WORLD PONYTAIL WAR III

Paul Dougan is almost right when he says the drug laws were the result of
"prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance" ("War on ponytails," Speaking Out,
Feb. 28). Dougan left out "ignorance and nonsense."

For example, the U.S. Official Expert on marijuana from 1938 to 1962
testified in court, under oath, that marijuana could make your incisors
grow six inches long and drip with blood and, when he tried it, it turned
him into a bat. (Surely, everyone who has been to a good party has seen
these awful effects.)

In 1973, President Nixon's U.S. National Commission on Marihuana and Drug
Abuse conducted the largest study of the drug laws ever done. At the end of
their research they concluded that the real drug problem in America was not
marijuana, or heroin, or cocaine. The real drug problem, they said, was the
ignorance of our public officials who have never bothered to read any of
the most basic research on the subject. As anyone can see from just reading
the newspaper, it is still true.

Clifford A. Schaffer,

Director, DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy