The+Drug+Daze

Drug use was a major part of the counterculture movement. During the 1950’s, the Beatnik subculture arose as defiance against mainstream America (while having an acknowledgement of society). In their jazz clubs the use of drugs had became a common place and this use will be carried onto the counterculture movement. Drugs such as cannabis and LSD were now popularly being used among young people who wanted to rebel. In one of his speeches, John F. Kennedy said “Drug abuse is increasing in epidemic proportions and has become a fact of life, if not a way of life, a sizable segment of our youth population; where we can least afford it to take root.” The two main drugs of the counter culture movement were marijuana and LSD. Older generations saw marijuana as dangerous to both personal health and society. The counter culture generation saw a great sense of hypocrisy in their predecessors with mind altering properties of alcohol and the highly addictive and harmful habit of smoking. While Marijuana was a drug that has been used for centuries and by the previous Beatniks, LSD was fairly new. Developed in laboratories and used for its hallucinogenic properties, LSD became frequently used. Before 1966, LSD, unlike marijuana was actually legal. Many psychiatrists prescribed it to their patients. The sensations that LSD had given to its user had brought upon the notion of its spiritual use. Timothy Leary, a professor of Harvard and the one who first coined the phrase “Turn on, tune in, drop out” was actually fired for the use and experimentation of LSD on many of his students. He even prescribed this drug to seven year old kids. Leary’s promotion of LSD had greatly contributed to the drug’s popularization with the American youth. With the rise of drug use among youths, the number of teenage runaways had a huge spike. Many of these kids took refuge in the East Village, New York and the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco. Marijuana’s popularity had spawned the opening of many head-shops (stores in which drug paraphernalia is sold). Within these neighborhoods, many counterculture youths established their own “crash pads” (homes/apartments where they do drugs) and communities were starting to form. Yet, as time progressed, things weren’t as groovy as they used to be. Biker gangs and drug pushers had also started taking interest in these areas, bringing violence and heroin with them. With the overcrowded crash pads, the hippies could no longer take residence in these places so they had no choice but to leave. Archer, Jules. //The Incredible Sixties//. New York: HBJ, 1986. Emmens, Carol A. An Album of the Sixties. New York. Franklin Watts, 1981.