I r Seventy-Sixth Year EDrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS A View of Marijuana in Perspective Wher OpinionP Ar Free' 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. Truth Will Prevail 2 NEWS PHoNE: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This mus t be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: LAUREN BAHR The Detroit Election: ProgressivismR eaffirmed THE TERM "BACKLASH" appears to have earned itself a permanent posi- tion of prominence in America's political vernacular. George Wallace, with his fre- quent side trips in Northern presidential primaries last spring, seems to have been the prime cause for its original use in the 1964 presidential campaign. However, this ignominious phrase still strikes ter- ror in the hearts of every liberal candi- date and can readily transform a well organized campaign into sudden chaos. This fall's Detroit non-partisan munici- pal election exemplified such a confused state, where racial overtones made a log- ical prediction of voter behavior literally impossible. Detroit, with almost 500,000 Negro resi- dents, has the typical racial problems of a large American city-high crime rates in Negro ghettoes, the rapid transfor- mation of neighborhoods from one type of segregation to another, and Negro complaints of police brutality. These fac- tors make Detroit's electorate ripe for exploitation of racial fears. HOWEVER, the backlash vote never ma- terialized in the November 2 election and beginning next January Detroit will have a liberal mayor with the necessary complement of a progressive, cooperative city council. Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh rode eas- - "1y to victory with over two-thirds of the vote. He also carried with him on his personal endorsement the first and sec- o"id place finishers in the council race and the city's second Negro council mem- ber in its history. Although few observers felt Cavanagh was in any danger and it became only a matter of predicting the percentage of the vote he would receive, the outcome of last September's primary election had pointed to a victory for the racially big- oted elements of the council: But due to the concerted effort by an alliance of labor, both political parties, and church leaders, the elections results portended a future of community har- mony instead of what could have been an extremely explosive situation. O SOURCES of considerable concern were the candidacies of Mary Beck and Thomas Poindexter. Miss Beck, lady champion of the po- lice department and arch-foe of the mayor and the Negro community, had placed second in the primary and was doing equally well in the Detroit News and the mayor's polls. Mayor Cavanagh had last spring asked voters to reject Miss Beck. Throughout the campaign, Beck attack- ed the mayor's office for allegedly ham- stringing the efforts of Detroit police in dealing with crime. On one instance, she castigated Detroit's police commissioner before a meeting of the Detroit Police Officers' Assosciation and received a standing ovation. But she polled only a poor sixth. Thomas Poindexter, who many had considered a serious contender for the council presidency, also ran relatively well in the primary and succeeding opinion Subscription rate: $4.50 semester by carrier ($5 by mail); $8 yearly by carrier ($9 by mal). Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich. polls. Poindexter, however, ended his po- litical career rather abruptly as a result of two actions. The first was a letter to the Detroit Pastors' Association reminding them that he was the only white Protestant in the council race, the rest of the candidates being either Catholic, Negro or Jewish. The reaction was not what Poindexter had expected. The letter was released to the newspapers, with a statement by the Pastors' Association condemning Poindex- ter's statement and general attitude. The second statement by Poindexter was to the effect that he had witnessed an assault and done nothing to help the victim. When asked if he had attempted to call the police, Poindexter replied that he was not in familiar territory. Mr. Poindexter ran tenth, well behind the ninth place finisher. Poindexter based his support on an or- ganization called the Greater Detroit Homeowner's Council, of which he was a founder and which claims over 200,000 members. The organization appears to have lost the considerable strength it showed in the recent primary, since it elected only two of its endorsed candi- dates and had opposed fluoridation, which was approved by Detroit voters. THE NINE MEMBER council will be headed by the present council presi- dent, Edward Carey. Carey, a former Democratic minority leader in the State House of Representatives and an interna- tional staff member of the UAW, ran first and will move up to mayor if Cav- anagh decides to seek higher elective of- fice or receives a federal appointment. Finishing second was Councilman James Brickley, who was thought to be in trouble, but pulled through with heavy assistance from the mayor's political ma- chine. Former Mayor Louis Miriani finished third and, in spite of his friction with the Negro community which defeated him four years ago, will probably do a commendable job. If Miriani had finish- ed first, it would have been difficult for Cavanagh to turn the city over to the man he had