Pubdate: Thu, 06 Oct 2005
Source: Daily Targum (Rutgers, NJ Edu)
Copyright: 2005 Daily Targum
Contact:  http://www.dailytargum.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/715
Author: Adam Marantz
Cited: Confessions of a Dope Dealer http://www.adopedealer.com/
Cited: The Shafer Commission report 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/nc/ncmenu.htm
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Frank+Olson

AUTHOR: REPEAL ALL DRUG TRAFFICKING LAWS

Apple pie. Baseball. The Fourth of July. Drug usage?

It may seem like an odd addendum to the list of American icons, but
for Sheldon Norberg, author of "Confessions of a Dope Dealer," it's an
appropriate one.

Norberg - who sold drugs from when he was in high school until age 30
- - presented his lecture, "The Dynamics of American Drug Culture," at
the Livingston Student Center on Tuesday.

"America is by far the world's largest consumer of licit and illicit
drugs," Norberg said, who has a bachelor's degree in psycho-spiritual
healing from San Francisco State University, and a master's in
intuition medicine from the Academy of Intuitive Studies and Intuition
Medicine in Mill Valley, Calif.

Norberg vilified the government's history of controlling the drug
market, saying that banning drug-use only makes the black market
industry more lucrative and its leaders more powerful.

"When the United States outlawed the use of heroin, the street price
quadrupled overnight," Norberg said.

In addition to criticizing the government's stance on controlling the
drug market, Norberg also denigrated its participation in Project
MKULTRA, which studied the effectiveness of mind control from LSD
during the Cold War.

"This project is the only documented death from LSD use," said
Norberg, in reference to Frank Olson, a CIA employee working
undercover who was administered the drug without his knowledge.

The National Institute of Drug Use calls LSD one of the strongest
mood-changing drugs.

Norberg also challenged former President Richard Nixon and how he
ignored the Shafer Commission's recommendation to legalize marijuana
use, after the commission was appointed to study the effects of the
drug and found no need to decriminalize the drug.

"Cannabis is the most versatile and valuable crop known to man,"
Norberg said. "It can be used for shelter, clothing and food. In fact,
with its nutritional value, you can live on hemp seeds alone."

Overall, Norberg said he opposes any legislation that prohibits
recreational use and infringes on the human right to freedom of thought.

"I think all drugs should be legal," Norberg said. "And unfortunately,
the generation that I thought would resolve the public misconception
of experimenting with drugs has suckered out for the money."

Although he discredits the government's sanctions on drugs, Norberg
does not encourage their use.

"I don't have the same views as the government on this issue," Norberg
said. "But it would be ridiculous for me to tell you to run out and
try them."

He did, however, encourage the audience to educate themselves on drugs
that they experiment with, advocating that they think more before
trying drugs, and find out about each one's significant positive and
negative side effects. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake