Hmmm. Seems that the High Priest of the New Religion liked to get stoned. Any comments Craig, Decker, Paul Davis?

http://www.cnn.com/US/9908/22/sagan.mairjuana.ap/

Biographer says Carl Sagan drew inspiration from marijuana

August 22, 1999 Web posted at: 6:42 AM EDT (1042 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The late astronomer and author Carl Sagan was a secret but avid marijuana smoker, crediting it with inspiring essays and scientific insight, according to Sagan's biographer.

Using the pseudonym "Mr. X", Sagan wrote about his pot smoking in an essay published in the 1971 book "Reconsidering Marijuana." The book's editor, Lester Grinspoon, recently disclosed the secret to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson.

Davidson, a writer for the San Francisco Examiner, revealed the marijuana use in an article published in the newspaper's magazine Sunday. "Carl Sagan: A Life" is due out in October.

"I find that today a single joint is enough to get me high ... in one movie theater recently I found I could get high just by inhaling the cannabis smoke which permeated the theater," wrote Sagan, who authored popular science books such as "Cosmos," "Contact," and "The Dragons of Eden."

In the essay, Sagan said marijuana inspired some of his intellectual work.

"I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves," wrote the former Cornell University professor. "I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down.

Sagan also wrote that pot enhanced his experience of food, particularly potatoes, music and sex.

Grinspoon, Sagan's closest friend for 30 years, said Sagan's marijuana use is evidence against the notion that marijuana makes people less ambitious.

"He was certainly highly motivated to work, to contribute," said Grinspoon, a psychiatry professor at Harvard University.

Grinspoon is an advocate of decriminalizing marijuana.

Ann Druyan, Sagan's former wife, is a director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The nonprofit group promotes legalization of marijuana.

Sagan died of pneumonia in 1996. He was 62.

-- a (a@a.a), August 22, 1999

Answers

Wonder what he did with those billions and billions of roaches...

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 22, 1999.

I don't know, it sounds more like Sagan was claiming that Sagan was a pot-head.

And the point is...?

-- (dot@got.pot), August 22, 1999.

The supposed danger of marijuana is just another area in which the public has been lied to by government officials. Recently there was a bad train wreck, and the autopsy of the engineer revealed that he had both a stroke and a heart attack. But were they determined to be the cause of the wreck? Nope. The autopsy also revealed that two hours before the wreck he had used marijuana. Officials decided THAT caused him to wreck the train, not the simultaneous stroke and heart attack.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), August 22, 1999.

Mary Jane is evil and dangerous, now excuse me while I go get another Brandy.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), August 22, 1999.

Hmmmm, I don't know, "a" -- maybe you have it backwards!

Take Paul Davis, for example, who a few weeks ago first made the amazing claim that doomers are growing and selling marijuana to finance their Y2K preps. This is but one of many bizarre statements that Paul has made, each seemingly more irrational than the previous one. Further, Paul fancies himself as an amateur astronomer, even once creating a thread on the Yourdon Forum in which he babbled on about his telescope, which had not the slightest thing to do with Y2K.

Say, do you suppose.... Holy cow, that would explain just about all of the pollies! Flint's never ending rambling. Maria's strange mood swings. Deano's partial brain. ... Gawd!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 22, 1999.

Chuck:

Please delete this thread. Carl Sagan's alleged drug use is of no relevance.

-- Ostrich Head (headinthe@sand.com), August 22, 1999.

At least weed is Y2k compliant

-- Home grown (Smoke Em if you@got.em), August 22, 1999.

Let's legalize a non-filtered, lung damageing, mind altering drug.

Let's stamp out a nasty filtered, lung damageing, non-mind altering tobaco cig. The US consists of many, many people walking around giving themselves an up close, eye level, colon exam. Let's legalize marijuana after the full 2nd amendment rights have been restored and all tobaco suits have been dropped and made void. EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL.

-- enough is (enough@enough.com), August 22, 1999.

If Y2K is a 10, everything that is bad for you will be legal. I vote that we amend the following to say "eat, drink and smoke, for tomorrow ye shall die."

-- happy smoker (happysmoker@happysmokerr.com), August 22, 1999.

Keep it illegal, by all means!

-- The Booze Industry (Edgar Bronfmann@Seagrams.com), August 23, 1999.

A large contributor to D.A.R.E.-------Anheiser Bush. Go figure.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), August 23, 1999.