defeated. Councilmen Edward Connor and Mel Ravitz finished fourth and fifth, respec- tively. Connor, a national authority on county government, and Ravitz, a former sociology professor, are both members of the council's liberal bloc. Rev. Nicholas Hood, a Negro minister who is active in civic affairs, finished eighth. THE INTER-MINISTERIAL Alliance, an organization encompassing all of De- troit's Negro congregations, had threat- ened to endorse a Negro-only slate if it were not given assurances of white sup- port for Negro candidates. However, it did approve a bi-racial slate and was par- tially successful in that it placed a Negro on the council. The Detroit electorate, by repudiating those candidates who attempted to capi- talize on racial fears and by electing an enlightened city administration, has proved its maturity and wisdom. -MARK LEVIN EDITOR'S NOTE: The author is chairman of the pharmacology department in the Medical School and is a noted authority in the field of drugs and drug addiction. He has written nu- merous articles on the subject -among them "Medical Per- spectives on Habituation and Addiction" in The Journal of the American Medical Associa- tion, July 14, 1962. By MAURICE H. SEEVERS AN EDITORIAL by Jeffrey GOODMAN, "The Argument for Legalizing Marijuana," in The Michigan Daily Saturday, Oct. 9, initiated several requests for this writer to discuss the problem be- cause of his long time study of drug addiction here and abroad. The deciding factor in favor was the fascination of the concluding paragraph-a masterpiece of re- search into reality, time percep- tion, and judgment with approp- riate "turned on," "floating" and "foxy" overtones. "Lastly, the re- peal of the Marijunana Tax Act of 1937 would provide an uplift for the nation's psyche that no other single act of legislation could effect in a century or more." The purpose of this discussion is to offer enough historical and factual informationsconcerning psychoactive drugs in general and marijuana in particulr to give perspective to the relative impor- tance of this substance in the broader problems of narcotic and drug abuse in the United States. The writer does not feel any obligation to deal with drug abuse in relation to civil liberties except possibly to comment that drugs do not appear to be necessary to pro- vide hallucinations in this area. THERE ARE thousands of drugs and chemicals which are capable of altering perception and/or behavior of animals or man. Some of these in proper dosage may increase or decrease psychological or physical functions without distortion and find a most useful place in modern med- ical practice. These same sub- stances in greater dosage, and in certain suceptible individuals in almost any dosage, may distort perception, incite to violence or incapacitate mentally and/or phy- sically. More likely than not, the aver- age citizen views the effects of drugs on mental function and human behavior as interactions based upon the unitary formula drug-individual-society; a simple concept which permits easy gen- eralization. A look at a few of the variables, however, indicates the complexity of such inter- actions. A "drug" is not one drug but a multitude of drug doses admin- istered under an endless variety of conditions. Each of the psy- choactive drugs (or any drug) has a "no effect" dose and a lethal dose with a multitude of behav- ioral patterns in the intermediate dose ranges. Furthermore, the behavior pat- terns may vary qualitatively as well as quantitatively, for exam- ple, excite with small doses and depress with large doses and the effects of a single dose vary widely from those during chronic admin- istration. An "individual" is not one indi- vidual but millions of different individuals varying physically; young and old, weak and strong, sick and well, and psychologically; intelligent and stupid, emotional- ly stable, neurotic, psychopathic or psychotic. A "society" is not one society but hundreds of sub- cultures-civilized and primitive, urban and rural, with different ethnic, religious, cultural and other group characteristics. THE PHARMACOLOGIST often finds it difficult to define drug action clearly even in a single "normal individual" at one dose level. Although drug actions are defined and described categorical- ly in textbooks of pharmacology and therapeutics, every physician and psychiatrist knows that he cannot accept the statement at face value for any patient with- out trial and evaluation in that particular "individual." When the effects of single drug- individual interactions are so dif- ficult to define in general terms, ponder the problem confronting the sociologist, the physician, the lawmaker, and the jurist in arriv- ing at generalizations which define accurately the effects of a drug or chemical over all dose ranges in a society of nearly two hundred million persons. A look at the use and abuse pat- terns of psychoactive drugs in the United States reveals a picture somewhat as follows: From any point of view alcohol constitutes the major drug problem in the United States today. Approxi- mately 4 per cent of the esti- mated 125-150 million users of alcohol abuse the drug to become individual and/or social problems. The Volstead Act was a sincere and well-meaning effort of gov- ernment to correct this serious problem. By repealing this act at the polls