Lisa Bieberman Held on Charge Of Mailing LSD

Alice G. (Lisa) Bieberman '63 was arraigned yesterday in U.S. District Court for illegally shipping LSD through the mails.

In a criminal information filed in Boston, Federal authorities charged that Miss Bieberman had allegedly sent sugar cubes containing the hallucinogenic drug to Los Angeles and Lawrence, Kansas in violation of the U.S. Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics Act.

Two of the information's four counts claimed that Miss Bieberman had transmitted LSD across state lines without adequate direction for its use or adequate warnings of its hazard to health. The information also charged that she had failed to get the license required for interstate transportation of LSD.

If convicted on all four counts Miss Bieberman faces a possible penalty of one year in jail and a $1000 fine for each count. She is the first person in New England to be prosecuted for an LSD violation of the federal law.

Information Center

Miss Bieberman, a resident of 26 Boylston St., Cambridge, runs a one-woman organization called the Psychedelic information Center for users of LSD and similar drugs. Her main aim is to bring psychedelic information out into the open because she believes people can use psychedelics constructively in their daily lives.

Recently she solicited volunteers for a nationwide Psychedelic Telephone Directory because, she said, during "sessions" when the urge to call arises "there should be someone more appropriate to phone than your mother, your ex-girl, or your psychiatrist."

New Laws

Nevada and California became, on Monday, the first states to legislate against the use of LSD. Both states allow LSD to be employed in scientific research or in supervised medical care, but prohibit unlicensed manufacture, general sale, or possession of the drug.

Governor Edmund G. Brown said California had acted, because the "mind-expanding" drug "poses a growing threat to society -- particularly to young thrill seekers unaware of the damage it can do."

Opponents of the California bill nearly succeeded in defeating it. They claimed that making LSD illegal would be an added incentive to its use.

Timothy Leary, former lecturer in Clinical Psychology, termed anti-LSD laws "hysterical" and "unrealistic." He proposed that Brown try LSD to "discover first-hand why the young people of his state are willing to risk prison to expand their consciousness."