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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1969
PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Stop asking what,
start asking why
In a relatively quiet community as is Lincoln,
drugs are now more or less a pursuit of pleasure.
"Users may be attracted because drugs produce
J euphoria or because they open the mind and senses
to new and exciting sensations, especially of sight
and sound.
n
. "
They are, too, aa escape from daily life. Just
as students have traditionally looked forward to the
weekend, beginning with a rousing Friday Afternoon
Club, when they can drink to loosen up and get
J away from the weekly study pressures, they may
'begin to use drugs to help temporarily ease building
e tensions. ;
Z These tensions are magnified as the pressures
"of life around the individual increase. As students
' move into post-college life, perhaps in a large city,
"they will realize the full extent of societal pressures
' that can operate on an individual.
Just such a city is New York. It is perhaps
the epitomy of the city life where drugs, both the
""mild ones common to college students, and the hard
.ones that, unless the habit is broken, lead eventually
to addiction and death. 14 is toward this city life
; America is moving.
With the pressures of an urban society, the hurry,
i-ihe crowds, the misfits increase. Daily living becomes
J"an emotion-charged world, one in which people will
'. beat teach other with umbrellas to get on a crowded
subway because schedules have been curtailed in an
ticipation of greater business closing on the national
holiday to celebrate the landing of the first Americans
on the moon, one in which every subway ride or
"walk on the street brings at least one beggar unable
to make it in the fast-moving city.
In such an atmosphere, drug use skyrockets as
does liquor consumption. It's a tossup whether the
. middleaged man, or sometimes woman, slouched In
7 a doorway or lying on the sidewalk, is bombed out
of his mind on rotgut liquor or stoned out on cocaine
'or heroine. These are the tragedies, but they by
no means complete the story.
Users of the non-addictive drugs, marijuana,
mescaline, acid and amphetamines, are found
everywhere. Middle-aged business 'executives turn on;
those who don't are curious and anxious to see what
it's all about. To college students a pot party is
as commonplace as a beer bust would have been
a few years ago. High schoolers from the small-town
atmospheres of the boroughs are likely to be among
those who smoke a little pot every morning before
they start the day, just as much as the artist or
' musician in the warrens of the East Village.
Officials in New York are aware of this: they
know that when they're not around an informal jam
session in Washington Square Park may turn into
an equally informal pot auction.
But they realize, too, that this need to escape
is a product of the gigantic city they are trying
to run of and of the lives its inhabitants lead. They
accordingly direct attention to improving the lift, to
making the city a place that can be lived in. Because
hard drugs are the worst problem, they are devoting
time and money to places where users can go for
help.
They are trying to understand why people get
hopelessly hooked, and what they can do to prevent
the frustrations and emptiness that leads people the
whole drug route.
These people have taken a big step; they recognize
drug use as a symptom, not a cause. Perhaps if
persons everywhere would concern themselves more
with giving people a direction rather than cutting
off their escape from a directionless existence, they
could treat the real problem.
. Holly Rosenberger
DAILY NEBRASKAN
SKontf claaa poitaoo paid Lincoln, Mo.
Talapnonoat editor 471-Maa, Nowt 471-1M, Smlnoai OIK.
Subscription rolot aro M par Mmntip or M par yaar.
Publlihad Monday, Wadnatday. TMjrtday and Friday daring Hw
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Mombor or Intaroolloolato Praia, National Ideational AdvorNiliNJ
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Nebraskan editorial page
Drugs gain place as new-time religion
by Jim Evinger
A real part of the subculture surrounding drug
use is the hallucinpgenic religious movement.
Its focus is on this worldliness; trips are, for
the most part, pantheistic. The searches for meaning
and striving for goals are over the meaning of
existence is existence itself. Depending on the ex,
perience, some will discover the minuteness of their
ego or self, rather than their finiteness.
The disparity between experience perceived and
experience as it happens is the key to psychedelic
drugs. Perception is heightened; there is an extreme
effect on the senses. Variations in experiences are
common.
But several reoccuring themes can be identified,
based on repetitive experiences:
There is a sharpening or a distortion of t h e
senses, depending upon your viewpoint.
The senses of a personal, finite Identity may
be lost as a person "transcends" his environment
not losing a feeling of "somebody," but gaining
a feeling of "everything."
The experience of time Is radically transformed.
There may be a sense of release from the time
boundness of everyday society.
Words come to be futile, being inadequate for
expression of experiences.
