New and events of the Philadelphia Bar Asso.
Issue link: https://thephiladelphialawyer.epubxp.com/i/574228
the philadelphia lawyer Fall 2015 37 bleeding heart, in 1972, was employed as a "youth consultant" by Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. The story begins in a New Orleans Hotel room with Maureen E. Biner, later known as Mrs. John Dean. While attending Jesuit High School in New Orleans in the early 1970s, I saw many teenagers, including some close friends, suffer the ravages of drug abuse. I discovered an innovative anti-drug program, The Open Door - C.O.D.E. (Committee on Drug Education), run by an amazing, liberal couple of social workers from Massachusetts, Nick and Judy Katsirubas. Rather than scaring or threatening youngsters with doctor or law enforcement speeches or addict testimonials, this program used teenagers, like myself, to inspire younger students to appreciate life sans recreational drugs. I learned much about the drug culture and problem in the city and how to show others the way through or around it. One day, Nick called to ask me to meet some people who were in town looking into the drug problem. I was to meet these folks at Le Pavillion, then the newest, most elegant hotel in New Orleans, along with two colleagues from the program. Nick had no further information on who these people were. I was just to do my best to help them understand and appreciate the drug problem in the city. When I arrived at the hotel, I called the room number I had been given. A man answered "Gov. Shafer." Not knowing that he was the former, one-term Republican Governor of Pennsylvania, Raymond P. Shafer (1967-1971), I almost asked, "Governor of what?" but refrained and accepted his invitation to come up to his suite. In a smartly appointed, spacious suite I found four well- dressed men sitting around a coffee table and a blonde- haired woman sitting on the bed. The blonde was Maureen E. Biner, then girlfriend, later wife of White House Counsel John Dean. She was then executive assistant to the executive director for the entity that these gentlemen served – The President's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. Gov. Shafer, its chairman, was accompanied by commission members J. Thomas Ungerleider, M.D., professor of psychiatry at UCLA; Mitchell Ware, Esq., superintendent of the Illinois Bureau of Investigation; as well as Michael R. Sonnenreich, Esq., executive director of the commission. An august group to be sure. As it turned out they were in town to hold formal hearings on the drug problem in America as they would do in several other cities. The commission was established by Nixon in 1971 and tasked with studying the drug problem in America and making recommendations to solve it – the "War on Drugs!" It had recently issued its first report solely on marijuana that, to Tricky Dick's dismay, recommended decriminalization: "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding" (1972, G.P.O.). No surprise to those who knew him well, Nixon never really wanted an independent study of these issues. He reportedly refused to read the first report and told Gov. Shafer, "You're enough of a pro to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do would make your commission look bad as hell." Undaunted, it was then working on its second and final report, one to which I would end up contributing: "Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective" (1973, G.P.O.). My C.O.D.E. compatriots and I spent a couple of hours with this group enlightening them on drug abuse in our area from our perspective and what they might expect to hear the next day during the hearings. As the evening wound down, Sonnenreich pulled me aside and asked if I would formally testify at the hearings. I was honored, and of course, agreed immediately, even though I had no clue what it meant to "formally testify" before a presidential commission. And I had now agreed to do so in less than 24 hours. "You're enough of a pro to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do would make your commission look bad as hell."