End to 'Prohibition' Urged By Sane Drug Committee

The recently-formed Committee for a Sane Drug Policy took public action for the first time yesterday and called for the legalization of marijuana.

George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology; Alan M. Dershowitz, professor of Law; Lester Grinspoon, associate professor of Psychiatry at the Medical School; and Harvey G. Cox, professor of Divinity, are members of the group, which was formed last December to work for reform of the drug laws.

Members of the group come from Boston business, legal, medical, and academic circles.

The Greater Boston Chapter of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, the Civil Liberties Union of Mass, and the Mass. Chapter of the Americans for Democratic Action endorsed the statement.

David R. Williams '72, the only undergraduate on the Sane Drug Committee, said yesterday that the group plans to launch an educational campaign to change the public's view of marijuana.

Williams said the committee is trying to build up support for a bill introduced to the State Legislature by Sen. Jack H. Backman to "take away any severe penalties, but not legalize the use of marijuana." Backman's bill-which deals comprehensively with all drugs-will be one of 30 bills on drugs considered by the Social Welfare Committee on March 9.

Grimspoon, co-chairman of the committee, said yesterday, "Marijuana is dangerous because it is a drug, but it is less dangerous than other commonly used drugs. The medical harm is not as great as the social harm that threatensyoung people with becoming deviant criminals."

Many of the adverse affects might be minimized through legalization, Grinspoon said. He emphasized the need for quality control over the strength of marijuana. Grinspoon has written a book on the subject, Marijuana Reconsidered, which will come out May 1.

Dershowitz said yesterday. "The time has come to set up priorities, We should concentrate on crimes that are really serious and broaches of the law that we can fight."

Five of the Marijuana Statement's points were:

"While present research is not exhaustive, there is considerable evidence that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco, and probably less so:

"Government interference with socially harmless private conduct is repugnant to our tradition of personal liberty and has led to dubious police practices which a democratic nation permits at its peril;

"Millions of young people have become alienated from our system of government in part because they perceive the marijuana laws to be arbitrary, hypocritical, and discriminatory:

"The lack of quality and potency controls and the failure to educate people in the responsible use of marijuana may actually have increased the incidence of adverse drug effects:

"Even if all the above were not true, the massive increase in marijuana use over the last decade in the face of draconian penalties demonstrates the futility of attempting to legislate private behavior. It is time to end this new prohibition."