PROVIDENCE � Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy says it would have been a slam-dunk event.Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was going to speak, and two prominent local doctors...

PROVIDENCE � Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy says it would have been a slam-dunk event.

Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was going to speak, and two prominent local doctors were on board � Stuart Gitlow, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and Gregory Fritz, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

But Kennedy, an outspoken opponent of the push to legalize marijuana since he left politics in 2010, says the plans for what was supposed to be a �marijuana education conference� at Bradley Hospital fell through, and in making his frustration public Thursday, he blamed leadership at the Lifespan hospital group.

�I don�t think anybody in the world of public health has any doubt as to what side they should be on,� he said. �But understand, everyone is timid because they�re worried about the politics.�

Kennedy said the event, while still in the planning stages, had been in the works for months. He said Fritz, academic director at Bradley, approached him with the idea. The goal was to bring in the �best minds� and educate people about the dangers of marijuana � a cause Kennedy champions through Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group he cofounded after leaving Congress.

�What better place than the oldest psychiatric and childcare hospital in the nation?� Kennedy said of Bradley, which is run by Lifespan. �Instead they put the kibosh on this.�

In a statement, Lifespan spokeswoman Gail Leach Carvelli said, �We regret any confusion regarding the sponsorship of this event.�

But she said Lifespan management concluded that �hosting this forum could be viewed as taking a position on this important, yet controversial issue. Since we have not formulated an opinion on this issue, we did not think it was appropriate to host such a forum at one of our facilities.�

She called Kennedy � a former member of Bradley�s board of trustees � �a well-respected member of the Lifespan community� and said �all of our employees have the right to share their personal views on matters that are important to them and their families.�

Kennedy, however, said it �is outrageous� that the medical community could be undecided on the issue of legalizing marijuana, especially when the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says Rhode Island has among the highest rates of addiction and mental illness in the nation.

�Everyone in the public health community understands what a threat this is,� he said. �Two Rhode Island physicians � two of the leading presidents of major medical groups � were looking forward to taking this as a platform to express the position that they have, that this idea of the legalization of marijuana is not good for the public health.�

He made similar comments in a letter to Lifespan�s board of directors on Thursday.

�Lifespan�s decision to keep quiet exemplifies the level of denial existing in our society regarding the negative consequences of marijuana being legalized,� he wrote.

Kennedy said he learned on Wednesday that the event, planned for April, would not go forward. The message came in an email from Fritz, who said �those at the top � have had second thoughts.�

Nationwide, two states � Colorado and Washington � have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and several others are expected to take up the issue this year. The backers are often Democrats, but Kennedy, a member of the nation�s most famous Democratic family, points to studies that show the effect on teenagers� still-developing brains. He also says the marijuana used today is far stronger than that used in the past.

�We�re trying to do the Race to the Top, you know, Rhode Island cares about education,� he said, referring to the federal grant program. �It�s not going to help if there�s an increase in marijuana use among teenagers.