It saddens me to report the death of Dr. Lynn Zimmer, Dr. Zimmer, who was Professor of Sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York, was one of our nation's leading drug policy scholars and a highly original thinker on drug issues. She was co-author, with John P. Morgan, of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, the leading (and best selling) scholarly book on marijuana. Since its original publication in English Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts has been published in seven other languages and is distributed around the world. She also published extensively on other drug issues, including drug testing, drug education, and drugs and the media.
Prior to working on drug issues, Lynn wrote Women Guarding Men, a seminal study of women employed as guards in men’s prisons. In it she examined the painful process of transition from a segregated to an integrated prison environment.
In 2000 Prof. Zimmer received both The Lindesmith Award for Achievement
in the Field of Scholarship from the Drug Policy Foundation and the Lester Grinspoon Award for Achievement in the Field of Marijuana Law Reform from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. She was widely regarded as an intellectual leader of the growing drug policy reform movement. While she was a fierce critic of drug prohibition and the nation’s harsh drug war policies, she was also a skeptic regarding arguments for full legalization.
Prof. Zimmer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the late 1990s. Over the subsequent years MS deprived her of much of her eyesight, sense of taste, and mobility but never diminished her intellect or scholarly commitment. She was a beloved teacher and friend to many and is survived by her two sons, Joseph and Mark Zimmer.
