Room 56-423

Ext. 4707

March 13, 1970

To the Editor
The New York Times
229 klQSt 43rd StrQOt
New York, Gw York

Dear sir:

While Presfdent Nixon speaks of the drug problem as an educational one
(Xew York Times, ?+&rch 12). his Mpartment of Justice is rejecting all
advice from oCIucators, lncbdicaal scientists md lzrwyers and insisting on
an essentially crimi.nal eqn-osreh to the problem.

A subcommittee of the II. S. House Interstate and Foreign Commerce COW
nittee has recently concluded hearings on the new omnibus drug bill,
ii.R. 13743, which would transfer to the Attorney General tho sole
authority to determine which drugs arc subject to abuse and which
researchers may study them.

This SIWM bill includes the irrational and probably unconstitutional
"no-knock'F provision permitting police, upon warrant by a judge, to
enter unannounced into private premises.  This provision makes both
police officers and private citizens potentially subject to blind
murderous shooting.

According to a UPT dispatch of !&rch 3, at the close of the hearings,
Mr. J&J Itgersoll, head of the Narcotics Sureau of the Justice Depnrt-
ment, opposed and derided the lengthy testimony by medical and legal
exPerts ) who had favored a major role .for M?K Department in drug
regulation and cducstion.  According ta the Justice Department, "The
ultimate decision to bring a drug under control has more legal impli-
cations than it does acdical ones .`b  One Congressmen, Rep. Peter Kyros
of Vaine, stated that the Administration's unbending stand was "kind
of stunning to me in the light of the testimony of so many doctors."

The straight criminal sanction approach will not work for the drug
problem just as it did not work when tried for alcohof.  It breeds
black market, organized`crime, and contempt for the law -- just as
prohibition did.  Meanwhile, this approach is hcing used by Mr. F!itchell's
ttepartment for further threats to our civil liberties: legalized
violation of the home privacy and encroachment by the .?ustico &?q%rtmt?nt
over an arca that demands enlightened educational and public health
???????? o

S. E. Lurk, V.D.
Sedgwick Professor of 8ialogy, h!IT