Lenny Glaser Attacks Narcotics Laws

Rocking back and forth and waving his cigarette, Leonard Glaser tried last night "to give you a picture of a society that says, 'Undertaker wanted, no questions asked.' It stinketh." Glaser, National Representative of the Committee for Narcotics Reform, delivered a street-corner harangue at PBH, in which he jousted with American drugs laws and ended up lancing the world's sins.

Glaser claimed that people take drugs out of boredom. "There are people in the U.S. who are making money as entertainers by doing nothing but taking manure out of a barrel and throwing it at you.... Drugs don't make you smart, they don't necessarily make you happy, you can die from them, they cost. So what? They're there and they do something to you."

On the first test of the 1914 Harrison Law, which prevented doctors from giving drugs to addicts: "The cops finally arrested a pill roller who was running a shooting gallery. You come in, say, 'Doc, I got warts.' Bung he gives you heroin. He was a quack."

On New Orleans before marijuana was outlawed in 1937: "In the good old days, you were sure to get high in New Orleans."

On American hypocrisy: "The truth is that the people are living in an intellectual broom closet. In New York, you can't ask a man to go to bed with you, but if he offers you fifty dollars you're allowed to."

On liquor laws: "In San Francisco, kids come up to me and ask me to buy them a bottle of wine. I do it as a matter of principle, a kindness to a fellow human being."

On lawyers and marriage: "My first wife paid $300 to divorce me. My second wife is taking up a little annulment. Lawyers are glad to marry you cheap 'cause they know they'll get you when you're getting out."

On capitalism and Marxism: "The human race has been involved in folly for a very long time. . . . While I don't blame capitalism for having caused vices, I do condemn if for not having stopped them. . . . Think of the thousands of people standing in rows right now, collecting tolls. I tell you it's a psycho world. And the whole thing is going on for the classical reasons laid down by Mr. Marx. You've got to have money to get into the toilets in this country."