A YOUNG musician in Canada was found in bad condition by the police. He told them he had decided to try LSD because he no longer got “kicks” from marijuana. The result was a “bad trip” during which he shoved his fingers deep into his eye sockets because he “didn’t want to see what he was seeing.” He severely damaged both eyes, and doctors feared he would lose the sight of one of them.

One college student said that with marijuana “the mind is magnificently delighted by very simple situations or memoirs.” Some went farther by expressing a deeper purpose in their smoking, saying: Drugs “are our only means of feeling love in this debacle of self-destruction.” It is a “return to Eden,” and drugs are “instant paradise,” or “instant analysis of oneself.”

SOME FACTS AS TO MARIJUANA’S EFFECTS

Two questions are most frequently asked: Are users of marijuana likely to go to stronger drugs? Is marijuana itself dangerous?

Because the truth about marijuana has been shrouded in a “mist” of ignorance, and noting its epidemic spread, governments are establishing drug research commissions. In addition, research is carried on independently by a large number of scientists. What have they found? Does marijuana smoking lead to the use of heavier drugs?

A folder published by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare reports that “users of one illicit drug may be exposed to a variety of them through contacts with drug sellers and other users.” And under the heading “Latest Findings on Marijuana,” the U.S. News & World Report of February 1, 1971, states that “there is evidence that people who have come to lean on the drug for psychological reasons​—in the belief it will relieve tension and depression—​are likely to go on to stronger drugs.”

The physical dangers of the heavy drugs are well attested. As to marijuana, “sufficiently high doses . . . can cause unpredictable, acute​—although temporary—​psychotic episodes manifesting themselves in the form of illusions, hallucinations, paranoia, depression and panic,” says a report from the New York State Temporary Commission to Evaluate the Drug Laws. “In addition, preliminary research indicates that continued regular use of marijuana or extremely high dosages may cause liver damage, genetic defects, brain damage and upper respiratory ailment.” What sensible person would deliberately expose himself and his posterity to misery and a shortened life from these diseases?