Pusher says drugs are prominent
Most local pot dealers sell to friends
By MIKE SHEARER Kansan Staff Writer
(The first in a series of two articles)
Your pusher is your friend.
So says a campus undergraduate who says he has sold marijuana and various drugs including STP and LSD in Lawrence.
Lawrence pot and drug dealers do not lurk in the shadows of junior high schools waiting to stab the skinny arms of 13-year-olds with venomous syringes, he savs.
The student, who will be called Oliver, says most of Lawrence's pot and drug dealers sell "to friends and 'friends of friends.'"
Estimating about 30 people in Lawrence sell marijuana or various drugs, Oliver says few of these dealers make substantial profits because "they inevitably be busted if they keep it up for very long at all."
Oliver, who lists 10 drugs
which he has taken, says he began his association with the most prominent stimulant, marijuana, in the spring of 1967 when he and a friend found a marijuana plant growing near Frazer Hall.
"It wasn't very good," he said.
"We didn't get anything from it we had a good time talking and laughing about it though."
The first time Oliver got high from smoking pot was in a city where he bought from a Puerto Rican who was selling pot openly.
Good grass, marijuana, usually comes from Mexico or Columbia, Oliver says, where there is a more fertile marijuana climate, where the marijuana seeds can be chosen and where pot may be processed.
"You don't have to smoke as much as with Kansas grass," he explains.
Pot plants grow abundantly in the Lawrence area, he says, and some 50 pounds of grass was
harvested five miles from Lawrence last summer which was sold in Lawrence for from $40 to $60 a kilo. (A kilo is 2.2 pounds.)
Better pot, he says, brings better prices but the price of pot also depends on the number of dealers. Oliver says pot costs about $25 a kilo in parts of Texas and $250 a kilo in parts of Oregon.
Oliver began selling pot for a small profit as a front for a large dealer in Lawrence.
The local dealer gave Oliver and his friends a kilo of Mexican pot on credit. They divided the kilo between them, sold most of it and came out with six ounces apiece extra.
Oliver said he "gradually started making more and more contacts and selling more" so that his profits eventually paid his rent and bills.
Drugs other than marijuana he has used and sold have come
from other cities or from friends in Lawrence who could produce the stimulants with chemicals.
Oliver says he has dropped acid (taken LSD) 12 times and has sold it infrequently.
"I don't recommend anything and I'm not against anything," he says. "I just think people ought to do what they want to."
When asked if he had qualms about selling LSD after some reports on its dangers have been published, he said, "I'm more worried about residue poison preservatives in bread than I am about chromosome breakage from LSD."
Oliver says he has known several women who bore healthy children after dropping acid during pregnancy.
"Surveys about LSD are prejudiced in trying to influence people not to take it." he said.
He added he had "a lot of reliable information" that some branches of the United States military have experimented with
(Continued on page 12)
Photo by Bruce Hiles
79th Year. No.52 The University of Kansas一Lawrence, Kansas Wednesday, December 4,1968
ASC asks athletic department for 500 more student tickets
By TOM WEINBERG Kansan Staff Writer
All-Student Council (ASC) last night passed a proposal asking the KU athletic department to provide
Photo by Mike Gunther Christmas previews
Last week five members of the student council met with Wade Stinson, KU athletic director, to discuss the matter. Dave Miller, Eudora sophomore and scholarship hall representative, said Stinson told them at least 400 students requested tickets after they were sold out with one day of sales remaining.
an additional 500 student season basketball tickets. Increased student demand for the season tickets make the extra tickets necessary.
"There are several actions we could take," Miller said. "We could ask that the 500 single admission tickets be sold as season tickets and eliminate the sale of individual tickets since at only two basketball games last year the 500 tickets were
sold out, or we could ask for additional student season tickets."
Miller said a number of student season and individual tickets equal to half the capacity of the field house is allotted to students. There are 7,000 student season tickets and 500 50-cent single game tickets placed on sale at Allen Field House, Miller said.