The dualities of language (as subject-object
relationship) disappear.
The final, all-embracing truth is known because
one becomes the final truth.
Timothy Leary, Es'iuire mugnzine's venerable high
priest, claims that we are merely agents of reality,
but become preoccupied with our "material selves."
To Leary, energy is primary and material is secon
dary. He sees the goal of life and religion as uniting
us mentally with that primal energy. This energy
is his common demoniator for all pure religions. He
decries contemporary religions as too dogmatic and
institutionalized.
Leary considers LSD the vehicle to true religions
discovery, that "direct, intuitive" grasp of the truth.
His Neo-Amerlcan Church uses LSD as a sacra
ment. Is the LSD religions experience authentic
mysticism? The question goes unanswered since no
one speaks as an authority, but the experiences of
the drug user and the pure-practicing mystic sound
similar.
Does the drug permit the experience or produce
it? Is the agent, LSD, the route to the religious
experience, or the experience in itself. If the former,
are there alternative vehicles? Or is the agent-drug
an integral part of the experience itself? Answers
are lacking.
What are the true religious experiences while on
hallucinatory drugs? Philosophers delving into this
topic are careful to distinguish between naturalistic
and theistic mysticism, but conclusions are largely
speculative.
It uppeurs that logic is the ultimate Irrelevance
here, that the movement is modern romanticism, and
that it reflects a disillusionment with and a partial
abandonment of science.
It is, however, difficult to say whether the trip
is mystical or anti-mystcal, whether it is Intellectual
or anti-intellectual. It is anti-Intellectual in that It
is anti-scientific.
Ironically, the ritual of the hallucinatory religious
movement has become Institutionalized far faster than
Christian ritual ever did.
In any event, it seems rather doubtful that man's
time-honored search for religion lies In the exhortation,
"Whatever turns you on."
Music reflects
drug culture
by J. L. Schmidt
"You've got to get np in the air,
act like yon don't even care . . ."
Three Dog Night
Up, up and away. The Wright Brothers set science
back on its heels when they discovered how to get
high in their wonderful machine.
Many years later, Timothy Leary and several
other notables set the establishment back on Jts heels
when they discovered a completely new way to fly
... and began teaching others all about it.
From the weird, opium-smoked caves of the Middle
East emerged a religion which was definitely drug
inspired. Music followed suit, and soon, news of these
strange things filtered to the pure free airs of the
United States.
Today, music with allusions to drugs are
everywhere. From jukeboxes in cowboy bars to bub
blegum radio stations, puritanical Americans have
been made aware of the fact that some of their
brothers are getting strung out, crashing and burning,
right before their very ears.
References in isolated songs have given energetic
conclusion jumpers the opportunity to make up stories
that will never end. Remember the stink raised over
"Puff, The Magic Dragon?" This, however, was not
enough to turn off the music publishers, and more
definite allusions have cropped up.
Remaining in the more obscure field for a moment
we can turn to the Beatles, those ever faithful, always
successful trend setters, who as late have given us,
"Happintss is a Warm Gun." A line from the song
states that "Mother Superior jumped the Gun", which
has been taken to mean that Brian Epstein, Beatles
manager, has kicked the habit and is no longer using
the gun, or hypodermic syringe, whichever you will.
Nebraskans weren't reached until 1965 when Bob
Dylan brought "Rainy Day Women," to his Pershing
Concert. "Everybody wants to get stoned." And by
the time they figured out that nobody was really
throwing rocks at him, they turned around and heard
Ray Charles in concert inviting them with, "Let's
go get stoned."
As if this wasn't enough, a whole lot of those
freaky, long-haired bands started infiltrating the air
waves with their strange talk. Grace Slick of the
Jefferson Airplane sang about two pills in "White
Rabbit," and some nut on kids stories realized that
the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland was advising
everyone to "feed your head."
The Moody Blues popularized the religious aspects
of the music with their album "In Search of the
Lost Chord," in which they devoted an entire cut
and a substantial part of the liner notes to an explana
tion of the word "Om."
Straight, hard allusions have been made by Step
penwulf, who went so far as to sing about one of
the internal problems of the drug cult in his "Pusher,"
a direct cut at the people who try to cheat users
by selling bad stuff.
Crow sing in concert about one of the members
of the group who got some bad stuff from his girl
friend and tripped out singing, "these are not the
colors that I paid you for."
The Who have devoted an entire album to drugs.
"Tommy" was deaf blind and mute until a gypsy
woman turned him on and made him able to "see."
