Professor Grinspoon Will Seek Liberalization of Cocaine Laws

A Harvard professor will call this afternoon at a symposium for the liberalization of laws restricting the use of cocaine. The symposium is sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"I don't think cocaine is a harmless substance," Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate professor of Psychiatry and coordinator of the association workshop, said yesterday, but added that criminal law is a "clumsy instrument" for controlling the use and abuse of the drug.

Grinspoon said he is concerned about what happens to people who are imprisoned for using cocaine. "That too is harmful," he added.

"I think ultimately cocaine is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco," Grinspoon said. However, he is concerned about the potential for abuse if cocaine is legalized and can be bought at drug stores for $30 an ounce instead of the current street price of about $2000, Grinspoon added.

The issue of easing restrictions on cocaine will be discussed following a talk by a representative of the Carter administration who will present their position, one which "likely will not call for liberalization," Grinspoon said.

Also participating in the symposium will be James B. Bakalar '64, lecturer in Law who co-authored a book on cocaine with Grinspoon and Andrew T. Weil '63, a research associate in ethnopharmacology.

Bakalar, who will speak on the development of attitudes toward drugs, using cocaine as an example, agrees with his colleague that the government "should start reducing the penalties" for cocaine use, he said yesterday. "The price you pay in criminal penalties is much greater than any harm the drug would cause," he added.

He also said he knows of no evidence that shows cocaine is as dangerous as alcohol, and thus he finds it hard to justify laws on the use of cocaine "when alcohol use is so free."

Weil, speaking on the medical uses of cocaine and coca, the South American plant from which cocaine is obtained, will call for the acceptance by the medical profession of coca leaves as a legitimate drug.

Cocaine is currently used as a local anesthetic, though it is being phased out in many cases in favor of synthetic drugs such as procaine which do not have the adverse effects on the nervous system common to cocaine.

In South America coca leaves are used as medicine for diseases ranging from stomach ailments to high elevation sickness.