Gabriel G. Nahas of Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and later New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, born 1920, is a retired anesthesiologist

Anesthesiologist

An anesthesiologist or anaesthetist is a physician trained in anesthesia and peri-operative medicine....

 and former active member of the French Resistance who conducted numerous studies on illicit drugs. His wartime experiences as a member of the French resistance, for which he was awarded the Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

 by Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

, spurred his lifelong crusade against the dangers of addictive disease. His work was instrumental in establishing the alleged harms associated with cannabis

Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...

, with methods increasingly hyperbolic, such as suffocating monkeys for roughly 5 minutes at a time in volumes of smoke far greater than what the average person would consume in proportion. His research has been challenged by a large number of opponents. One being Dr. Miles Herkenham whose team disproved Nahas' long battling theory arguing that cannabis affects the middle-brain. Nahas also argued against the use of cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

for experimental purposes in human subjects.