Marihuana : a signal of misunderstanding first report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse.

  • United States. Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
Date:
[1972?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Marihuana : a signal of misunderstanding first report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that the unique feature of this search was its arational quality. As one observer put it: We have been discussing the question of how we change a society. I don’t think it’s changed by rational intention. As I understand societies, historically and our own, what really is required to change it is something on a deeper level that involves myth, ritual, sacra- ment—a number of these functions that have always been related to societies. On these you can’t just suddenly make up your mind and then prescribe. Regarding our problem of authority, you cannot really ask the ques- tion: why can’t these people hang onto their authority? They can’t hang onto it because what gave them authority is something not of themselves, but part of the society, part of a ritual, a sacrament: a way of behaving in the group which gave them authority, [whether] professorial, parental or policy authority. In each one of these cases, what we see is not the diminishing of these men so much but rather the developing emptiness, the lack of the particular ethic that gave them authority to start with. This is why we are in a terrible dilemma. What is essentially lacking is a system of ethics, morality or religion that gives birth to the myths, the rituals, the sacraments that are its expression. These touch human beings on the unconscious level. These are the ways we see the world. They are not our conscious thought, but the ways we form ourselves—form each other, love each other or hate each other—in terms not so much of rational in- tention as a deeper unconscious—conscious and unconscious—which is my definition of a myth; much more of a feeling level, a living level. That is what is not present now. What we need, below and above all of our deliberations, is the growth and development of an ethical system. We just do not have this now. As we move into the 1970’s, our society is collectively engaged in the task of determining what America means, and how each individual should find fulfillment in a changing age. From this wider perspective of flux emerges an uncertainty about what the increased prevalence of marihuana use means for the individual and the total society. Formulating Marihuana Policy Present symbolism, past implications, and future apprehensions all combine to give marihuana many meanings. These diverse notions of what marihuana means constitute the marihuana problem. In this atmosphere, the policy-maker’s position is precarious insofar as no assumption is beyond dispute. Accordingly, the Commission has taken