the American people "decided" that the "weal" of 96 per cent of the population who use alcohol for social intercourse was more important than the "woes" of the 4 per cent who treat their emotional problems by chronically :self-administering ex- cessive quantities. To the 5 or 6 million alcoholics can be added an unknown number of emotionally disturbed persons who become dependent upon a wide variety of other drugs - heroin or other opiates, barbitu- rates, and other sleeping pills, amphetamines and other stimu- lants, marijuana, etc. Such per- sons choose these drugs in prefer- ence to alcohol because they better fulfill their need. Availability and distribution of all these substances is controlled by law and regulation. In contrast to alcohol, a large proportion of the population have no experience with, or need for these drugs. Most of these (marijuana being an exception) are also substances which are used extensively in medicine. ASSUMING FOR lack of accu- rate figures that the abuse of psychoactive drugs other than alcohol involves 2 per cent of the population, the total number of emotionally unstable persons in the United States who need or will become dependent on some drug crutch (including alcohol) in an effort to solve their emotional dif- ficulties may be as high as 5 per cent of the population. If it were practicable by legal or other means to limit the in- dividual intake of any drug to a quantity less than that which dis- torts perception or otherwise in- capacitates there would -be -,no drug abuse problems or need for regulation. No one becomes an alcoholic on two martinis a day or a barbitu- rate addict on one sleeping pill a day, or a narcotic addict on one therapeutic dose of heroin or mor- phine a day, or even a significant social hazard on occasional mari- juana cigarettes. Nor is one likely to develop cancer of the lung from smoking cigarettes if he does not inhale, or die from overeating on 2500 calories a day. Society has never found a for- mula for protecting individuals from themselves nor for protecting society from the individual who has neither the interest in, nor the capabilities of limiting his intake of drugs to non-toxic quantities. In principle, therefore, legal regulation of drug-seeking and drug-induced behavior has two objectives. One, to protect the majority against violence in the minority resulting from excessive use, abnormal reactions, activation of latent psychopathic trends, or enhancement of existing abnormal behavior in true psychopaths. The second objective is to pre- vent drug-induced indolence, in- competence, unemployment, and the whole train of factors which increase the burden on the ma- jority to support an irresponsible, unproductive, and dependent mi- nority. When drug-seeking be- havior and drug abuse become the major goals of the Individual, the. abuser becomes a drag on society. TURNING ATTENTION now to marijuana. The hemp plant, Can- nabis sativa, is one of the earliest and best known sources of long textile fibers, being fairly well documented in China in the period 1200 to 500 B.C. Its narcotic pro- perties appear to have been known by 200 A.D. in China, although neither the ancient nor the mod- ern literature gives evidence of the significant use for this ourpose by the Chinese. This has been as- cribed to the "philosophic Chinese temperment who are attracted more to the langourous dreams of the opium pipe than the ecstatic, furious delirium of the hemp."' In India, by contrast, the in- toxicating properties of ganga, of bhang, was probably generally rec- ognized about the 10th century. Hemp intoxication seems espe- cially adapted to the Hindu tem- perment and it has become such a part of the religious life and customs that the Indian gover- ment has not, until recently, deemed it advisable to attempt to control the practice. Hindu mythology accords divine status to the plant. Although the numerous prepa- rations of hemp for drinking, eat- ing, and smoking have hundreds of vernacular names, the term "hashish" is probably the best known, especially in Moslem coun- tries. Today hemp preparations are used fairly extensively, al- though illegally, as intoxicants throughout India, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, North and Central Africa' Brazil, and Mexico. In Egypt, in spite of severe penalties for smug- gling and possession, it is estimat- ed that about three per cent of the population are habitual smok- ers of "hashish." - One of the interesting and prob- ably significant facts is the slow spread of "hashish" into the New World, and especially into coun- tries where alcohol is the prin- cipal intoxicant. In spite of the geographical proximity to Greece and Turkey, "hashish" has never gained acceptance in Europe. Only in the last few decades has it been abused in some of the metropoli- tan areas like London and Paris, where it is known as the "Ameri- can" vice, since it was introduced fror the United States. The term marijuana (literally Mary Jane) is said to have been derived from maraguango, a ge- neric term used in Mexico or Latin American for any substance pro- ducing an intoxication. The term marijuana in the United States applies almost exclusively to pre- parations of the leaves and flow- ering tops of the plant, which are smoked as cigarettes, sometimes being mixed with tobacco. Although the