Attention hippies
Drugs turn society off
On the pages of today's Daily Kansan, you may read stories about the use—and misuse—of marijuana, LSD, et al, on this campus.
If you are one of the campus hippies, or a member of the campus "in" crowd, such stories should not shock you. If you are hip, you have known for some time that students do smoke pot and blow their minds on acid on this campus
In fact, if you are a hippy, your only worry is that someday, you, or one of your friends, may be arrested or interrogated by the Federal Narcotics Bureau or the Bureau of Drug Abuse and Control.
Realizing such a possibility, your protests may be many.
If you are a legitimate pot head,you will argue that the weed is no more dangerous than rot gut booze,no more habit-forming than cigarettes.
But in your campaign to legalize your particular vice, you will ignore your own fallacious logic. You will ignore the error that one vice may be righteously added to another.
Aside from such moral judgments—and moral judgments are really the worst kind for society to make—you will ignore the impact of your vice on society as a whole.
In defense of pot, you may forget the effect in a sociological sort of way—that your cause celebre could produce upon society unaccustomed to the vagaries of marijuana.
If you defend LSD or other such psychedelics before society's court, your defense weakens. After all, you are aware of what can go wrong with improper use of the drug. You know why a guide must be provided for a user's first "triple."
Nevertheless, you may find a defense under the catch-all umbrella of experimentation.
In such a defense, you have found justification.
You have not, however, found safety.
For under the law, you have erred. You have become the perpetrator of a proven danger to health and safety. Worse, you have violated the public's—and the people's—morals.
You are liable to proper arrest.-Dan Austin
If you take a 'trip' now you may pay later
By EMERY GOAD
LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) is beginning to boom in the nation's colleges, universities, and high schools.
"It looks like LSD is catching on at the colleges," Fred Knoblich, assistant director of the Kansas City field office of the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BDAC) said.
LSD Can Kill
LSD is an hallucinogenic drug, illegally eaten, inhaled, or injected by drug abusers.
- Last month Santa Cruz, Calif., police reported a 19-year-old man nearly rammed a school bus just after taking two LSD capsules.
- Amounts of LSD as small as 1/280,000 of an ounce causes symptoms ranging from hallucination, distortion, and intensification of sensory perception to panic, impulses to violence, and suicidal acts.
- In January an 18-year-old musician killed himself with a shotgun. Authorities believe it was caused from a dose of LSD taken two months earlier.
Effects unpredictable
Four teenagers were arrested near Los Angeles a short while ago after their car rammed a house, killing a 3-year-old girl. Police said the driver seemed to be in a trance and kept yelling, "I'm a graham cracker."
The effects, which commonly last from 10 to 12 hours, are totally unpredictable. One's pupils become dilated to the
extent that he has to protect his eyes at night, even from the dark.
The seriousness of the side effects of LSD, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "... is documented by successful suicides, serious suicide attempts, prolonged psychoses, and even a homicide."
The fact that prompt medical treatment may prevent serious complication, "is not necessarily true," the magazine reports. "In fact . . . it can make the LSD condition worse."
LSD most dangerous drug
The drug is similar to other hallucinogenic drugs found in nature. Among them are marijuana and mescaline or peyote, which is available from a cactus plant.
Dr. Donald B. Louria, chairman of the New York County Medical Society reports that of all drugs, LSD is the most dangerous. Recently Dr.James F. Goddard, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration sent letters to 2,000 colleges and universities cautioning them against," untold numbers of students who may suffer permanent mental or physical damage from LSD."
Commonly found in sugar cubes or tablets, LSD also appears in capsules, liquids, and even on toothpicks.
Governmental agents report that if one had a tablet of pure LSD the size of an aspirin and sold it in normal doses at the
going rate of $5, one could make up to $25,000.
High schools may be next
"I wouldn't be surprised if LSD was in the high schools," Knoblich said. Medical journals also speculate that just as the drug hit the colleges only two years ago, so too it has become "the thing" among younger students.
And, as the illegal usage spreads, the results continue to mystify and astound the experts.
