Marijuana Turning On

THERE'S finally a book about dope that you can unreservedly recommend to your parents. For that matter, Marihuana Reconsidered should be read by legislators, health officials, PTAs-and anyone else whose views on marihuana are based on misinformation and institutionalized myths. Dr. Grin-spoon's book is a comprehensive review of the important literature on marihuana; using a critical, scientific approach. Grinspoon evaluates the marihuana experience, discounts the credibility of the anti-dope crusaders, and concludes that marihuana should be a socially-and legally-permissible drug.

Marihuana Reconsidered, however, is definitely not an apologia for general narcotic or hallucinogenic drug use. Grinspoon's careful exposition of cannabis chemistry and physiological action is much too specific to be applied to other drugs. In fact, one targer of Grinspoon's book is current legislation which groups marihuana with dangerous narcotics and hallucinogens, thereby creating the public impression that marihuana's physiological and social effects are the same as those of the more serious drugs.

MARIHUANA users will find parts of this book fascinating as an insight into personal experiences with the drug: Grinspoon's analysis of cannabis chemistry explains how different types of dope-grown in different climates, harvested in different circumstances-may induce different physiological responses. The stoned experience will then have a great deal of variance due to the chemical composition of weed from a particular crop.

Different kinds of experience in response to different settings are not so easily explained physiologically, but Grinspoon is a psychiatrist and he offers an intriguing analysis of the psychological variants involved in dope taking. Much of the scare literature charges that marihuana causes psychoses, psychic dependence, or "personality deterioration." Grinspoon refutes these charges, and even suggests that the psychological problem may belong to the anti-dope crowd, attributing the zeal for prohibition to "displacement" and anxiety symptoms common to a stressful society.

Grinspoon's consideration of "turning on" offers a good example of his analytical style. Observing that the first-time user rarely gets high. Grinspoon reviews the literature dealing with the first experience and considers both the physiological and the psychological angles. Physiologically, there is the possibility of a "pharmacological sensitization" that takes place, a phenomenon which could account for the so-called reverse tolerance-the fact that less dope is needed to get high by a regular user. Psychologically, a learning process may be taking place where the user learns to recognize himself as having peculiar sensations and as "having fun" while doing it. The sociogenic aspect of marihuana use-its proliferation in group situations-introduces the sociology of group and ritual participation into the analysis: Grinspoon appends the observation that a shift in attitude favorable to marihuana use usually takes place in ambivalent, mildly opposed, or uncertain individuals after smoking a few times.

GRINSPOON outlines the properties of cannabis intoxication in a catalogue which, as he admits, is overly comprehensive. The user will recognize his own experiences, but the non-user may be confused or frightened by the vast array of documented responses. There is a valuable point, however, to such a list. If the psychopharmacological mechanisms of cannabis intoxication are to be known, characteristics of the experience which are common to many users can be tied together in the search for a physiological function for marijuana. Grinspoon suggests such a connection:

Again the interconnections of many of the effects of cannabis is apparent: speech impairment of or disruption, in' fact, can be viewed as a secondary effect of the more important and basic effects on memory, general mentation, distortion of time perception, and, perhaps, "chemical age-regression."

In addition, somewhere in any biochemical scheme, the "general disinhibiting capacity of cannabis" will have to be accounted for.

Large sections of Marihuana Reconsidered are directed to a general, non-scientific audience. A long chapter is devoted to early literary accounts of cannabis intoxication by French writers such as Charles Baudelaire, Pierre Gautier, Bayard Taylor and Fitz Hugh Ludlow. For balance, Alan Ginsberg is given equal billing.

A BRIEF history of world-wide use of cannabis and the methods used for harvesting is included, and Grinspoon makes a point of refuting the "Assassins" myth which attributes the origin of the name "hashish" to a band of eleventh century Persian warriors who (so the story goes) got high before battle. Grinspoon also sharply criticizes the AMA and in particular the anti-grass bias of the AMA journal:

The fact of the matter is that during the year 1969 the information on the subject of cannabis available in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" was less useful and credible than that published during the same period by the magazine "Playboy."

Grinspoon also mentions the role of racism in the history of marihuana repression in this country. Punitive legislation was enacted in the 1930s when most users were black, Mexican and Puerto Rican, and when marihuana use was publicly identified most strongly with black jazz musicians.

Grinspoon tries hard, too, to explain the explosion of dope use among college students. At times, his characterization of the "Now generation" becomes overly lavish:

As experiencing the physical world comes more and more to mean bumper-to-bumper travel through neon corridors and foul air to beaches slicked with oil and cesspools that were once rivers and lakes, the attraction to a fantasy of internal travel to now experiences becomes more compelling.

It must be said, though, that the book gives the escapist and sensual aspect of dope-taking a fair hearing as already mentioned, though, Grinspoon's list of responses is overly comprehensive to the point of possibly confusing or frightening the non-user.

Dope-smokers have long argued that the only harmful aspect of marihuana use is the possibility of being busted. Grinspoon agrees, and Marihuana Reconsidered makes a strong case for the legalization of marihuana. Grinspoon argues that grass should be legally available to people over 18 years old in cigarettes of controlled potency. No attempt is made to contend that marihuana is actually beneficial. . Rather, the argument for legalization is based on Grinspoon's conclusion that cannabis is-both psychologically and physiologically-less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.

MARIHUANA Reconsidered will make a lot of people angry. Grinspoon ridicules researchers who perform studies on biased samples (for example, taking subjects from mental institutions instead of a cross-section of the population), and he derides government agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health which propagate ignorance about drugs. (Remember the "Happy 21st Birthday Johnny" ads that showed a 30-year-old Harvard grad with make-up as a supposed speed-freak?)

Most criticism of Marihuana Reconsidered will likely argue that it is still too early to decide about the dangers of dope since "all the facts aren't in." Grinspoon disagrees with this attitude, arguing that enough experiments have been done to create a "strong impression" of the relative (to tobacco and alcohol) safety of marihuana. Meanwhile, the harm to young people done by punitive legislation and the harm to legal institutions caused by attitudes of mistrust among dope users are more damaging than the social use of marihuana could ever be.