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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1967)
Legalized Marijuana A lot of people have been getting pretty self righteous since the Eugene police started clean ing up on the nasty old marijuana smokers, espe cially since some of them were among the “hip pies” we defended last week. A lot of people keep saying “see, see, nasty, nasty.” Baloney. That ignores the main issue. The people who got arrested were picked up under a law that’s as out-of-date as prohibition. Marijuana should no more be illegal than water. (In fact, the way the lumber industry and others are going in this state, marijuana is probably purer than water.) Consider the evidence that follows. Some people say marijuana should be illegal because it is physically harmful, like heroin or LSD. We quote from the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency, (Volume 35, Number 5, 1965): “. . . There is, in consequence, no characteristic abstinence syndrome when use of the drug is dis continued. “Whereas cannabis (marijuana) often attracts the mentally unstable and may precipitate tempo rary phychoses in predisposed individuals, no un equivocal evidence is available that lasting mental changes are produced. “Drug dependence of the cannabis type is a state arising from chronic or periodic administration of cannabis substances (natural or synthetic). Its characteristics are: “(a) Moderate to strong psychic dependence on account of the desired subjective effects. “(b) Absence of physical dependence, so that there is no characteristic abstinence syndrome when the drug is discontinued. “(c) Little tendency to increase the dose and no evidence of tolerance.” In fact, it’s doubtful that a hippie smoking pot is hurting himself any more than a pot bellied Eugene businessman downing his mar X If tini at the end of the day. Listen to Dr. Joel Fort, director of the Center for Treatment and Education on Alcoholism in San Francisco, lec turer in the University of California School of Criminology, and consultant on drug addiction with the World Health Organization: “Cannabis (marijuana) is a valuable, pleasure-giving drug, probably much safer than alcohol but condemned by the power structure of our society." One reason that marijuana is safer than alco hol, according to studies, is that the marijuana users maintain control of their faculties and are less likely to get involved in accidents. As the WHO study notes, it has also been medically proven that alcohol has a much higher potential for physical dependence, increasing dosage, and psychological dependence than marijuana. WHY NOT LEGALIZE IT? If marijuana isn't any more harmful than alcohol why not legalize it? It leads to stronger, more harfmul drugs, people say. Also listen to the man who engineered pas sage of the present federal statute against mari juana use, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Asked by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in 1937 whether marijuana use leads to heroin addiction, Henry J. Anslinger, the federal com missioner of narcotics, said, “No, sir. I have not heard of a case of that kind. 1 think it's an en tirely different class. The marijuana addict (what ever that is) does not go in that direction.” If there is any connection between marijuana use and addiction to stronger drugs like heroin, it arises from the fact that they are both illegal. Thus the guy who pushes marijuana may also have some heroin and persuade the marijuana user to try it. The cases where this occurs could be eliminated by taking marijuana out of the In Our Own Backyard We are embarrassed to note that the new Emerald editor and business manager were selected in a closed meeting Thursday night. After our protests over closed sessions, it hurts to see the Student Publications Board deny requests to hear the can didates’ presentations and ask questions. However, we have no objections to closing it during personality discussion. Oregon Daily Emerald Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the Emerald and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the ASUO or the University. However, the Emerald does present on this page columnists and letter writers whose opinions reflect those of our diverse readership and not those of the Emerald itself. PHIL SEMAS, Editor WILBUR BISHOP JR. Business Manager RICH JERNSTEDT Advertising Manager CLIFF SANDERLIN Associate Editor ANNETTE BUCHANAN Managing Editor MIKE FANCHER News Editor JEAN SNIDER Editorial Page Editor University of Oregon, Eugene, Friday, April 21, 1967 Camerons Comment mam "IDENTIFIED* MEANS SOUEBODV CW.ueO you a naw\e ik) front o'p us. heroin league and making it legal. Even federal officials agree that marijuana penalties are at least “too severe.” That’s what Dr. James L. Goddard, director of the U S. Public Health Service, told a colloquium on drug use at Cornell University in 1906. And Dr. James Fox, a staff member of the federal Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, told a National Student Association workshop last summer, “I would say that there may very well be some modifica tion in government attitudes toward marijuana.” NOT IN THE SAME LEAGUE The strict laws against marijuana make it difficult to convince many people (especially those who know that marijuana is comparatively harmless) that really dangerous drugs, such as heroin and LSD, are harmful and ought to be illegal. And medical evidence makes it clear that marijuana is not in the same league with acid and heroin. (Let us make it clear at this point that the Emerald does not believe either heroin or LSD should be legalized.) Besides all these negative arguments about what marijuana isn't, there’s the positive argu ment about what it is. Those who’vc used it, such as poet Alan Ginsberg, say it gives much more pleasure and enjoyment than alcohol and certainly more than tobacco. And nobody