Brown and White Vol. 82 no. 47

              lehigh university brown and white vol 82 - no 47 bethlehem pa friday may 7 1971 866-0331 doctor calls marijuana enemy's secret weapon by walter wilczynski albert a laverne m.d a psychiatrist who testified for the defense in the court martial of lt william calley labeled the use of drugs including marijuana as equivalent to an enemy's secret weapon in his talk entitled the military marijuana and murder laverne said that we could have won the war by now if the government and the military had realized the effect of drugs on men in combat situations laverne also included the factors of physical and psychological stress with chemical stress or stress due to drug use he said that these three stresses were significant factors impeding u.s progress in southeast asia laverne said that these factors especially the drug stress caused impairment of judgment decrease in coordination and a breakdown in a soldier's control releasing violence such violence said laverne rould manifest itself in atrocities such as the one at my lai smoke affects non-users laverne stressed drug use particularly the use of marijuana as the biggest problem laverne said that one does not have to smoke marijuana to feel its effects all that one has to do he said is to be in an enclosed area where marijuana is being used the smoke in the air being potent enough to get a person high he stated that he had experimented with the effects of inhaling marijuana smoke from the air and that a few of the subjects who were mainly vietnam veterans showed " psychotic reactions although most had only marginal impairment in reference to a chart he had showing the aberration of two individuals approaching the psychotic level laverne said in most of the cases studied there were no clinically detectable aberrations and only a small percentage reached the detectable range but he claimed marijuana can be dangerous in military situations more serious than my lai laverne called drug use among americans in vietnam in many ways more serious then the atrocities at my lai because it caused fighting inefficiencies that resulted in american casualties he said that the drug problem would also have to be eliminated among south vietnamese people if vietnamizatlon is to succeed la verne's remark that neither the viet cong or north vietnamese ever use marijuana since their superiors execute anyone caught with it was challenged during the question and answer period i was there and i body-counted said a young man in the audience and i never picked up a gook body that didn't have 5-lbs of marijuana in its pocket laverne answered that these were the pushers going to sell the marijuana to the americans bringing cheers of ridicule from the audience he was then asked how a uniformed communist soldier with a rifle in his hands was going to get close to an american soldier laverne proposed that someone should study the question of drug use by the communists more closely laverne said that some other psy chiatrists had railed his work " laverne s folly and that they demand proof calling their criticism adolescent murmurings he urged critics to 1o their own investigation to disprove or prove his results laverne said that he was reluctant to speak about the calley trial because he had recently been involved and that appeals were underway but he did call the trial a hoax because he contended medical evidence especially his own had been suppressed in response to a question he said that because of this calley did not get a fair trial laverne said that b&w photo by camana an ti-war meeting in the uc on monday drew nearly 300 people at the meet ing it was decided not to strike as had originally been planned but to flood the draft boards with legal requests for information on wednesday it was hoped that such action would bog down the local board but preliminary reports were incon clusive as to the success of the venture deans campbell and quay split on fragmented campus question by donald suss according to dean of residence clarence campbell the university seems to be faced with a problem of fragmentation as a result of the present residence systpm of residence halls fraternities and off campus housing he feels that this frag mentation has tended to create unnecessary disputes and ill-feeling between the groups and lias resulted in a feeling of alienation on the part of some students according to dean of student life william quay fragmentation of the campus is not a problem he feels that as long as there are 3000 people attempting to live together there will always be a certain amount of fragmentation he stressed however that the situation here is no worse than anywhere else and that the present situation has always existed since the beginning of the university points of contention the problem therefore seems to be in getting people together to decide if there really is a problem at all campbell noting this lack of consensus of opinion among the administrators stated that the key is not how ! percieve the problem but how the students perceive it if the students don't see fragmentation as a problem then it f s not a matter of importance he added that as a result it is necessary to get a larger input from the students concerning the issue campbell feels that it is important that everyone agree on three points if the problem is to be solved first that fragmentation does exist second that it is harmful to the extent that it does exists and finally that we can do something about it he stressed that x'agmentation by itself is not necessarily bad but the extent lo which it does exist is harmful he added that the issue has never been seriously discussed bv the deans l)ecause they can't come to an agreement on the first two points fragmentation is not as bad now as it was in the past according to campbell he contends that there has existed a feeling of alienation on the part of residence hall students in the past but now it is more on an individual basis than a group basis he added however that he suspects there is still a strong feeling of alienation on the part of off campus students quay on the other hand disagrees with this analysis he noted that most of the off-campus students are those living in apartments who chose to live there because they don't want to get involved in residence and campus life he added that for the commuting students there is a commuter student center on brodhead ave that is the focal point for their activities according to campbeii students should think more in terms of being a member of the lehigh community rather than a member of an individual group he added that being a member of a group is fine as long as it doesn't harm the larger community dean clarence b campbell callers visitors attempt local draft board gum-up an effort to stop business-as-usual at the bethlehem draft board began wednesday led by a group of university students draft card holders began telephoning and paying visits to the office at 532 main street to ask questions about their draft status in the spirit of may day said one spokesman rick ehrenfe ld 73 we wish to show the government that it cannot function without the consent of its citizens by law a draft board is required to answer any inquiries about the selective service system put by citizens cooperating members have organized a constant flood of calls and visits in an effort to keep the office's two secretaries from doing any other work taking advantage of a fire regulation which limits occupancy of the office to eight persons the group was able wednesday to keep the maximum six visitors thereat a times ehrenfeld reported that he contacted the city fire marshall when the room became over-crowded policemen present outside the office ignored requests to enforce the fire code he said normally the office is staffed only by two secretaries but wednesday a regional supervisor was also present he reportedly refused to answer further questions alleging they were not made in earnest but following a conference with his staff he continued to respond to the inquiries the group has circulated a list of 22 sample questions for use by potential callers these refer to the implications of the various draft cla ssi fic ati on s and to the consequences of refusing induction among other things ehrenfeld stressed that they wished no harrassment of the secretaries with whom they have come to an under standing ehrenfeld said he expected the move ment to continue through today and that a decision about further efforts next week would be made over the weekend other area schools have been contacted f onpsupport . a spokesman said about 100 people were involved on wednesday and that induction notices which had been scheduled for mailing were not sent out the draft board could not be reached for confirmation in a related antiwar protest a peace rally was held wednesday night at the civic center which drew about 100 persons the rally was entirely peaceful although several hel meted policemen and two or three detectives attended the rally speaker spoke of tl inner peace that must come forward from every individual before world peace can be established he then spoke of the dead at kent and jackson states and gave a benediction a dummy coffin was carried off by several youths see psychotic pag 4 see fragmentation page 4