Faculty members and their family pay $13 each for season tickets and members of the athletic boosters club, members who have contributed $100 or more to the athletic program and alumnae can obtain the tickets for $1.
Miller said the seating in Allen Field House is a matter of controversy. The athletic department
(Continued on page 12)
Disciplinary action possible for Riggins
Jayhawk tailback Franklin E. "Junior" Riggins, Centralia senior, faces possible disciplinary action stemming from an incident in which a KU coed was injured at the Jayhawk Cafe Monday night.
Coach Pepper Rodgers said this morning that a final decision on the matter would come early next week after the coaching staff confers. Several of the coaches are out of town recruiting players for the football team.
Rodgers said although "Junior has embarrassed us" there was no
--breach of training rules involved because the incident did not occur during playing time.
Weather
The U.S. Weather Bureau predicts partly cloudy weather for today and tomorrow. Temperatures should be warmer today and cooler tomorrow. Winds should be westerly from 10 to 20 miles per hour today. Today's high should be near 50 and tonight's low in the upper 20s. Probability of precipitation is near zero today and five per cent tomorrow.
A KU coed was admitted to Watkins Hospital with head cuts apparently received when she fell or was pushed to the sidewalk pavement outside the tavern at about 11 p.m.
Witnesses said Riggins joined the coed at her table, where she was celebrating her birthday with four girl friends. An argument started, beer was thrown and the coed slapped Riggins' face, she said. Later, outside, she fell or was pushed to the sidewalk.
Rodgers, who learned of the incident yesterday, would not speculate on the nature of the possible disciplinary action but did say Riggins would remain on the squad.
Donald K. Alderson, dean of men, said he was "aware of the situation" but declined to comment further.
The University, according to the Student Handbook, cannot take any disciplinary action because the incident did not happen on or adjacent to University property, and neither of the students involved was representing the University at the time.
UDK News Roundup By United Press International
Italian cities hit by riots
ROME—Demonstrators and police fought in the streets of two of Italy's largest cities last night. The battles climaxed a day of protests against the police slaying of two Sicilian strikers Monday.
At Milan, 2,000 demonstrators marched on police headquarters, hurling stones, paint cans and marbles at police defenders. Police fired tear gas into the crowd and arrested 20. About 30 persons were injured.
At Genoa, protestors stormed through the streets halting buses and blocking traffic for a half hour.
AMA discrimination killed
At the same time, the AMA's official attitude against cigarette smoking was slightly stiffened but recommendations for a flat condemnation of smoking and cigarette commercials on television were allowed to die.
MIAMI BEACH—The American Medical Association (AMA) formally outlawed racial bars to membership yesterday in a move that presumably will open the way to increased participation by Negro physicians in the nation's most powerful medical organization.
Sheppard sued by wife
CLEVELAND—Dr. Samuel Sheppard, who spent nearly 10 years in prison in the slaying of his first wife and then was acquitted of her death at a second trial, yesterday was sued for divorce by his second wife.
Mrs. Ariane Sheppard, who married Shepard in July, 1964, after corresponding with him while he was in prison, asked the court to enjoin him from threatening her with "great bodily harm."
Ted Sorenson is scheduled to open SUA speaker series
Ted Sorenson, former special counsel to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lydon B. Johnson, is scheduled to open the SUA Featured Speakers Series at KU Feb. 13.
Sorenson will discuss national student unrest on campuses at 2 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom, Bill Read, Coffeyville junior and featured speakers chairman, announced yesterday.
The former White House consultant also will speak at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC).
An assistant to Sen. John Kennedy from 1953 until he was elected President in 1960, Sorenson was named a Presidential advisor and remained in that capacity until 1964. He now is a member of a New York City law firm.
He was named one of 10 outstanding young men by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1961.
Sorenson is author of "Decision Making in the White House," published in 1963, and "Kennedy," published in 1965.