biological activity. varies with cultural conditions, plants grown in the northern tier of middle Western states, includ- ing Michigan, are reasonably ac- tive. CURRENTLY, neither marijuana nor any of its principles have any known value in medicine or thera- peutics and are not described in the two official United States compendia of recognized thera- peutic agents, the Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary. Much of the confusion about drug abuse relates to differences in the legal, scientific, and lay meanings of such terms as "nar- cotic," "addiction," "habituation," "tolerance," etc. In the United States, any drug covered by the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 is technically a narcotic. But cocaine, which is not a narcotic (meaning to stupefy), but a stimulant, is included in this act. In old ter- minology, "addicting" drugs were those which produce physical de- pendence, "habituating" drugs, those which do not. From the social viewpoint, none of these technicalities are meaningful, the only criterion being "is the drug likely to be abused compulsively, and if so, can it create personal injury and/or social harm." Certain classes of depressant drugs, morphine-like drugs (her- oin, and so forth), barbiturate- like drugs, and alcohol produce physical dependence. The intense discomfort associated with abrupt withdrawal of these types of drugs may so strongly motivate the user to continue that he will resort to crime to obtain a supply. Other drugs, cocaine, amphetamines, marijuana, and other hallucino- gens do not produce physical de- pendence, and, in the older ter- minology, are not addictive. Yet, the user may become so depen- dent psychologically on these drugs that the drive to continue their use is no less strong than with the depressants. In fact, they are much more liable to be inciters of violence. In recognition of the confusion in nomenclature, the World Health Organization in abandon- ing the terms "habituation" and "addiction," now speaks only of drug dependence. All drugs which are abused create psychological dependence. This is the primary driving force for their compulsive abuse. Physical dependence, when present, strongly reinforces psy- chological dependence. Drugs of abuse are therefore casionally, periodically or chroni- cally, are: hilarity, often without apparent motivation; carelessness; loquacious euphoria, with increas- ed sociability as a result: distor- tion of sensation and perception, especially of space and time, with the latter reinforcing psychic de- pendence and being valued under special circumstances; impair- ment of judgement and memory; distortion-of emotional responsive- ness; irritability; and confusion. "Other effects, which appear especially after repeated admin- istration and as more expeience is acquired by the user include: low- ering of the sensory threshold, especially for optical and acous- tical stimuli, thereby resulting in an intensified appreciation of works of art, painting, and music; hallucinations, illusions, and de- lusions that predispose to anti- social behaviour; anxiety and ag- gressiveness as a possible result of the various intellectual and sensory derangements; and sleep disturbances. "In the psychomotor sphere, hy- permotility occurs without impair- ment of coordination. Among somatic effects, often persistent, are injection of the ciliary vessels and oropharyngitis, chronic bron- chitis, and asthma; these con- ditions and hypoglycaemia, with ensuing bulimia, are symptoms of intoxication not of withdrawal. "Typically, the abuse of can- nabis is periodic, but even during long and continuous administra- tion, no evidence of the develop- ment of physical dependence can be detected. There is, in conse- quence no characteristic abstin- ence syndrome when use of the drug is discontinued. "Whether administration of the drug is periodic or continuous, tolerance to its subjective and psychomotor effects has not been demonstrated. "Whereas cannabis often at- tracts the mentally unstable and may precipitate tepporary psy- choses in predisposed individuals, no unequivocal evidence is havai- able that lasting mental changes are produced. "For the individual, harm re- sulting from abuse of cannabis may include inertia, lethargy, self-neglect, feeling of increased capability, with corresponding failure, and precipitation of psy- chotic episodes. Abuse of can- nabis facilitates the association with social groups and sub- cultures involved with more dan- gerous drugs, such as opiates or barbiturates. "Transition to the use of such drugs would be a consequence of this asociation rather than, an inherent effect of cannabis. The harm to society derived from abuse of cannabis rests in eco- nomic consequences of the impair- ment of the individual's social functions and his enhanced prone- ness to asocial and antisocial be- havior." CLEARLY, numerous injustices have occurred in enforcing the narcotic and marijuana laws. This is generally recognized by respon- sible federal jurists, many of whom refrain from imposing the maxi- mum penalties permitted by law, except for syndicate operators. This whole problem was the subject of a While House Con- ference in 1961, the principal function being to place the prob- lem of drug abuse in proper per- spective, recognizing especially especially that the drug