TWO COLLEGES DENY MARIJUANA INVASION

Cornell Official Calls McNaboe Statement 'Pipe Dream' -- West Point Hunt Futile

New York Times, March 22, 1937

ALBANY, March 21 (AP). -- Officials of two New York State colleges denied tonight a statement that the "reefer man" had invaded their campuses.

Spokesmen for Cornell University and the United States Military Academy at West Point said they knew nothing of the sale of so-called "reefers" or cigarettes made of the marijuana drug weed to their students.

The authorities answered State Senator John J. McNaboe who last night in a prepared statement said that the sale of the drug had spread to the "campuses of many high schools and colleges" in the State.

Mr. McNaboe named the military academy and Cornell as two of the major colleges where the drug could be obtained.

"This is another one of Senator McNaboe's pipe dreams," a Cornell University spokesman who refused to allow his name to be published, said.

"In due time it will receive the same amount of ridicule that greeted his previous outburst."

The spokesman referred to Mr. McNaboe's previous charges that the State's colleges, notably Cornell, were centers of communistic activity.

At West Point, Captain F. A. March, public relations officer, said officers interviewed denied any knowledge of the sale to students.

Mr. McNaboe made his statement in connection with his bill providing for a division of narcotic control in the State Health Department to concentrate on "stamping out the evils of marijuana."

The Federal Narcotic Bureau, he said, does not "give any of its attention to the weed as it is not banned under Federal laws."

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