Advocates of legalizing marijuana have gone all out to convince the general public that "pot" when smoked in moderation, is really no worse than a few glasses of beer. Until now the usual reaction to the foregoing claim has been belief and relief. People are prone to believe what they want to believe and are always relieved to learn that a supposed danger did not really exist.

However, the "Eastland Committee" of the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security has rolled up a vast body of testimony on the subject that needs to be publicized far and wide. Drs. Harold Kolansky and Win. T. Moore testified that a study done over a nine year period involving hundreds of patients indicated that almost 60% of the patients examined who used marijuana looked older than their true age and they were incapable of completing thoughts during verbal questioning. This seemed to imply some form of sickness or derangement of the brain.

Dr. W. D. Paton, Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford testified that administration of hashish during pregnancy has caused fetal death and fetal abnormality (including lack of limbs) in 3 species of animals. Further a Dr. Nahas reported that hashish affects the genetic material and new born children can be respiratory cripples. He further indicates that emphysema which is normally a disease of later life will now cripple and kill hashish smokers and their offspring in their 40's and 50's. Also, Dr. R. C. Kolodny of the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation, St. Louis, Mo., reports that when hashish resin was injected into pregnant rats, their offspring were born web footed, they had hernia of the brain and often were born without legs or with sealf1ke flippers in place of legs.

You may say that such experimentations with rats and monkeys does not prove it will happen to you. However, keep in mind that the reason certain animals are chosen for specific experiments is because scientists have learned which animals respond most nearly like a human. Why take a chance of brain damage, emphysema at 40 and deformed children? Leave the marijuana and all drugs alone. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (I Cor. 6:19-20-R.S.V.)

Truth Magazine, XVIII:40, p. 2
August 15, 1974