Federal agents relate stories of one man who suffered an epileptic fit while under the influence of LSD. The man broke two vertebrae before he was controlled.
Many persons, officials say, have never returned to reality following a "trip."
2
OTHER CAMPUSES
Daily Kansan editorial page Thursday, March 30, 1967
Illegal usage reports frequent
The University of Kansas is one of many colleges and universities across the nation where the possible abuse of illegal drugs is being investigated by federal and state authorities.
One school newspaper in the Big Eight Conference has encountered some difficulties in an expose of drug activities on their campus.
Articles written by University of Missouri students about illegal use of marijuana have been called erroneous by the Boone County, Missouri, grand jury.
AN ARTICLE IN THE MANEATER, the weekly student newspaper at MU, stated that a probable 25 per cent of Columbia's student population has tried "blowing pot." The article appeared Oct. 5, 1966.
Another story in the Columbia Missourian, the daily laboratory newspaper published by the MU school of journalism, Nov. 13, 1966, said that five college girls had been dismissed for smoking marijuana cigarettes and that county officials seemed unwilling to or were pressured about taking legal action against them.
The grand jury said the articles were "inaccurate." The jury added, "The articles have been misleading and harmful to Beone County and to the university and are a disservice to readers who have been misled by the erroneous information."
Two additional arrests for illegal possession of marijuana had been made recently in Columbia.
***
At Kansas College, Wichita State University, a group of students, some admitted users of the hallucinogenic drug LSD, were reported to be forming a local lodge of the Neo-American Church.
THE CHURCH WAS FOUNDED by Dr. Timothy Leary and other advocates of the drug.
James Ewan, 21, a WSU political science student from Pasadena, Calif., said he has received confirmation for the church from the main lodge in New York City.
Ewan said the local group may have a membership of as many as 15 students.
University officials said the school did not have any knowledge of such an organization and reserved statements on university policy toward such a group pending an official investigation.
***
The Wayne State University Daily Collegian, Detroit, Mich. recently reported the arraignment of six Wayne students for possession and sale of marijuana.
They were among 13 WSU students and one faculty member arrested in a raid. Altogether 53 persons were arrested during the six-hour raid, police said.
THE STUDENTS arraigned are subject to suspension, according to a University official. Inspector Joseph Brown of the Detroit Narcotics Bureau said this was not an organized syndicate, but that investigation would continue.
"Those arrested were all stereotyped." Brown said. "The girls had long straight hair; the men were dirty, and had beards."
An award-winning article in The Diamondback, University of Maryland daily newspaper, reported that drugs were easily obtainable on campus.
"While drugs users definitely exist at the University, they are far too diverse to be stereotyped. They participate in every kind of student activity, from fraternity life to student government to beauty contests, and hold every kind of political opinion," the story said.
Pep pills, amphetamines lead to serious penalties
Call them "bennies,""roses" or "co-pilots," they're all stimulants and they are all illegal.
Other stimulants, such as morning glory seeds, readily available from many Lawrence florists, give students a "thrill." They can produce hallucinatory effects for shorter lengths of time than LSD.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansas
Suspected of being taken for this purpose in Lawrence, the stimulants are expected to be on the "wanted" list under governmental control agencies soon.
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The amphetamines, (bennies and co-pilots) are used by truck drivers to stay awake at night on long runs.
They stimulate the nervous system, producing excitement, alertness and increased initiative and activity. Because the body develops a tolerance to these drugs, abusers increase their dosages gradually, which exaggerates the normal effects of the drugs. They can produce delusions and hallucinations, both auditory and visual.
The pills are generally heart- or oval-shaped. They can be double-scored tablets, of various colors. Actually they are made of amphetamine sulfate, or dextroamphetamine sulfate.
According to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Section Two, "any drug which contains any quantity of amphetamine or any of its optical isomers; any salt of amphenamine or any salt of an optical isomer of amphetamine; or any substance which by regulation has been designated as habit forming because of its stimulant effect on the central nervous system; or any drug which contains any quantity of a substance which by regulation has been designated as having a potential for abuse because of its depressant or stimulant effect on the central nervous system or its hallucinogenic effect . . . is illegal."