Newspaper Page Text
August 31, 1984/The Maroon Tiger/Page 5
Study Says
Marijuana Use Now Normal Among Youths
CHICAGO - Marijuana smok
ing, (peaking between ages 20
and 22 and declining at age 25), is
now normal behavior among
American youth, a researcher
says.
Denise B. Kandel, a researcher
at the Columbia University
School of Public Health in New
York who studied 1,325 young
adults, also said marijuana users
showed a higher incidence of
other drugs, deviant activities
and psychiatric hopsitalization.
In 22- to 25-year olds
nationwide, marijuana use was
68 percent in 1980 and 64 percent
in 1982.
“One might say that marijuana
smoking has become a nor
mative behavior among
American youth,” Ms. Kandel
said at the American Medical
Association’s Archives of
General Psychiatry.
“In early adulthood, as in
adolescence, marijuana use is
embedded in a social context
favorable to its use,” she said.
“Involvement with marijuana -
using friends and use by spouse
or partner, as well as use of other
illicit drugs, were important
predictors of current marijuana
involvement.”
Ms. Kandel said users are
“quitedifferent” from non-users
in values and life-styles, ex
hibiting a lower level of social
achievement and psychological
well-being, participating in
deviant lifestyles, becoming in
volved in a social network of
drug-using associates and using
cigarettes, alcohol and other
drugs.
Most marijuana users, she
reported also, had used such
drugs as cocaine, heroin,
methadone, stimulants,
sedatives, tranquilizers and anti
depressants. And heavier mari
juana involvement meant using a
greater number of drugs.
Current frequent users were
more likely to be men, less likely
to be married — but more likely
to be living with a partner — and
less likely to have children, Ms.
Kendel said.
They also were less likely to be
in school and more likely to be
employed, but with more work-
related disability due to health
problems. Heavy marijuana use
was associated with increased
movement in and out of the
labor force.
Her study found that men and
women who smoked marijuana
at least four times a week were
two to three times as likely as
non-users to have ever con
sulted a mental health
professional.
Study: Pot Smoking Damages
Lungs
LOS ANGELES - People who
smoke two or more marijuana
cigarettes a day for five years
suffer “significant abnor
malities” in their lungs, in
cluding some associated with
lung cancer, a researcher says.
“There is evidence that heavy
marijuana smoking is damaging
the airways in a way we do not
anticipate tobacco smoking
would damage the airways,” said
Dr. Donald P. Tashkin, a
professor of medicine at the
University of California at Los
Angeles.
“We would advise young
people not to take up the habit
of smoking marijuana,” Tashkin
said Friday, adding that frequent
users should either quit or
sharply reduce their intake.
Tashkin and Anne H. Coulson,
a UCLA research epidemiologist,
studied 200 heavy marijuana
users — those who smoked at
least two marijuana cigarettes a
day for at least five years. About
half of the subjects also smoked
tobacco cigarettes, Tashkin said.
The marijuana users who didn’t
smoke cigarettes were then
compared with 50 “controls”
who smoked neither marijuana
nor tobacco.
Preliminary results showed
that the marijuana users who
didn’t smoke tobacco suffered
more frequent lung problems
than the non-smokers, such as
coughing, phlegm production
and various illnesses of the lower
respiratory tract, including
bronchitis, Tashkin said.
But Tashkin said the “most
striking” results were found in 25
marijuana smokers who un
derwent bronchoscopy — a
procedure in which the
researchers looked inside the
lungs and removed a small
sample of lung tissue.
The lungs of the 25 “showed
significant, extensive
microscopic abnormalities,” in
cluding changes that“have been
correlated (in other studies) with
the development of chronic
bronchitis, emphysema and lung
cancer,” Tashkin said.
“Although we don’t know for
sure what is going to happen to
these people, we are concerned
about subsequent development
of lung cancer and chronic,
irreversible obstructive (lung)
disease such as chronic
bronchitis,” he added.
Tashkin said the lungs of the
non-smokers were not examin
ed with the same procedure
because UCLA’s Human Subjects
Protection Committee did not
want samples of their lung tissue
removed until damage was
found in the marijuana smokers.
Now that damage has been
found, Tashkin said he will apply
for approval to sample lung
tissue from the non-smokers.
Tashkin presented his
preliminary findings during the
American Lung Association’s
annual meeting in Miami Beach.
The study, funded by the
National Institutes of Health, has
yet to be published in a scientific
journal or reviewed by other
independent scientists, he said.
The National Organization for
the Reformof Marijuana Laws,
which favors legalizing or
decriminalizing marijuana, is
"not interested in debating
researchers on the healthfulness
or lack of healthfulness of smok
ing marijuana,” said Fran
McDermott, director of
NORML California chapter.
“There are a lot of habits that
people engage in that may not
be healthful,” she said in a
telephone interview from San
Francisco. “Clearly, smoking
cigarettes is not a healthful thing,
but it’s not something we subject
people to criminal penalties for
doing.”
Although the combined use of
marijuana and tobacco may
increase lung damage compared
with use of just one substance,
Tashkin will not know for sure
until a control group consisting
solely of tobacco smokers is
included in the study.
Such a group is currently being
recruited, he said.
