Some Drug Penalties Lighter

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 13

Some Drug Penalties Lighter

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 29. The Senate, with a $3OOO packet of marijuana on the premises, voted yesterday to cut Federal penalties for the use and sale of drugs, ranging from marijuana to heroin, United Press International reported. The legislation, strongly backed by the Nixon Administration, would restrict drug traffic by crime syndicates, however, with stiff sentences for pushers. But under the bill, a college or high school youth, picked up at a “pot” party, would face a lighter maximum sentence than the present law provides and might even escape without any criminal record. Almost certainly for the first time in history, a “brick” of marijuana was introduced into the Senate Chamber. It sat oh Senator Thomas Dodd's desk during the day.

A number of senators went to examine—and sniff at—the marijuana.

The bill was approved and sent to the House on an 82 to 0 vote. It applies only to Federal sentences but the Administration, which endorsed it as part of anti-crime legislation, hopes it will set a precedent for state laws. A first offence for possession would carry a maximum sentence of one year and a $5OOO fine. A second conviction, two years and a $lO,OOO fine. A judge could suspend the sentence, grant probation, or even cancel the conviction. Present Federal law imposes a two-year to 10-year sentence for the first offence, with suspension or probation permitted, but a second conviction carries a mandatory five-year to 20-year prison term. The bill also provides that distribution of a small amount of drugs for personal use or sale without profit would be subject to a one-year term. A second conviction would call for a maximum of 10 years. The present law requires a mandatory five-year to 20year sentence even for selling a few marijuana cigarettes the first time. The bill, however, provides a five-year sentence for push-

ers for the first conviction and 10 years for the second. Senator Dodd, waving the “brick” which he said contained “about $3OOO worth,” warned the Senate to treat marijuana as a “gravely serious matter.” Senator Dodd said that a former Army sergeant came to his office early yesterday and claimed that while on marijuana he “found himself shooting at imaginary people and called a mortar barrage on his own people.” But Senator Harold Hughes, of lowa, said: “Without marijuana or any drug, I have been trigger-happy, shooting at things that didn’t exist because of the conditions of combat.”

In a letter to a newspaper an Army medical officer who served in Vietnam estimates that up to 30 per cent of the United States forces there have used marijuana—a figure far higher than official ones. Colonel John Kovaric, who

served as commander of a large evacuation hospital with the largest psychiatric team in Vietnam, made his estimate in a letter to a newspaper opposing any easing of restriction on marijuana. The letter, to the Washington “Evening Star,” was reprinted yesterday in the Congressional Record. In it he said that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the American soldiers in Vietnam had used marijuana at least once. He did not offer a breakdown between habitual users and those who smoked marijuana infrequently. Even so, his estimate was far above official Pentagon estimates that just five out of every 1000 men there have tried marijuana at least once. In his letter, Colonel Kovaric said that at least one soldier had murdered his friends while “under the influence of marijuana and doing his own thing.” He did not elaborate.