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Dr. Melanie Dreher, reefer researcher Despite political pressure to have it otherwise, Dr. Dreher's research reveals that pot-smoking moms can have smart, healthy babies. by Pete Brady (Ol Nov, 1998) 9 i i 1 1 Dr Melanie Dreher When Dreher released solidly researched reports showing that children ofganja-using mothers were better adjusted than children born to non-using mothers, she encountered political and professional turbulence. Dr. Melanie Dreher is one of a handful of scientists who have reseazched mazijuana objectively and intelligently in the last three decades. Dr Dreher is Dean of the University of Iowa's College of Nursing, and also holds the post of Associate Director for the University's Department of Nursing and Patient Services. She's a perpetual overachiever who earned honours degrees in nursing, anthropology and philosophy before being awazded a PhD in anthropology from prestigious Columbia University in 1977. Although Dreher is amulti-faceted researcher and teacher whose expertise ranges from culture to child development to public health, she began early onto specialize in medical anthropology. After distinguishing herself as a field reseazcher in graduate school, Dreher was hand-picked by her professors to conduct a major study of marijuana use in Jamaica. Her doctoral dissertation was published as a book titled "Working Men and Gagja," which stands as one of the premier cross-cultural studies of chronic mazijuana use. Along with being awidely-published researcher, writer, and college administrator, Dreher is a professor or lecturer at several institutions, including the University of the West Indies. She recently served as president of the 120,000 member Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honour Society, has been an expert witness in a religious freedom case involving ganja use by the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, and is one of the most well-respected academicians in the world. Governmental and private organizations, including the US State Department, have funded Dreher's many reseazch projects, some of which focused on ganja's role in Jamaican culture, and the effects of ganja and cocaine on Jamaican women and children. Dreher has impeccable credentials and a wealth of proprietary information on ganja use, but when she released solidly-researched reports showing that children ofganja-using mothers were better adjusted than children born to mothers who did not use ganja, she encountered political and professional turbulence. Some observers accuse the government and anti-pot 1