TIME MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 22, 1967
"YABLONSKY IN VENICE, CALIFORNIA AND HIPPIES"
The force of law in most cases protects the confidential nature of communications
between lawyer and client. psychiatrist and patient. pastor and penitent . Yet scientists
studying antisocial or abnormal human behavior have no such protection. and are wide
open to arrest for participating in illegal activities or concealing information
about them. The result, many of them claim. is that little meaningful research is
being done in the field of what sociologists call -deviant behavior.
The perils of this work were recently exemplified by the dilemma that faced California
Sociologist Lewis Yablonsky. whose books on teen-age gang life in New York (THE VIOLENT
GANG) and the Synanon cure for drug addiction (SYNANON-THE TUNNEL BACK) have been
widely praised for telling it like it is. Yablonsky could tell it. because he lived
with the people he studied--and his classroom presentation at San Fernando Vallev
State College this month earned him a "Outstanding Professor Award over 9.000
of his colleagues in the California State Colleges.
Shortly before he won the award. however. Yablonsky--who is now studying the hippie
movement--was subpoenaed to testify at the marijuana trial of a friendly flower child.
On the stand. Yablonsky pleaded possible self-incrimination and refused to answer
nine questions aimed at discovering whether he had observed anyone smoking pot. "Of
course I had", Yablonsky conceded out of court, "But I took the Fifth because
I didn't want to go to jail. I feel very strongly that a sociologist should be able
to study a social problem without fear of being guilty of illegal behavior."
In his book, THE HIPPIE TRIP, to be published in March, Yablonsky not only admits
that he observed drug use and sales. but describes his own experiment with marijuana
and a harrowing LSD trip he and his wife took together--all illegal activities. The
trip. Yablonsky contends. gave him an invaluable perspective on the drugs. Throughout
his research. Yablonsky says. he found the possibility of arrest or being forced
to reveal sources a constant source of concern, anxiety, and fear. It caused him
to turn down an offer to meet "the biggest pusher in California." While
such an interview might have aided his sociological insights, he figured that the
need to keep the man's identity secret presented an insuperable scholarly dilemma.
In the past. he has been bothered by revelations of unpunished crimes turned up in
group-therapy work among prison inmates and addicts. finally decided not to report
them. Yablonsky argues. States should either pass laws granting immunity against
prosecution to qualified researchers or allow attorney generals to grant immunity
for specific projects.
Yablonsky vows never to take LSD again. opposes hallucinogenic drugs on medical,
mental and legal grounds: "I find reality stimulating and interesting--I am
against any artificial stimulants that foul up the emotions."
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