This letter is a response to one that her parents had sent her; apparently they had included a newspaper article, which I think may have been Frances Spatz Leighton\u2019s sensationalized anti-marijuana article “The Thrill-Seekers,” which was published in several major newspapers on August 22, 1965.<\/p>\r\n
I found the article at newspapers.com and saved it for posterity. Heady stuff. Sample anecdote: “In another case, a pot-crazed boy—three reefers—bit the neck of a stranger on the street.” The article ends with this: “It would be dangerous and foolhardy for American parents to say, ‘It can\u2019t happen here.’”<\/p>\r\n
(...The newspaper that I found the article in, the Minneapolis Star Tribune<\/cite>, follows the article with a half-page ad for Chesterfield (tobacco) cigarettes.)<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n Postmark: Sep 2, 1965, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Handwritten: “Rec\u2019d this Sat. 9\/4” and “Wrote to M 9\/12.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\n tuesday, or wednesday,\r\n or thereabouts\r\n [pencil: 8\/31 or 9\/1\/65]\r\n\r\nHello\r\n\r\nThanks for letter and article; a number of poeple have\r\nbecome very incensed about it; we (individual members of the\r\ndrug seminar) are in the process of drafting a letter in\r\nrebuttal, since we are some of the few people in the country\r\nto be in a position to know about marijuana legally, having\r\nstudied it for academic credit. The article was terrifying;\r\nluckily, Dr. Dixon was on vacation, or xxxx you would have\r\nheard his reaction all the way to Maine and then some....but\r\nenough of us x reacted vehemently and intelligently enough;\r\nthe letter ought to be rather good, and our sources are\r\ncertainly much more kosher and less biased than that goddamn\r\nGiordano....this thing is a real xxxx witch hunt, with Allen\r\nGinsberg as chief witch, and giordano as latter-day\r\nmccarthy....I hear the FBN is arresting people all over New\r\nYork and putting fantastic bail rates on them with the\r\nexplicit promise that same will be lowered if anyone can\r\ncome up with an evil enough \"true\" story about Ginsberg so\r\nthey can arrest him on morals or something....sometimes it\r\nreally gets to me that people in this country are so Brave\r\nand Innocent that they never suspect anyone in Our Great\r\nGovernment of being an evil bastard who is out for his\r\ngreater glory and finds himself a Moral cause--communism,\r\nmarijuana, witchcraft, spying, or dirty words--to champion\r\nand Defend Our Pure Children against......Further, Parents,\r\nI'm surprised that you don't recognize some of those same\r\nscare tactics and emotional words and deliberate false\r\nimplications, half-truths, and downright rottten lies, as\r\nhaving been directed at things that were once important to\r\nyou......some of it is so powerful I'd want to x keep my own\r\nkids away from this Evil Weed if I didn't know better....or,\r\nI'd want to xx go out and become a x marijuana user\r\n(\"addict;\" pardon me, Mr. Giordano, I would hate to refrain\r\nfrom using that phrase just becauste there is no such thing)\r\nmyself, figuring that anything that bad must be pretty damn\r\ngood or they wouldn’t go to so much trouble propagandizing\r\nagainst it.....if I have enough money to get copies made,\r\nI'll send you a copy of the letter when we finish it.\r\n\r\nEnough of that. Please send some more Ambodryls; need them\r\ndesparately. Dr. at clinic said I could take more than I'd\r\nbeen taking with perfect safety, so I generally take about 4\r\nduring the course of the day and two before bed....also, I\r\ncould use a little extra money, if you can spare some; end\r\nof quarter expendses and all--I'll have to borrow about $50\r\nfor traveling, since it looks like I'm going to LA, but\r\ndon't want that around yet.....hope all's well, take care,\r\n\r\n [handwritten: love]\r\n [handwritten: Marcia]\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
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