Buckley Mulls Legalizing Marijuana - 1971
By Gordonskene Thursday Sep 10, 2009 12:31pm
(Legalizing Marijuana - Goes back to 1942)
Since the question of Legalizing Marijuana has started up again (or actually never really went away), I ran across this Firing Line episode from October 1971, with William F. Buckley, Dr. Lester Grinspoon and Lawrence McKinney discussing the facts and myths behind Marijuana as a drug and as a question of legalizing.
William F. Buckley: “If it were legalized and freely available, anybody who overdosed himself would be doing so intentionally, am I right?
Dr. Lester Grinspoon: “Yes absolutely. I would say that without a doubt . . . .
Buckley: “And what percentage of the people who . .who in fact use marijuana today, would you say, accidentally overdose themselves?
Grinspoon: “ Well it’s hard to say. The frequency of these reactions is not . . . these adverse reactions, is not very common . . . the data from the Haight-Ashbury clinic, demonstrates that it’s not very common. In something like 280,000 consecutive admissions to the Los Angeles County General Hospital there are only several . . . two or three . . . .three marijuana reactions. And two of them were due to injecting stuff into their veins . . . .it’s really . . .except for this – people at the Haight-Ashbury are very experienced, relatively experienced marijuana users. And they’re less likely to have an adverse reaction. It’s people who are inexperienced . . . .