has ever maintained that marijuana causes cancer. So that’s the case for legalization. We think it’s time people stopped pointing their fingers at these kids who have been arrested for break ing an antiquated law. Instead, the finger-point ers should expend their energy getting rid of the law. The Emerald doesn’t necessarily recommend that everyone take marijuana, but we think it should be legal for those who want to. Emerald Editor: All letters to the editor must be typewritten and double spaced. Letters must not ex ceed 300 words and must be signed in ink, giving the class and major of the writer. Those dealing with one subject and pertaining to the University or Eugene community will be giv en preference The Emerald re serves the right to edit letters for style, grammar, punctuation, and potentially libelous content Letters not meeting these cri teria and those which are mim eographed or otherwise obvious duplicates will be returned. Campus Commies Emerald Editor: Relative to communistic in filtrations in our colleges, I was very much interested in a front page article which appear ed on front page of the Oregon Journal of April 13. Following bold headlines “In former tells of Reds’ drive to grab campuses,” I would place' considerable emphasis on state ments this informer Krueger made relative to these commu nistic activities. “Young communists are mak ing a systematic attempt to take over student leadership on West Coast college campuses,” and “As for college campuses,” Krueger said, “the aim of the club is to place members or other reliable persons in strat egic positions such as commit tees for selecting campus speak ers. By so doing, he said, the club is able to control much of what the students hear.” Long before I had observed this article, I have often con tended that this very procedure has been taking place for some time. In my opinion, anti-fluor ide propagandists have been the most successful, in not only scaring the devil out of the peo ple, but attempting to create in their mind, fear and distrust of their own government and its officials. Those rabble rousers, being encouraged by the acceptance of such controversial speakers as LSD proponents, Nazi sym pathizers, and recognized com munists who have been priv ileged to spout on our college rostrum, are now making a des perate effort to further spread their poison in a like manner. As Mr. Krueger also stated, "They are making a special ef fort to recruit clergymen." The latter has already been accom plished in some instances. Harvey Young Monmouth, Oregon • * » Rally Round Emerald Editor: The great white father in another flash of “creeping lib eralism” has agreed to extend closing hours for one hour. Bacchus has been given one more precious hour to reign supreme. The question remains though, whether or not with this addition of responsibilities Pan hellenic has overextended it self? Only eminent campus figures like the president of IFC can foresee the implications of mas sive retaliation on the part of Zeta Zeta Zeta alumnae. But, thank God, the Oregon PTA as well as the Molalla Mothers’ Club can rest at ease; the malevolence of original sin has been uniquely thwarted. It has been proven beyond a doubt, as a responsible P a n h e llenic representative could testify, that the fall of morality lies between the hours of 2 and 6 a.m. However, the laxity on clos ing hours edges nearer and near er the point of no return, and it seems imperative that deci sions making be withheld from the ultra-progressive IFC and Panhellenic league. It is now time to conserve and consolate, lest the Univer sity go the way of Rome. One looking for stability and tranquility as well as, and I’m not afraid to say it—Old fash ioned morality, must look to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the West Coast, and to that I say thank the heav ens and the stars for James H. Jensen. The undergraduates must unite to stop this oozing immor ality, certainly we have a min iature William Jennings Bryan within the student body who can lead the fight against re peal of the dry zone. Indeed, Harry Drummonds has outlived his usefulness, if what this University needs is a Billy Sun day. I would also like to refute a |>oint recently made in the editorial column. It seems that your writer, probably Ben Kalb, lambasted the American people for electing a “Joe McCarthy, Ronald Reagan and Lester Mad dox.” Although Ronald Reagan's po litical ideas may be appropri ate for a colony of individual istic rhesus monkeys, 1 dare say Reagan is not in the same class with those other two ig nominious boobs. You have also put the Am erican people in a bad light. There was no mention of the honorable Warren G. Harding, Calvin “Big Baddy” Cool id ge or Chester A Arthur, and in the name of all that is sacred and holy, what about Dwight D. Ei senhower. In conclusion I withdraw to tho seclusion and blissfulness of my fraternity in dire fear that Joseph Fiszman who edited, I presume, that classic manu script of exciting reading, “The Fiszman Reader,” will hurl aca demic and scholarly invectives at my undergraduate carcass. Richard Fredericks History * * * Wants Pen Pals Emerald Editor: I am interested in having pen pals from the United States (especially from Oregon). I have been directed to your news paper by the American Embas sy in Lagos. I am 20 years old. My hobby is general, but I take special (Cuntiniii'd on pane 11) Oregon Dally Emerald Ron Eachus, Sports Editor Tom Thompson, Photo Editor Steve Brown, Assistant News Editor Sally Sharrard, Feature Editor Paul Polsky, Associate Sports Editor Chris Houglum, Entertainment Editor Lee O’Conner, Women’s AITalrs Editor Jaqi Thompson, Political Affairs Editor Editorial Board: Phil Sernas, Cliff San derlin, Annette Buchanan, Bob Holmes, Robin Tuttle, Chuck Pruitt, Tom Nash, Dave McCloskey, Roger Leo, Spencer Block, Jean Snider, Mike Fancher, Hobert Carl, Krln De Jonge.
