VLVL Nixon & the war on marijuana

[pynchonoid]

On the Question of Marijuana's Safety

Dear Dr. Shulgin: 

Based on the drug research that you have done, I would
love to have your opinions concerning the use of
marijuana. Does it cause learning problems? Does it
damage the ability to store long-term memory? Does it
make something go wrong in the brain? With all the
anti-marijuana zealots out there, it is hard to get to
the truth. -- M.J. 

Dear M.J.:

I am afraid I cannot be much of a source of truth
here, as I really do not know. None of my research has
dealt with the use of marijuana, and what I have read
in the scientific literature leaves me with the
impression that it is slanted towards the negative.
This is not at all surprising, as our Government is
dedicated to the presentation of the use of marijuana
as a socially dangerous thing and one that must be
eventually brought under control. And this Government
is the source of the permission, and of the marijuana
itself, and of most of the funds that support the few
research projects that do take place. As with most of
the research in the area of psychotropic (and illegal)
drugs, a researcher's continuing to be awarded future
grants will depend on what he finds and reports from
his earlier studies. 

Kevin Zeese, the President of Common Sense for Drug
Policy (www.csdp.org), wrote a chilling note recently,
presenting the political side of the marijuana health
issue. Tapes have recently been released of President
Nixon's discussions in the Oval Office during the
1970-1971 period. Congress was uncertain of the
appropriateness of placing marijuana in Schedule I in
the new Controlled Substances Act, and thus created a
commission to research the subject and recommend a
long-term strategy. Nixon did most of the appointing
of the members, with Raymond Schafer being the
Chairman (it became known as the Schafer Commission)
and nine others. Most were pretty much law-and-order
people and bigwigs from a law school here and a mental
health hospital there. Four members of Congress served
on it as well. 

This Schafer Commission was officially known as the
National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, and
it took its job seriously. They launched fifty
research projects and polled members of the criminal
justice community. After reviewing all the evidence
the commission came to an unexpected conclusion,
unexpected to them, at least. Rather than harshly
condemning marijuana, they started talking about
removing it from the Federal drug law. Nixon heard
about this, some months before the report was to be
publicly released. He warned Schafer to get control of
the Commission, and from the tapes one hears that they
must avoid looking like a "bunch of do-gooders," who
are "soft on marijuana." 

Nonetheless, the Commission recommended the
decriminalization or non-profit transfer of marijuana.
No punishment -- criminal or civil -- under State or
Federal law. The day before the Commission released
its report, the tapes show that Nixon had a different
opinion. "We need, and I use the word 'all out war,'
on all fronts ... we have to attack on all fronts."
Aiming towards the 1972 presidential election year,
Nixon proposed that he do "a drug thing every week"
that would make a "Goddamn strong statement about
marijuana ... that just tears the ass out of them."
These tapes are at www.csdp.org.

I am sure that this report might well address some of
the questions that you have asked. Unfortunately,
those experiments that can document the quality of
learning or of memory, with or without marijuana use,
are virtually undoable. Looking at people I know, I
can see no suggestion that those who are users are in
a mental class distinct from those who are not users.
A precious example of the political anti-marijuana
mind-set can be had from the answer from John Lawn,
the former head of the DEA, at the Commonwealth Club
in San Francisco, February 1986. 

Question: "What's wrong with legalizing marijuana?"

Answer: "I think that if we decide upon legalization,
we can forget democracy as we now know it. In
experiment animals mutations in the brain caused by
marijuana is (sic) found not only in the user or the
user's offspring, but in the offspring's offspring.
The dangers associated with cannabis are different
than those associated with alcohol. Marijuana is
fat-soluble and one third of the brain is fat."

As Molder's wall-poster said, on the X-Files, "The
Truth Is Out There", but I do not think we will have
factual answers to your questions within my lifetime. 

--Dr. Shulgin 


<http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/shulgin/adso_current.htm>



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