TAMPA — Advocates of the constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana for medical use criticized the choice of leader for a new committee opposing the amendment, citing statements attributed to him in 1986 as a Reagan administration drug adviser that marijuana use can cause homosexuality and therefore, AIDS.
Carlton Turner denies he made the statements and contends that widespread reporting of them, which generated a furor at the time, is an attempt to destroy his reputation.
“The newly formed Drug Free Florida committee has somehow managed to choose as its chairman a messenger with even less credibility than its message,” said a news release from the United For Care Organization, which is backing the amendment.
Turner “once stated that marijuana ‘leads to homosexuality…and therefore to AIDS.’ This statement is as offensive as it is inaccurate and should call into question any claim made by Mr. Turner in the course of this campaign.
“There is no place for bigotry and ignorance in the debate over compassionate medical marijuana policy in Florida.”
Turner responded, “I never said it,” calling the accusation “so outrageous it probably doesn’t deserve a response.”
The quote came from an October 1986 Newsweek magazine story headlined, “Reagan Aide: Pot Can Make You Gay.”
In the story, Turner doesn’t say exactly that. But he does say, in paraphrase, that when he visits drug treatment centers for patients under 18, some 40 percent have engaged in homosexual activity.
He’s then quoted directly as saying, “It seems to be something that follows along from their marijuana use,” and, “My concern is, how is the biological system affected by heavy marijuana use? The public needs to be thinking about how drugs alter people’s lifestyles.”
The article then attributes to him the statement that marijuana can depress the immune system, making someone more vulnerable to AIDS, though he adds in the piece, “No one is saying that marijuana will cause AIDS.”
In an interview Wednesday, Turner said the report was a distortion of his comments that parents of children with drug abuse problems “have to be aware of things in their kids lives they won’t approve of, including homosexuality,” when dealing with drug abuse.
“I never said smoking marijuana will make you gay — I said if you’re in the subculture, you’re going to be exposed to this.”
He said he also linked drug abuse to AIDS “not because drug abuse caused it,” but because AIDS sometimes came from needle sharing.
He said “the drug culture” wanted to destroy him because of his work on the issue in the White House.
“If you don’t have anything to talk about you stoop to personal castration.”
In any case, the Newsweek story caused a furor among AIDS and gay rights advocates and drug treatment experts. Turner denied the thrust of the story in an Oct. 22, 1986, interview with The Washington Post.
What he actually said, Turner told the Post, was, “We (should) accept this fact and help the kids and the parents deal with it.”
But at the time he appeared to stand by a link between marijuana and homosexuality when he told the Post, “When you talk to young people who use drugs, you find their inhibitions against everything are gone. This is one of the things that goes along with it.”
The Newsweek reporter, meantime, acknowledged to the Post that the headline on her story was an exaggeration, but stood by her reporting of Turner’s comments.
Turner resigned his position as an assistant to Reagan for drug abuse policy a few weeks later, in December, 1986.
It’s been reported he did so because of controversy over the comments, but he denied that in the Tribune interview.
He cited a passage in “The Reagan Diaries,” a compilation of Reagan’s personal notes, in which the president described Turner’s resignation as a factor of the long hours he worked and losing contact with his two young children.
He said he resigned after his request to move to a job with fewer hours and less responsibility was turned down, and that First Lady Nancy Reagan, known for her interest in drug abuse issues, “was very upset with me for resigning, but I told her I’m very tired, I needed some rest, needed to spend more time with my children.”
wmarch@tampatrib.com
813-259-7761
Medical marijuana backers attack foe's statements
No comments:
Post a Comment