Behavior: Pop Drugs: The High as a Way of Life

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to deal with the problem. Drugs have become so painful an issue between parents and their children that when Mr. and Mrs. Jones discover that a child of theirs is turned-on or freaked-out, they may find themselves, dazed and uncomprehending, turning him over to the police. Pop drugs hardly portend anything as drastic as a new and debauched American spirit, as some alarmists believe. But drug use does reflect some little-recognized shifts in adult American values as well as the persistent unwillingness of youth to accept the straight world. The mounting research on drugs permits some new perspectives on their use and abuse; still, the pop-drug scene is, if anything, more than ever clouded by fear, dismay and mistrust.

Penalties and Harvests

The majority of users are experimenters, who take a drug several times and quit. Even if the users who are heavily dependent on these drugs (perhaps somewhat less than 2,000,000) are combined with addicts (about 100,000), the sum is smaller than the estimated national total of 6,000,000 alcoholics. Some experts even maintain that the "drug problem" has become the "drug-problem problem"—one more distorted priority diverting attention from real national needs.

The issues were aired last week as the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency began hearings to consider new legislation on drugs. The Nixon Administration's bill would permit authorized policemen to break in unannounced on suspected violators so that they could not destroy potential evidence. This is the "no-knock" tactic that some lawmen say is most likely to be employed against drug users. The bill would also restore the tough Federal penalties for simple possession of marijuana recently ruled invalid on technical grounds by the Supreme Court. The bill has drawn sharp opposition from experts who believe that marijuana is a considerably less dangerous drug than speed, LSD or heroin, and should be recognized as such. The bill contains only slim provisions for drug research and education and none at all for rehabilitation of addicts. Meanwhile the Administration launched "Operation Intercept" (see box, p. 70), described by officials as the largest search-and-seizure operation ever conducted by civil authorities in peacetime, in an attempt to stem the flow of drugs from Mexico.

Marijuana and other pop drugs come from many other sources, not the least the U.S. itself. U.S. Cannabis—if not as choice as the Mexican variety—grows wild throughout the Midwest. In Nebraska alone last week, an estimated 115,000 acres of it were nearly ready for harvesting—by any would-be pot-gatherers who could sneak by the police. Yet despite the plenitude of "Tennessee blue" and "Bethesda gold," rising demand for pot in the U.S. has recently been a major factor in producing a marijuana famine in many U.S. cities. Many authorities say that the dearth of pot is prompting users to take up harder drugs like amphetamines or even heroin.

A recent Administration task force "conservatively" estimated that at least 5,000,000 Americans have used marijuana at least once. Dr. Stanley Yolles, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, puts the total far higher: at least 12 million, and perhaps even 20 million. Pot is, of course, most widely used by the young. Yolles estimates that