Clearing pot shot ideas

By D. F. Cropp

An appeal for a rational attitude toward drugs and drug "addiction" was made recently to the Royal Society.

Mr Henwood, a toxicologist with the DSIR, and Dr Dobson, a psychologist from Christchurch, were addressing the monthly meeting of the biology section of the society.

Mr Henwood said that LSD makes sense impressions much stronger than normal and relations between the senses were disabled.

This was an utterly indescribable experience he explained —one could "see" a smell and "hear" a colour.

Even though muscular co-ordination was greatly impaired, the main effects were mental and sensory rather than physical.

The harmful effects of LSD and marijuana were virtually the same as for any type of drug where behaviour went out of conscious control—as with alcohol.

But there was no evidence that the drugs were harmful in other ways. For example there was no conclusive evidence for the much-reported genetic damage resulting from LSD.

Dr Dobson summed up the psychological effects of these drugs and outlined the cause of addiction.

"LSD and marijuana aren't 'addictive' in the normal physical sense," he said, "but people become socially dependent on them—especially if they are taken to bolster up an already inadequate or neurotic personality."

Both speakers strongly emphasised that very little is yet known about the effects—either mental or physical —of drugs on human beings.

"We must not let moralists prevent valuable research into the good—and evil—effects of these drugs," they concluded.