Roland Redmond Griffiths was an American psychopharmacologist who lived from July 19, 1946, to October 16, 2023. He served as the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research’s director in addition to being a professor of neurology, psychiatry, and behavioral science at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Griffiths joined the Johns Hopkins University faculty after receiving his degree. Griffiths published ground-breaking studies proving caffeine’s addictiveness and withdrawal symptoms in 1994. In 1999, Griffiths started researching psychedelic substances.
According to The New York Times, his 2006 paper “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance” “caused a media ruckus” for its documentation of the “revelatory and spiritually meaningful” experiences of people who were given psilocybin mushrooms.
Marla Weiner: Who is the wife of Roland R. Griffiths?
Dr. Griffiths leaves behind his wife Marla Weiner, three children—Sylvie Grahan, Jennie Otis, and Morgan Griffiths—five grandchildren, as well as his siblings, Mark Griffiths and Kathy Farley. Both his 1973 union with Diana Hansen and his subsequent union with Kristin Ann Johnson ended in divorce.