STANLEY F. YOLLES, 81, U.S. MENTAL HEALTH CHIEF, NIXON FOE

New York -- Dr. Stanley F. Yolles, who as the nation's top official on
mental health in the 1960s denounced what he saw as ''stupid, punitive
laws'' on drug use and was eventually forced out by the Nixon
administration, died on Jan. 12 at University Hospital in Stony Brook, N.Y.
He was 81 and lived in Stony Brook.

The cause was emphysema, his family said.

Dr. Yolles was director of the National Institute of Mental Health from
1964 to 1970 and as such oversaw, among other things, research on illicit
drugs and efforts to treat addicts. He was a prominent voice in the
national debate over how to deal with the soaring use of marijuana and
other drugs by young people.

In testimony before House and Senate committees, Dr. Yolles argued that
strict laws failed as deterrents, and advocated abolishing mandatory
sentences and giving judges greater leeway in dealing with drug users,
especially first-time offenders. Of penalties for marijuana possession, he
said, ''I know of no clearer instance in which the punishment for an
infraction of the law is more harmful than the crime.''

His testimony was said to have helped persuade the Justice Department to
reduce penalties for marijuana, and it also angered the Nixon
administration, with which he had also battled over spending and the
direction of the institute. On June 2, 1970, the administration announced
that Dr. Yolles had been dismissed, the same day that he issued a letter of
resignation accusing the White House of ''abandonment of the mentally ill.''

Dr. Yolles' daughter Melanie said her father ''tried to work with the
administration, but it got to a point where they were totally opposed in
their ideologies.'' Hearing that he was about to be fired, she said, ''he
decided to issue his own pre-emptive strike."