Thi3 turned him into a Pinball Wizard and macfe
him feel that he was free.
The Rolling Stones hit it hard with a name and
extended their thoughts through "Paint it Black,"
a good cover for all of reality, to paint it black.
And "hey, hey, you, you, got offa my cloud" warned
others to leave their own special little patch of unreal
ity alone.
Some propaganda against drug usage has been
emphasized in music. Donovan sung that "I could
'ave tripped out to see ya, but I've changed my
ways." The Beatles reported in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band that they were "fixing the hole
in the roof to keep my mind from wandering."
Even some helpful advice has been offered to
drug users by the Flying Burrito Brothers, who advised
in their song, "Hippy Boy," that "It's the same
for every hippy, bum or freak, never carry more
with you than you can eat."
And Three Dog Night advises that you let things
run their true course in, "Dreaming isn't good for
you, unless you do the things that it tells you to."
Hut, you've got to circle for a landing and get
back down to earth. Perhaps music is headed for
a landing too eventually.
Researchers work to determine effects of marijuana
This article is reprinted from the Nov. II issue
of the National Observer.
by William J. Lanouette
A National Observer survey of current mari
juana research leads to strikingly contradictory con
clusions: It is a dangerous drug whose long-term effects
may be harmful.
it is a safe drug, no more harmful than alcohol
or tobacco, capable of producing mild Intoxication.
Both conclusions are culled from the latest
"medical opinion." Each has Its strong supporters.
The findings are contradictory In part because
of a genuine difference of Interpretation of the In
formation among those Investigating marijuana. But
more Importantly the differences are a by-product
of the slim reserve of murijuuna Information, which
reeurchers, to a man, cull meager. This lack of
knowledge enables widely varying opinions to be easily
sustained.
This scarcity has several causes. Pharmaceutical
manufacturers have little incentive to develop mari
juana because it is legally classed as having no
medical use. Privute foundations prefer to fund such
medically urgent projects as cancer and heart
research. University researchers avoid the topic
because of difficulties in obtaining marijuana and
in protecting subjects from legal prosecution.
In addition, of the nearly SO Federally sponsored
marijuana research projects now under way, only
1 are directly concerned with the effects of the drug
on humans. Dr. Reese T. Jones Is testing the effects
of marijuana on human perception and cognition at
the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute in San
Francisco. Dr. Harris Isbell Is comparing marijuana
and LSD Intoxication among former morphine addicts
t the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Addiction Research Center in Lexington, Ky.
Uvea the Information available, researchers la
marijuana do agree on certain conclusions. It Is not
a narcotic, like heroin or morphine, since it is not
aa opium derivative. Its active element comes from
the flowering top of the cannabis hemp plant Wbea
its leaves are smoked, It is a mild hallucinogen,
capable of altering mood. Judgment, and functional
ability. Stronger effects are possible If its resia
(hashlfth) is smoked or shewed.
Marijuana Is not addictive and does not cause
physkui dependence, since tolerance to its effects
and symptoms of withdrawal do not occur, but it
can create psychological dependence and become habit
forming. It does not, in itself, leud to the use of
stronger drugs and Is considered weak when compared
with LSD, amphetamines, und barbiturates. Its intoxi
cant effect depends as much on the attitude of the
user and his setting us the strength of the dosage.
Marijuana is not toxic; no deaths have been attributed
directly to it in the United States. It (H-s wt produce
aggressive behavior but, rather, pussive, euphoric
tendencies. It Is not an aphrodisiac.
Less certain, however, are its long-term effects.
The three major studies muds In the past 75 years
conclude that use of murijuunu for extended periods
holds few dangers. The mont recent study, Britain's
"Report by the Advisory Committee on Drug
Dependence," stated last November:
"Having reviewed all tht material available to
us we find ourselves in agreement with the conclusion
reached by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission ap
pointed by the Government of India (1893-1894) and
the New York Mayor's Committee on Maijuana ( 1944),
that long-term consumption of cannabis in moderate
doses has no harmful effects."
But disagreement Immediately arises over whut
Is a moderate dose. The Federal Government, which
is critical of foreign research methods, willingly admits
its lack of knowledge on this aspect of marijuana
research.
There are two significant Impediments to modern
research In marijuana. One is its variable strength.
The plant that produces It, cannabis saliva L., varies
ih strength from one continent to another, and even
from one side of a marijuana patch to another. Can
nabis was fully synthesized In 1965, and since then
its active Ingredient, identified as tetrahydrocannabinol
THC, has served as the standard for determining
strength.
