‘MARIJUANA CANNOT BE STANDARDISED’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32067, 15 August 1969, Page 22

‘MARIJUANA CANNOT BE STANDARDISED’

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 14. . Marijuana, if legalised, would provide the key to instant intoxication, instant promiscuity and instant antisocial behaviour that the user himself may otherwise disapprove of, said the superintendent of Oakley Hospital (Dr P. P. E. Savage) today.

Dr Savage said the social effects of marijuana were no different from the social effects of alcohol, but marijuana acted much more quickly, making the user silly,! giggly, restless, unsteady and leaving his moral sense much! blunted. A person would have to drink a lot more, over a lot longer period and at much greater expense to get into the same condition. Marijuana removed inhibitions quickly and easily, opening the way to free sexual behaviour, violence and quarrelsomeness. In small doses marijuana, like alcohol and tobacco, was, possibly not medically] harmful. But alcohol was al highly standardised drug and] the drinker knew exactly howl much he was getting and, I from experience, how much! he could take. “Social Evil”

“I defy anybody to standardise marijuana, as it is now smoked, and accurately to work out how many puffs make you socially acceptable and how many make you dis-'

j gustingly drunk,” said Dr .; Savage. ’ “The fact that about li per -cent of Auckland University ’: students want marijuana I| legalised can hardly be taken i by the community as a whole ■ as a signal to add another .'social evil to the temptations ■ young people must inevitably . I face," he said. I [The Auckland University I I Students’ Association voted at its annual meeting on Tuesday to call on the Govern1 rnent to legalise the use of ■ marijuana.] 1 “I would feel much happier ' to think young people were constructively facing chal- ’ lenges rather than making ■ available easy methods of I dulling and avoiding them. “This is what marijuana does. It provides a bolt hole I i from reality.” Harder Drugs Dr Savage said that although about 25 per cent of his patients who started on I marijuana went on to harder drugs not all marijuana users ; were going to become “hard ! takers.” But once a person started on marijuana he faced two dangers. The first was a psychological dependence. “You grow to like the drug and feel you can’t do without

ft,” said ■ Dr Savage. “It becomes a way of life and an easy escape from any challenges or hardships. “Also, once you have tasted one of these drug-induced intoxications you are liable to go looking for more on different types of drugs.” The second danger was that the marijuana user advertised himself to the underworld as a person interested in drug taking and thus a possible target for pushing on to harder and more expensive drugs. Even if the drug were legalised, the user would still be in the vulnerable group that would interest the pusher. Readily Available Dr Savage agreed that marijuana was now readily available —illegally—to anyone who wanted it, but he was nonetheless certain that legalising it and bringing it into the open would not solve any problem. “I think drugs can be controlled. I keep fairly careful statistics of drug-takers in the group I come across and I have noticed that since police vice squads and customs rummage squads have increased their activities the numbers coming forward have been smaller.

Dr Savage said that in places where marijuana was taken freely—like India and the Middle East—a true mental illness, known as cannabis psychosis, resulted from using it continuously. No civilised country that he knew of had legalised its use. The World Health Organisation had been unable to make out a case for its legalisation, even on nuisance value.