Tashkin said the 200 marijuana
smokers examined in the study
will receive follow-up ex
aminations.
The April ’69 Sit In: What Really Happened
By Eugene Maxwell, Jr.
Assistant Editor
A bunch of gossip and talk isall
that is ever heard about what
happened in April, 1969, and
much of that gossip over the
years has come to be distorted.
There have been so many ver
sions of this particular event,
until one wonders which version
is the truth.
It all occurred a little over 15
years ago, when many of the
present Morehouse men
weren’t even in the first grade.
Evidently, the assassination of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., had such
an impact upon the blacks
throughout the nation that black
collegians during that time
overreacted in their emotional
response to existing problems.
“Morehouse College perhaps
was the school in Atlanta which
experienced the most dramatic
of the student confrontations,”
according to an April 27, 1969,
article in the Voice (known today
as the Black Voice.
A group of 28 students from
Morehouse, along with other
students from the Atlanta Un
iversity Center (AUC) schools,
held a demonstration to imple
ment positive and significant
changes that should take place in
the Atlanta University Center.
But this demonstration resulted
in what President Hugh M.
Gloster called, “A shameful day
in the history of Morehouse
College ....”
The expressed belief of the 28
Morehouse students and sup
porters who rallied was that: “1)
It is improper for black schools to
be named after obscure white
persons; 2) The separate schools
in the AUC should be con
solidated; 3) These colleges
should improve relations with a
commitment to the surrounding
black community; 4) At least a
majority (if not all) of the Boards
of Trustees controlling black
institutions should be blacks; 5)
Students should participate in
the decision - making process
which govern their lives; and 6)
more and better black curricula
arp needed.”
From the concerns of the
larger Morehouse student body
emerged a letter to the AUC
Board of Trustees, requesting a
meeting to discuss possible
changes in the Atlanta University
Center. Furthermore, at that
time the entire Morehouse stu
dent body had already un
animously favored merging all
six AUC institutions under one
administration and changing the
name of Atlanta University
Center to that of Martin Luther
King, Jr., University.
For some reason, the AUC
Board of Trustees was not
available for such a meeting.
However, a meeting session
between the Morehouse
College Board of Trustees and
the student body representatives
was scheduled on Friday, April
18, 1969, at 9:00 a.m.
Some board members present
at that early Friday morning
meeting were President Emeritus
Benjamin E. Mays, President
Hugh M. Gloster, Reverend
Martin Luther King, Sr.,
millionaire Charles E. Merrill,
representatives from the SGA
headed by President Nelson
Taylor, and student spokesmen
who favored fundamental
changes. At this meeting a
proposal was presented by the
Morehouse College student
body for the preliminary ap
proval of the Board. However,
some (the 28 students and sup
porters) strongly felt that there
should be no question of a doubt
about the proposal, or what it
stood for; in essence, they simply
weren’t going to take "NO” for
an answer.
It didn’t happen until an hour
later. When trustees tried to
leave without taking any action
on the students’ proposal, 28
student protestors and sup
porters (again, not the larger
Morehouse student body) refus
ed to let the board members out
of their meeting. These
protestors immediately used
chains and padlocks to “im
prison” the board members. The
third floor stairway of Harkness
Hall (Atlanta University Ad
ministration Building), as well as
the elevator, was immediately
locked up. According to the
Courier Bulletin, “Some 450
Morehouse students, who didn’t
favor the procedure of im
prisoning the Board of Trustees,
attempted to come to the rescue,
but didn’t for the sake of keeping
the student protest from becom
ing violent.
Only Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Sr., and a few other
board members who became
sick were allowed to leave
Harkness Hall later that day. But,
prior to King’s departure from
"imprisonment,” he told SGA
president Nelson Taylor, who
later in an address, told the
student body that "he believed
that the name of his son was
being exploited by elements
that, in fact, despise his son” and
that “his family is deeply hurt to
think that people can use such a
dedicated man to represent such
chaos and disorder.” After mak
ing that statement, King
demanded that he be freed. King
further stated that, “The only
thing upon which an agreement
had been made was (the addition
of nine more black personnel to
the college), and the retention of
the name of the institution as
Morehouse College.”
From a balcony later that
evening, on April 18, Gloster
addressed a few hundred people
who had assembled in front of
Harkness Hall (students, alumni,
and the community). At this
time, Closter’s office was forcibly
being occupied by approximate
ly 40 Spelman student protestors.
In his address, Gloster stated that
he refused to sign any proposal
under duress and added that
“this has been the most ig
nominious day in the history of
Morehouse College.” After
Closter’s address, SGA President
Taylor, who had also been lock
ed in, called a meeting of the
student body. Only at this time
was he released and allowed to
exit by the back ladder.
At the SGA meeting, a
representative of the student
protestors stated that they would
release the members of the
Board of Trustees only if the
student body agreed to meet
with the Board that night concer
ning some immediate fun
damental changes at the college.
Instead, the student body decid
ed to sleep on the idea and met
with the Board at 10:30 a.m. the
next morning (Saturday, April 19,
1969). Meanwhile, the Board of
Trustees were still locked in.
Before meeting with the Board
the next morning the student
body assembled in Sale Hall
again at 10:00 a.m., and decided
(Continued on page 17)