European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                La ration cop Hustles off a pro marijuana demonstrator from . Or was being wasted. The arrest of several children of state legislators on marijuana charges did not Hurt the  were arresting 3,000 or 4,000 a year so it did t take Long before it touched a lot of mammas and dad Dies said Doug times a Short haired insurance Man who led the crusade As local coordinator of Normal. I just started getting close to  meanwhile the state prison authorities began to Bac Reform. Alan Ault director of the department of corrections became uneasy a few years ago when As head of Georgia s prisons he saw Many suicide attempts by High school and College students who had been sentenced to prison on marijuana convictions. Many had been propositioned and raped almost As soon As they entered Testate s open dormitory prison buildings. Two of the suicide attempts were successful. That leaves a lasting impression on you said Ault who added. I Don t think prison was the proper place for these  moreover he began to sense the hypocrisy of his going Home and fixing a Martini after work. At an rate he said i was just getting the easy  top Law men agreed. If we Are going for the pushers then we Are not going to do it by Locking up a Bunch of kids said fairly the narcotics chief. We re got to  but the turning Point came with two recent Sei zures of Dine tons and 20 tons of marijuana. In both cases the suspects got Oil with Only suspended sentences and fines while other courts were still Send ing Young people to the Penitentiary for Selling an ounce or two to friends. You Send a kid up for five years for Selling a lid of grass and then some bum comes in with 20 tons from South America and walks out with a $15,000 Fine it makes you wonder what s going on fairly said. It just bred disrespect for the  concerns May also have played a role. Last year the Mississippi Bill did not even get out of commit tee and one of its foes was Stone d. Barefield a conservative representative from Hattiesburg. But recently a youth close to the Barefield family was sentenced to nine years for Sale of three Grams. This year Barefield emerged As one of the strongest backers of the Bill even offering an amendment reducing penal ties for Courtesy sales among friends. All this occurred against a National backdrop of Chang a finalization -1977 increasing use of marijuana pent to of Peota who have wet msrljuaha1973-77 by education a Yogi customs agents with 22-Pound catch in Texas. New York Tom ing attitudes toward a substance once labelled a killer Weed that caused insanity murder and rape. This was when its use was largely confined to politically powerless lacks and chicanes. These notions crumbled in the 1960s when usage reached what or. Norman Zinberg a drug authority at Harvard University has called a critical mass Mil Lions tried it without the predicted awful results. All the grounds for Tough treatment gradually eroded said prof Howard Becker of Northwestern University. The More research that is done the More obvious it is that none of the old wives tales Are  this realization he argued undermined the credibility of the Law and changed the Tenor of political discourse. Or. David f. Musto a Yale psychiatrist and historian of drug use said that today s attitudes Are the Mirror image of what they were in the 1930s, in that people Arenow hesitant to utter anything critical about marijuana. He said he had found that attitudes about drugs usually depended not on their the drugs effects but on the perceived effects on the groups that used  marijuana becoming the preferred drug of the educated and affluent he expressed some fear that its pos sible harmful effects would be ignored. Some lawmakers say they began to see marijuana in anew Light during the Antiwar years when it became a Symbol of Youthful rebellion. An aide to sen. Birch Dayhof Indiana a leading advocate of drug Reform said that the senator had become interested while attending col lege rallies. These were Dot crazy potheads freaks muggers and rapists but Normal Middle class adds said the aide. You could hardly go to a moratorium then without taking a breath and getting a Good puff your  but the Law has begun to change substantially Only now that marijuana has lost some of us rebellious drug Cul Ture connotations. This is not to say however that acceptance is Complete. Harsh penalties Are meted out in places like Wytheville a where Roger t. Davis a Young Black Man was sentenced to 40 years in 1974 for a Small Sale. A Federal judge recently ordered him re leased on the ground that the punishment was cruel and  in West Plains mo., Jerry Mitchell a 19-year-old College student is appealing a seven year sentence for a is Sale. Reform remains politically controversial As the new York situation illustrates. For political reasons. Connect Cut and new Jersey have still made few moves to ease their Laws. Adding to the political barriers is the fact disclosed in the new Gallup poll that the Public remains Misin formed. Fifty nine per cent said that marijuana was physically addictive and 59 per cent also Felt marijuana usage led to the use of harder drugs like heroin. But the Gallup figures show something else that strongly favors change. Attitudes toward marijuana depend heavily on age with the Young much More favourable than the old. This suggests that the inexorable forces of aging will bring what politicians cannot. Time is on their Side say people like Peter Meyers general counsel of Normal. Decriminalization is inevitable in the next three of four years he said. It s an idea whose time has  Ine 10, 1977 the stars and stripes Page is