With THC as a basis, pharmacologist havt
determined that marijuana must have about 2 per
cent or more THC to be potent. Marijuana grown
in the United States varies from about .OS per cent
to 1.5 per cent Turkish marijuana is about 2 per
cent THC; Mexican marijuuna ranges from 2 per
cent to 4 per cent. Hashish may have as much
as 20 per cent THC.
Dr. Robert Petersen, research director at the
NIMH's Division of Narcotic Addiction and Drag
Abuse, poiuts out that "when you're comparing muri
juuna with alcohol, it can vary in strength anywhere
(rom 3.2 beer to 100 proof whiskey."
Researchers cite a second Impediment to their
efforts the difficulty In acquiring high-quality mari
juana. Since marijuana is an illegal substance and
the domestic version Is relativey weak, researchers
must depend on the Federal Government to allocate
them consignments of confiscated marijuana.
"The red tupe is terrible," suys a former resuiclier
ut NIMH. "I don't blame research people for working
on other drugs. It's eusler to get LSD or morphine.
The regulations are so difficult because no one wants
to take the responsiblity of giving permission to use
marijuana on humans."
The two cllndul experiments on human beings
most often cited by researchers because they are
the only ones recently conducted were made in
l8. Both have been criticized by NIMH for faulty
methodology.
In the spring of 1968 Andrew Well, Norman Zin
berg, and Judith Nelsen conducted a round of ex
periments on human subjects at the Boston University
School of Medicine and concluded that "It Is feasible
and sufe to study the effects of marijuana on human
volunteers who smoke in a laboratory." They reported
a moderate Increase in heart rate, reddening of the
eyes, but no change in pupil size, blood sugar, or
breathing.
A study comparing the effects of marijuana and
alcohol on driving performance was conducted by
the State of Washington's Department of Motor
Vehicles by Alfred Crancer, Jr., and associates at
the University of Washington Department of
Pharmacology. The result: Marijuana smokers could
operate a driver simulator as well when they were
"high" as when they were normal; when "high"
oo alcohol, however, their performance dropped 15
per cent.
With a rising clamor for research, the Federal
Government announced In January a marijuana
research plan to be supervised by NIMH. The program
is divided into a "supply phase," an "animal research
phase," and a "clinical research phase."
The supply phase will attemp to establish a central
source of marijuana and THC for research. Until
this system is In operation, researchers will continue
to apply for marijuana and THC through the NIMH,
which obtains confiscated marijuana from the Justice
Department's Bureuu of Narcotics and Dungerous
Drugs. A plot of land at the University of Mississippi
has been selected because of its similarity to climates
win which marijuana grows best, and samples of
U.S. Mexican, Turkish, French, Italian, and Swedish
marijuana are now being cultivated.
The animal research phase Is under way with
ine grants fur a variety of tests on animals. The
particular goal is to conduct acute and chronic toxicity
studies for an indication of possible cancerous and
hereditary developments In living cells as a result
of murijuuna use.
A primary Intention of the plan for human studies,
as well as comparing the effects of murijuuna with
those of other mind-ultering drugs, Is the development
of possible psychotherapeutic uses.
Proposals for possible therapeutic applications of
cannabis, as summarized by Dr. Tod II. Mikurlya
before the California Medical Association In Janury,
Include appetite stimulation, pain relief, antidepression,
tranquilizing, antiasthmatic, anesthetic, and antibotlc
uses. "The active constituents of cannabis appear
to have remarkably low acute and chronic toxicity."
Doctor Mikuriya said, "and might be quite useful
In the management of many chronic disease condi
tions." Dr. Stanely Yolles, NIMH director, said In Sep
tember that "further research Is needed to elucidate
more clearly both the short- and long-term effects
of marijuana use. The absence of good scientific data
should not lead to the assumption that long-term
use is harmless."
., R1"' ,feters,n describes research overseas as being
clinically Impressionistic." yet It is onsy in countries
with generations of marijuana use that accurate studies
on the drug's long-term effects can be made. To
achieve i this information the NIMH lesearch plan calls
for In-depth epidemiologic study of cannabis use in
the Middle East by a visiting team of qualified
researchers, though none has yet been funded or
begun.
"We need to know more about the pharmacology
of cannabis." Dr. Petersen concluded. "Also, we need
a broad body of good research. And, beyond that,
the question of values remains."
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