NORML Forces Release Of Army Marijuana Data

Under pressure from the National Oraganization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORMAL), the U.S. Army last week released a study by a Harvard psychiatrist indicating that regular use of marijuana has no significant harmful effects on humans.

Although the New England Journal of Medicine published the results in November 1974, Peter H. Meyers, legal counsel for NORMAL, said yesterday, "The important things is that the Army didn't totally inform the public of the results."

Meyers said the test, which was conducted by Dr. Jack H. Mendelson, professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is "the most comprehensive of its type ever done" and will prove "significant in terms of the medical debate on marijuana."

"If the results had shown significant impairment due to marijuana the Army treatment of the study would have been entirely different," Meyers said.

Mendelson said Yesterday he found "no adverse effects" from marijuana use aside from slight weight gain and a change in lung function similar to that produced by cigarettes.

Meyers said Mendelson obtained the results by confining 30 volunteers to a ward in McLeans Hospital in Belmont and depriving them of marijuana for five days. They were then allowed free access to the drug for 21 days, after which time they participated in a battery of psychological tests.

Release

NORML obtained the information by filing a request for its release under the Federal Freedom of Information Act, which compels government agencies to release certain information to private citizens.

Through the act NORML currently is attempting to gain access to similiar studies on marijuana conducted by nine other defense and intelligence agencies, including the CIA, Meyers said.

Aspect

Meyers said yesterday that "where legal issues are concerned, the medical consideration is only one aspect of the question." NORML however, feels that publicity of the decision will promote the relaxation of marijana laws, he added.

Army officials could not be reached for comment on the report yesterday.