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Sensation Seekers

Where there is a movement to sell
drugs, Dr. Buckman said, most of those
who follow it are sensation seekers.
However, there may be some who take
drugs because they "feel they don't
belong, or can't communicate;" of those
a few may use it as an alternative to
medical treatment.

Thus drugs such as LSD may increase
not only artistic creativity but
also tendencies to suicide or schizophrenia.

In a comparison of various "psychologically
habituating" drugs, Dr.
Buckman noted that LSD, marijuana,
and amphetamines (speed) are relatively
cheap compared with heroin.

The average medical dosage of LSD
costs twenty-five cents, while the
amount normally used for a "trip" on
a sugar cube is usually about four
times that amount.

Heroin is the strongest addictive drug
known, he stated, whereas very few
users of marijuana remain delinquent.

When asked of his opinion on the
mass media directed toward psychedelic
culture, Dr. Buckman said
that industry and commerce have exploited
this phenomenon in every way
possible. "Call junk psychedelic," he
said, "and it will sell." This is an indirect
result of over-publicizing hallucinogenic
drugs, he added.

As for the legalization of marijuana,
Dr. Buckman noted, "It is wrong to
have on the statutes too many rules
which can't be enforced. . .although I
do not advocate making it legal overnight,
surely outlawing it does not stop
its use."

Dr. Buckman felt that education is

"the number one solution" to the problem.
He said that he doubted that
legalization of marijuana would cause
its use to be more widespread if
people were educated about it, except
for a possible increase in the first
couple of years.

"This happens whenever you change
the status of things," he stated.

Dr. Buckman commented on the attitude
of the South to marijuana by
noting that Dean Monroe of Harvard
wrote a letter similar to Mr. Runk's on
the subject, only a few months earlier.
But in California, he said, "Somehow
it worries everybody less."