Farnsworth Denies Acute Drug Crisis

Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, director of the University Health Services, yesterday criticized attempts to link Harvard students with drug activity in the Square. "The crisis of drug traffic has been greatly exaggerated by people without accurate information," he charged.

There will always be a drug problem in the Harvard Square area, Farnsworth conceded. "Perhaps a few more people than usual are experimenting with drugs," he admitted, but he discredited the recent high estimates of the number of Harvard students involved. "There is no reliable data for conclusions about the use of drugs by students," he insisted.

Experimentation with drugs has increased in all elements of society, Farnsworth said, and the college student has become a natural target for those who profit from the circulation of marijuana and other drugs. But there is less experimentation at Harvard than in any random group, he added.

Farnsworth was critical of Middlesex Superior Court Justice Frank W. Tomasello, who declared on Monday, after sentencing a 19-year-old for the sale of drugs, that "tax-free institutions should screen out those they let in "as a help in the clean up" of Harvard Square.

While he sympathizes with Tomasello's desire to improve the drug situation. Farnsworth said he is "unable to follow the logic" of the judge's attack. There is no evidence that Harvard is responsible for a sizeable proportion of the drug activity in the Square, he said.

There are people who attempt to get Harvard students involved in widespread drug experimentation, Farnsworth observed, and with this in mind the University has actively supported police attempts to "maintain Harvard Square as a decent place to live."

Anxious to Help Students

But he explained that the University Health Services is anxious to help students find "medical solutions" to drug problems before they are implicated to the point of being subject to legal action. Even after students are liable to disciplinary action, Farnsworth said, the Administration and Health Services are unanimous in their desire to help students not to use drugs."

Farnsworth complained that drug consumption is "a way-station on the road to a life different from that for which students come to a university." There is a serious danger, he said, that drugs will exaggerate and complicate the problems one has when he begins to take them.

He is continually concerned about the use of all kinds of drugs.

Characterizing marijuana as "harm- ful," he said that its use should be strongly discouraged. In addition, Farnsworth cited gradually accumulating evidence that "the dangers of amphetamines (pep pills) are even greater than previously believed."

It is distressing, Farnsworth said, that there is no information readily available to people outside the medical profession on the harmful effects of drugs. While the Health Services will shy away from "anything that seems like a spy system," he said, it will do everything possible to curtail the use of drugs.

The present situation, Farnsworth explained, indicates the need for college authorities to "remain calm" in the face of drug problems. "The best thing we can do to protect the student is to help him learn to protect himself," he concluded