European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Catt tiled ton a sock Transf pot paraphernalia a $250 million a year Legal Industry dedicated to promoting an illegal substance. By Robert Reinhold new York times Here Are those who consider Mississippi socially backward but something startling happened there the other Day the Mississippi legislature voted to end criminal penalties for Possession of Small amounts of marijuana for per Sonal vote made Mississippi the last state to legalize Al Cohol one of the first to decriminalize marijuana put Ting it Well ahead of new is Best handled by the family 1 Don t know where the criminal Justice system fits said Kennethw. Fan Ley head of the stale s Bureau of narcotics explaining Why he backed the Bill. Besides he added his 50agents have better things to do than Chase kids blowing dope behind the High school gym the Story behind Why men like Ken fairly a Lawman for nearly three decades have begun to change their thinking about marijuana. Is the Story of a remarkable social transformation. While a Bill to lift criminal penalties for personal use has died in new York state it seems Only a matter of time before smoking marijuana almost anywhere in the United states will be hardly More serious an offence than playing Host to a loud r. Scarle the philosopher and social commentator at the univ Crity of California attributed the gradual official acceptance of the mood altering drug to its de Clining link to Radical unpopular emotionalism has worn he said. During the Vietnam War it was almost a political act to smoke now people take it on its own terms " Searle is one of the few on the Berkeley Campus who report that they have still not smoked almost nobody contends that marijuana causes insanity and murder any More medical experts continue to debate whether chronic use carries other More Subtle dangers such As sexual impairment brain damage an chromosome breakage much research up to now has been scientifically flawed. Conclusive answers await the results of new research going on in Many laboratories in just a dozen or so years marijuana has graduated from a feared substance used mostly by ghetto youths and Long haired freaks to a mild recreational drug Token regularly in Public and private by millions of Middle class americans not excluding doctors lawyers policemen and newspaper re Porter. Though nearly 500.000 persons a year Are arrested for marijuana infractions the Laws against use of the drug Are probably violated More widely than any now one can get zipped to the Gills in eight states Oregon Alaska Maine Colorado California ohioans Minnesota in addition to Mississippi risking no More than a $200 Fine in Maine and j100 elsewhere. But penal ties for trafficking and Sale remain harsh and full legalization like that enjoyed by alcohol seems Remote. A Gallup poll last month showed that one in every four adult americans and More than half under age 30, have tried marijuana. If so then 35 million have smoked it at least once not including teen agers. Other surveys suggest that 13 million Are current users and that there Are three million daily users of All is the Market that a Slick Magazine. High times circulates widely with articles such As How to get Highland influence people and with monthly Market quotations giving the current prices of such popular commodities As colombian grass thai Sticks. Nepal Csc hash and magic mushrooms in 17 cause of marijuana decriminalization has been taken up by a sophisticated Washington based group called the National organization for the Reform of Mari Juana Laws or Normal headed by Keith Stroup a medical experts continue to debate whether chronic use is harmful growing numbers on both so Deidre accepting Normal s argument that criminal penal ties for personal use Are unwarranted. Recently or. Peter Bourne president Carter s Nomi Nee to head the office of drug abuse policy told a Senate committee that he had smoked marijuana. He said thai he considered it safer than cigarettes and urged the re Moval of Federal criminal sanctions for Possession of less than one ounce. Or. Robert Dupont head of the National Institute drug abuse has urged a similar course for person cultivation of marijuana plants. And president Carter whose son Jack was expelled from the Navy for smoking the drug also favors decriminalization. All the social political and Legal forces or change were brought into Sharp Relief in Mississippi where the new Bill passed easily in april. The vote represented no endorsement of marijuana by the lawmakers who coupled the change with stiffened penalties. For dealing. Rather it represented a practical realization that tin old Law was unworkable and inequitable that Young live were being needlessly ruined that costly police Man pow Keith Stroup Heads group for Reform of marijuana Laws. Marijuana dec Page 14 the stars and stripes Friday. -i1
