AUTHOR CARL SAGAN WROTE ABOUT DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM MARIJUANA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The late astronomer and author Carl Sagan was a secret
but avid marijuana smoker, crediting it with inspiring essays and scientific
insight.

Using the pseudonym "Mr. X", Sagan wrote about his pot smoking in an essay
published in the 1971 book "Reconsidering Marijuana." The book's editor,
Lester Grinspoon, recently disclosed the secret to Sagan's biographer, Keay
Davidson.

Davidson, a writer for the San Francisco Examiner, revealed the marijuana
use in an article published in the newspaper's magazine Sunday. "Carl Sagan:
A Life" is due out in October.

In "Mr. X", Sagan concealed his identity further by saying he was in his
early 40s. In fact, he was 37.

In the essay, Sagan said marijuana inspired some of his intellectual work.

"I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in
which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities pf racism in terms of
gaussian distribution curves," wrote the former Cornell University
professor. "I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write
the idea down.

"One idea led to another and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard
work, I found I had written 11 short essays on a wide range of social,
political, philosophical and human biological topics ... I have used them in
university commencement speeches, public lectures and in my books."

Grinspoon, Sagan's closest friend for 30 years, said Sagan's marijuana use
is evidence against the notion that marijuana makes people less ambitious.

"He was certainly highly motivated to work, to contribute," said Grinspoon,
a psychiatry professor at Harvard University. Grinspoon is an advocate of
decriminalizing marijuana.

John C. Lilly, a dolphin researcher, said Sagan turned down offers to try
LSD, the hallucinogen, and ketamine, an anesthetic.