Experts see economic upturn
The nation’s economy is in the early stages of what
appears to be a solid recovery from recession, ac
cording to Alan Greenspan, chairman of the
President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Greenspan, in an Associated Press report, also
predicted that unemployment could be lower this
year than first thought, adding that interest rates on
home mortgages will decline if inflation remains in
check.
“The potential for having a recovery that will last
quite a long time is there,” Greenspan said at a
breakfast meeting with reporters. “Excluding the
danger of inflation, this looks like a very solid recov
ery.”
“It is reasonably clear what the pattern will be,”
agrees Ray Mikesell, economics professor at the
University. Mikesell foresees some reduction in un
employment and inflation, but not to an acceptable
level.
"The recovery depends on several factors,"
Mikesell explained. He named the federal budget,
wage increases, the price of oil and crop develop
ments as important ones. Domestic fiscal and
monetary policy will influence the rate of inflation, he
said.
Mikesell pointed to the stock market as another
indication of economic recovery. He attributed the
recent rise to increased corporate profits, declining
interest rates, and the expectation that interest
rates will continue to decline. Because major corpo
rations borrow money heavily, interest rates are a
pivotal factor to the stock maik et as well as the entire
economy.
"Beyond early 1977 the picture gets blurred,”
Mikesell says. We might not repeat the economic
patterns of the past, he warns. “We've never had this
kind of inflation-recession before. Who knows what
will happen?”
Pot said less dangerous
WASHINGTON (AP)—Marijuana is less of a pub
lic health problem than alcohol and cigarettes but pot
smoking can be a ‘clear and present danger" when
driving a car, the director of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse said Thursday.
Dr. Robert DuPont told a news conference that his
agency’s fifth annual "Marijuana and Health" report
to Congress, while failing to give marijuana a clean
bill of health, also did not support earlier concerns
about possible permanent biological damage.
DuPont said his personal advice to young people
is to avoid marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol but,
realizing prohibition would be fruitless, he favors re
placing jail terms with "modest" $25 fines for pos
sessing small amounts of the drug
Although each of the three recreational drugs has
its distinctive health risks, he said, marijuana is
dearly the least dangerous when used responsibly.
"There is no question that alcohol and tobacco are
causrrg us more health problems than marijuana,
DuPont said.
"Alcohol really does kill people from overdoses It
is virtually impossible to die from marijuana," he said.
"At current use levels," DuPont added, “obviously
crgarettes are causing a greater health problem than
marijuana."
Cigarettes are associated with lung cancer and
other respiratory and heart diseases, but marijuana
does not cause bronchitis except among very heavy
users,” he said.
DuPont said the problem is that manjuana and
alcohol often are used together, especially among
youths, and that pot smokers apparently have diffi
culty in limiting their consumption.
DuPont said that 33.6 million Americans have tried
marijuana and 13.3 million use it regularly.
Marijuana is just one link in the chain of progres
sive drug use, beginning with beer and wine, then
moving up to cigarettes or hard liquor, marijuana,
other illegal drugs such as amphetamines, barbitu
rates and tranquilizers, and then the hard drugs in
cluding heroin, he said
Not all drug users move all the way up that chain,
he emphasized, but those who do and then give up
go back down the same steps.
DuPont said it is normal for children to experiment
and that parents should not “get so uptight" when
their youngsters try liquor, cigarettes or marijuana a
few times.
To youngsters, he said, "My advice is if they're not
using the three, don't take it up. It's expensive, it’s
messy and there are health nsks associated with all
these drugs.”
Failing that, “use them as little as possible and as
responsibly as possible,” he said. “If it was up to me, I
would stop use of all these drugs at the wave of my
hand . ’
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