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Show Marijuana report results liberalization or reaction absurd penalties. Research: seen has indicated the eft alcohol are more serious those of marijuana and i, the lives of more people fl, concerning mariiuan;, Editor's note: This is the hrst of a tw0-part series article on marijuana. The series will deal with reactions to the recommendations recom-mendations the National Commission on Mamuana made and interviews with students at the University who have used marijuana. By JAMES A. NELSON and SUSAN MITCHELL Chronicle Staff At least 24 million American, 12-years-old and over, have tried the controversial drug, marijuana, at least once. Nearly one-eighth ot the American population has lit K. ' ' C r ' ! pj Jh0"-" I "" i CT &.-.. i - '-it; ) 7 CAPT. GARTH WILKINSt . . 'mistake to legalize' proportion. What the conr is trying to do evident!, with the fact the courts art. a lot of young people r records for an offense tit: to be mainly a crime i victims. I would eventual?, major Pat Wood, mentioned this, but said: "It's a good start though ike getting to the end of prohibition. But it's also good that they are moderate at first instead of leaping from strict prohibition to legalization. If these recommendations should become law it will help ease the, pressure on police and courts. ' Another education major, senior Yvonne Price, felt, "The objectives ob-jectives of the report seem to be toying against each other. The matter should be either completely com-pletely open or completely shut off. I beleive no one has the right to legislate morality and if marijuana is considered morally. -I see it in the same light as alcohol, whether a person uses it should be regulated by themselves." Jim Saylor, a freshman architecture architec-ture major, offered his own solution solu-tion to the paradox. "I believe the government should legalize marijuana and become the selling agent. There is a lot of crime related to drugs and drug pushing. The control of marijuana by the government would help get the drug-related crime off the streets." Captain Garth Wilkinson of the University police department said about the commission report: "I feel it would be a mistake to legalize it. Alcohol is a killer. I don't see any sense to legalizing something that could be bad. A person smoking it in their home is like the person showing pornographic por-nographic movies. The people that must leave a house and go home after seeing movies or smoking marijuana, well, a lot would suffer by it. I don't think you can legalize it partially." Dewey Fillis, assistant chief of police for the Salt Lake. City Police Department, said about the drug problem and legalizing marijunana: "We go by the laws and marijuana is not legal now. Their findings are reverting back to bootlegging. We still have problems here in the city. We ' ) L DR. STEWART PROCTOR. . . . . 'reduces absurd penalties' up on pot and 8.3 million are current users. The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recently issued its report on the use of marijuana in this country. The commission study found that more than 40 percent of college and graduate students have tried marijuana. On the University campus there were . varied opinions on the report. The commission had 13 members. Nine of them, considered conservative, con-servative, were appointed by President Nixon. The report says, in effect, that marijuana possession for personal use should no longer be a criminal offense. The commission also recommended the laws against casual distribution of small amounts of marijuana for no profit be eliminated. The commission did favor the retention of heavy penalties for cultivation, trafficking and possession with intent to sell. Use in public would be a criminal offense and the drug, if found in public, would be contraband and subject to seizure. Many questions have arisen concerning the commission's recommendations. The President immediately opposed the suggestions and said he is against legalizing something half-way, as he believes the commission's report advocates. Other critics have questioned the commission's com-mission's findings saying they will damage society and that the report is communist-inspired. The report consists only of recommendations recom-mendations and before they can ever become law they must be passed by Congress and approved by the President. Several students mentioned the paradox of the report's recommending recom-mending the legalization of marijuana for privafi use but making it a criminal offense to grow A sophomore education T - . YVONNE PRICE... ... .'objectives against erf see marijuana legality controlled like other tin; as alcohol and tabacco Je Ken Keiser, an instalh sociology and social wo Ji University, worked fa' on the drug problem. Dj investigation and wort" area of impairment he la person was a temporal; color perception. "I lf marijuana will eventu legalized, but gradual redefinition of values." is most likely the first direction." ' Presently, the issue of!: " marijuana is still one much heated debate I about changing ; governing marijuana Jf be out in the open w people are against W and there are those presence. The secret hearing mission held had industry" testifying use of the drug were doctors, I ' heads and other , : people. If anyone ij , of mamuana is w volves all strata 0 : usr;5 long-term affecton aF ; society. JIM SAYLOR. . . 'government should be agent' would like to help the people involved with drugs. We now face the hard-core drugs and their pushers. 1 do believe the whole thing is undergoing a change. The laws may eventually be changed, to a certain extent. We, however, must enforce the current laws." In contrast, Dr. Stewart Proctor, assistant professor of psychology and assistant clinical professor ol psychiatry at the University agrees with the recommendation. "It should be helpful in reducing |