After completing a doctorate at Harvard University, Lindzey served as a professor or administrator at several universities, edited a well-known textbook in social psychology and led a 1982 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel that recommended the legalization of marijuana.
Psychologist and fellow faculty member Elliot Aronson described Lindzey as "the star of the round table, an entertaining storyteller and a catalyst of conversation.
Later, the university credited him with "transforming the department from a relatively small and unassuming group to a large and internationally recognized faculty.
Other committee members included psychiatrist Daniel X. Freedman, former U.S. drug czar Jerome Jaffe, sociologists Denise Kandel and Howard S. Becker, psychologist and future university and foundation president Judith Rodin, future Nobel Prize winner in economics Thomas Schelling, and former CBS president Frank Stanton.
National Institute on Drug Abuse director William Pollin also said that it was "a terrible mistake and a public health tragedy" to advocate for societal acceptance of marijuana use.