dependent person is as much of a medical, as a legal problem, and there should be public awakening to this pos- ture in the application of state and federal laws. On July 15, the President sign- ed Drug Abuse Control Amend- ments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Acts. This new law con- trols barbiturates, amphetamines, and any substance which is desig- nated as habit forming or "having a potential for abuse because of its depressant or stimulant effect on the central nervous system or be- cause of its hallucinatory effect." While this legislation is aimed specifically at barbiturates and amphetamines which have become very serious problems in drug abuse, the law also will provide a specific mechanism for handling the hallucinogens like ULSD and any new drugs which may be po- tentially subject to abuse. The intent of this law is to control distribution of drugs at the manufacturing and retail level and prevent diversion into illegal channels, rather than to impose specific penalties on the user as Is currently operative under the nar- cotic laws. Hopefully it will be effective without resort to stronger legislation. WHERE DOES marijuana stand in the world today? Just where it has for the last one thousand years-in, the East, appealing to a minority of the population com- prising a large group of religious ascetics, the idle, the miserably poor, and the more dissolute members of the population. In the West, marijuana, like other hallucinogens seems to "pos- sess a particular attraction for certain psychologically and socially maladjusted persons who have dif- ficulty in conforming to usual social norms. These include 'arty' people such as struggling writers, painters, and musicians; frustrat- ed nonconformists; and curious thrill-seeking adolescents and young adults." Traffic in, and use of mari- juana, is prohibited in every civil- ized nation of the world. Since 1959 even India, in spite of re- ligiouspressure, has completely prohibited the cannabis resin (Charas) even for mendical use and the use of other 'formsr of the plant are being increasingly re- stricted in the Indian states and territories which have not yet en- forced total prohibition. The reader can draw his own conclusions concerning the likeli- hood of marijuana being available as a government monopoly in the United States. Where does marijuana stand in relation to alcohol? Most alco- holics would not give it a second look. Would it replace alcohol if freely available? If so, why is it necessary for the Indian govern- ment to prohibit alcohol in a cul- ture Where its religion 'accept "hashish," but eschew alcohol? IF MARIJUANA had universal appeal, one would expect to find it accepted and used socially in moderate amounts in Asia and Africa by a majority of the popu- lation, much like alcohol in the United States. To the contrary, in most countries regular users are held in low esteem somewhat comparable to "Skid Row" alco- holics. Having failed to ,gain a signi- ficant foothold in predominantly alcohol-dependent societies, or to gain general social acceptance elsewhere in the world in nearly a thousand years, it seems most un- likely that the American public would voluntarily abolish the cocktail hour in order to go to "pot." a $ 4 Letters:* Criticism Of the Referendum ....... ' FEIFFER AT TNUOFFICE 6010 WIFe5PACK W(r14 6-?U WNAT FOOUUIJ6 AML4'P OJESIX D1Ff6E&)E T 'THAT50' E)OUWH c2 ONEMA~tF. '"t1G'5 A WIFE, BEST FRbICOP A 6UW OWT? JOu, T 6ORkZ& C~A2YG To the Editor:- AS SOMEONE who has become involved in the "referendum" on Viet Nam, I would like to pro- vide some background facts and to suggest that this poll is being conducted in an unfortunate way. Recently two members of Stu- dent Government Council con- tacted me for advice about polling' student opinion on Viet Nam. They showed me a proposed ques- tion which essentially asked people to say "Yes, I approve" or "No, I disapprove" of U.S. policy in. Viet Nam. I told these young men that this was a poor question to ask because it is artificial to force people into a simple Yes-No and that such a question would dis- guise various shades of opinion on the matter. These two SGC representatives agreed with this point and Ito- gether we drafted two questions which asked people to rank order, according to their preference, a number of alternative military and political actions in Viet Nam. NOW, HOWEVER, a simple for or against present policy question seems to have been placed on the tendency to stop serious discussion and indeed to stop thinking about this vitally important subject. One must, this approach suggests, either line up 100 per cent behind the administration or else behind the draft card burners and far out radicals. But surely a great university like ours is the last place where such cessation of thought should be en- couraged. Both our role as seekers, after truth and the larger in- terests of our country require not mindless conformity (nor mindless rebellion) but informed and con- structive thinking about various possible solutions to this awful problem. --Prof. Martin Patchen Survey Research Center Waywuars4d- Press T SWEAR IF, on the Senate floor 1The shades of orators of yore Appeared-like, say, Diogenes'- The Press would push the It6LM117 L ~ TUU 11k, ON cxr"riTS A SW J0 RA Q( C 3 150 HuRc- 8rAf GOM, MM F: SM 1Jn., W1 wfeu .- ..:% .