Drugs

In 1995, Jerry Garcia, singer/guitarist of the Grateful Dead and a figure almost singularly associated with America’s psychedelic subculture, died. Then something weird happened: a nationwide downturn in LSD consumption. It was no coincidence. As the author Jesse Jarnow notes in Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, for decades the Grateful Dead’s expansive, coast-to-coast live concert infrastructure was “the distribution network for LSD”. No Jerry meant no Dead tours, which meant, for many, no LSD. Garcia’s death effectively signalled the end of the Psychedelic Sixties.But now, drugs like LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are enjoying a vogue. They’re finding second lives as clinical tools in the pharmacological battle against depression and anxiety. They’re also being illicitly gobbled in sub-hallucinogenic “micro-doses” as daily supplements, reportedly boosting energy and creativity. In November, Oregonians will vote on whether to legalize psilocybin therapy statewide. And a new study in the July issue of the international journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence reports that LSD use increased 56% between 2015 and 2018 (including a rather massive 223% increase among people aged 35 to 49). It’s all part of what’s being termed the “psychedelic renaissance”.This revival is curious. It doesn’t seem to be about restoring the bygone heyday of hippie-era psychedelic culture, as renaissance art of the 14th century turned back to the glories of antiquity. For some, the sun setting on this subculture was just as well. The concept of “the sixties” – with its long hair and wide-eyed, pupil-dilated idealism – has sometimes proved an impediment. Michael Pollan, whose bestseller How To Change Your Mind popularized the current resurgence, notes that the very word psychedelic “carries a lot of countercultural baggage”. Mind-expansion, we’re being told, may be beneficial – but please leave the tie-dye shirts and frilly vests and marching teddy bear bumper stickers in the past. More