoffmann, CJ Gonzalez, P Grinspoon “Therapeutic Use of Medical Cannabis in New York State.” SUBSTANCE (2022)
- Nathan, David L., et al. “In support of HB 3772.” (2021).
- Grinspoon, P. “A tale of two epidemics: When COVID-19 and opioid addiction collide.” Harvard Health Blog (2020).
- Grinspoon, P. “The health effects of too much gaming.” (2020).
- Darnall, Beth, et al. “International Stakeholder Community of Pain Experts and Leaders Call for an Urgent Action on Forced Opioid Tapering.” Pain Medicine (United States), vol. 20, no. 3, 2019, pp. 429–433, https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pny228.
- Grinspoon, Peter. “Cannabidiol (CBD)—what we know and what we don’t.” Harvard Health Blog 24 (2018).
- Grinspoon, Peter. “Medical marijuana.” Harvard Health Blog 9 (2018).
- Grinspoon, P. “Physician burnout can affect your health.” Harvard Health Blog (2018).
- Grinspoon, Peter. “Back from the Abyss: A Recovered Doctor’s View of the Opioid Epidemic.” Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, vol. 8 no. 3, 2018, p. E1-E3. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/nib.2018.0076.
- Becker-Leckrone, Megan et al. “Narrative Symposium: Living with Chronic Pain in the Midst of the Opioid Crisis.” Narrative inquiry in bioethics, vol. 8,3 (2018): 193-224. doi:10.1353/nib.2018.0056
- Nathan, David L., et al. “In support of SB 16.”
- Nathan, David L., et al. “In support of Regulation of Adult Use (Recreational) Cannabis for Adult Use in Virginia.”
- Nathan, David L., et al. “In support of the SB 888 An Act Responsibly And Equitably Regulating Adult-use Cannabis, with amendments.”