Drugs -60's to now (please comment)

Drugs have gotten a lot stronger, more dangerous and varied over the years. Back in the 60's you could smoke a joint and not have to worry about if it was laced with something or not. Now, ya gotta be more careful what u put into your body cause a lot of it is much more harmful than it was in the 60's.

The past half a century has been the age of the babyboomers. Society tended to conform to the babyboomer mentality. Meaning, if counterculture was an ideal of the babyboomers, then counterculture was an aspect of that society. The main people doin drugs in the 60's were the babyboomers. They were all teenagers and were naturally rebellious and experimental. So society conformed and drug use was almost commonplace. Now the babyboomers have matured and lost their rebelliousness. They have gone from ultra-liberal to ultra-conservative and society has conformed to this change. That is why drug use today is looked down upon as a mortal sin whereas in the 60s it was nearly commonplace.

 

"It's a joke. Greed and the desire to take drugs are two separate things. If you want to separate the two, the thing you do is make drugs legal. Accept the reality that people do want to change their consciousness, and make an effort to make safer, healthier drugs."
-Jerry Garcia
Rolling Stone Nov. 30, 1989

 

"Vaguely I understood Jerry's philosophy to be that man, like his universe, was exploding out into infinity. The acceleration of his discoveries and the speed of his technology were outdistancing the minds that dreamed them up. Since man was the only organism in nature with the ability to fuck with nature, all man had to do was dream himself up a faster mind. Man needed a sixth sense to approach light speeds. A larger consciousness, an expanded awareness, an extrasensory psyche. That's why man'd begun experimenting with drugs, whether grown from the ground, like marijuana, or synthesized through research in the Roche labs, like valium. Dope was the space ship to explore your own head and maybe to get into others. One day man'd no longer fear dope. He'd learn to use it."
Al Arnowitz The Blacklisted Journalist

 

so, saint stephen, I love your comments. I might seriously have to quote you. It all makes sense. And I love the quote from Jerry Garcia. Thank you.

People, keep em' comin! lol.

Jenna

 

Well, my plans have been rained out, and I just noticed that OxyBabe is from Grand Rapids where I grew up (GRCC?), so I'm gonna go on a spiel here.

First let me say that I'm only 19, so I certainly can't give an accurate synopsis of the 60's, but I'll try to relate as best I can. I won't delve into my own history, as this will probably be too long without.

Ok, I imagine in the 60's people were often introduced to drugs much the same way they are today. They are sitting around with a friend or two, and someone lights a joint, they see that pot doesn't cause their friends to become insane or violent (Reefer Madness is hysterical), so they join in the roto

Of course introduction to other drugs usually takes the same course, sitting around smoking a joint with friends and someone has some blotter, or mushrooms, ect.

While introduction to the world of drugs may not have changed much, certainly many aspects of their use have. One signifcant difference involves the expansion of knowledge in both volume (scientific reasearch), and availability (internet). While someone would eat a handfull of mushrooms in the 60's and have an intense experience, they would have likely done so without today's widespread knowledge of their use and praise thousands of years ago by many people. Today someone can go online or to their local library and find a plethora of accurate information on a drug before they even touch it.
Something that hasn't been discussed much so far are drugs synthesized by pharmaceutacal companies. Sure, while amphetamines along with other prescription substances have been around since the 60's, their use and abuse has become astonishing. Few if any people in the 60's could have imagined today's smorgasboard of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, sleep aids, painkillers, and so forth. The government (fda) monitors the testing and production of said medications, but can do little to monitor their use.
Now don't forget the two drugs used more frequently and by more people than any other, you know what they are: alcohol and tobbaco. Everyone has heard of the effects of "The Prohibition," and it only proved the fact that making something illegal only creates a "black market." Tobacco has always been legal, for two reasons, its use produces no intoxication, and its a viable form of population control. (Don't believe me, why do you think you can get in as much if not more trouble for growing your own tobbaco than your own herb?)
Thats about all I'm going to say on the subject, but I'll leave you with this little fact: Each and every one of our brains produces a minute amount of a chemical (I forget the name) that is listed Schedule I (blah blah blah, possesion is a felony, blah blah blah), and since we all know that the body constitutes a container, the U.S government could technically imprison every adult within it's borders.

*Feel free to quote, paraphrase, and plagerize to your heart's content.

 

Not to mention the secret police wants to arrest you find you guilty of a felony . then try to brain wash you at a local detox clinic prison by a bunch of goverment ran quak doctors.

 

That's because people either phase out most heavy drug use, or accept life as either a slave or a borderline retard. Most who'd pick the latter half have something unbalanced to begin with.

 

I believe the chemical your thinking of is DMT as it is produced in the human brain aswell as in certain toads and plants throughout the world.Heres a link if anyone is interested in this chemical: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/dmt.shtml

 

Damn you people are great. Swede, I got to Grand Valley State University. I have a lot of friends that go to GRCC though. Where are you now that you're not in Grand Rapids? j/w.

 

I'm in the Golden State (California). Just curious, what high school did you go to?

 

I went to Kenowa Hills high school. In Grand Rapids.

 

People think you're insane for trying pot? Maybe that's just where you're from man, that sure sucks. Here, every person I know smokes pot or has another habit, or smokes occasionally. I live in an area that used to run rampart with heavy drug use, as in junkies with needles still in their arms passed out on benches in parks all over the city. Shit is cleaned up now, but we're all products of our parents, most of whom are from here to begin with, so drugs are very commonplace to most of us. Most of us also know not to delve into the harder stuff like coca crack hbomb just cause we've seen what it will do to all the fucked up people here.

As for drug change from the 60's til now, I wasn't there then but I am here now. Stronger tabs have surfaced as of late, but nothing close to the L back in the day. It was a lot more potent because they didn't make the doses so small. (Read a bunch of journals and reports about content of hits from back in the day.)

As far as trees go, there was always high grade cannabis, just not as easily obtainable back then. Now, you've got all these advances in growing as well as pot genetics, and any 14 year old with a will can find a way on the net or library to grow high-quality pot in his closet, yard, basement, whatever.

Now, ecstasy is the pop drug. Although its popularity has somewhat declined, I'd say Ecstasy is to the 90s what LSD was to the 60's. This saddens me lol. If you're a fan of LSD like I am, this probably saddens you too. The emergence of ecstasy, which is a bit easier to synthesize than LSD as well as easy to cut with other shitty substances, aided in helping destroy the LSD industry. All of a sudden you notice you can get rolls everywhere you look but if you want a tab you better know some fucking heads on tour. LSD to me is serious while E is sort of a joke. IDK how else to explain the difference, but fans of L who have rolled too will know what I am saying. Heard from lots of heads too that when rolls came on the scene shit started going sour.

There is my little piece of info for your paper, good luck on it.

 

Drugs are great, when you use them in moderation. No one likes to whitey out or end up missing the whole of glasto because they've been in the medical center passed out from too much hash cake, trust me its not fun. As for hard drugs, well I havn't had the pleasure of the good stuff like LSD as its just not available. Coke and E are plop really. Coke turns the nicest people arrogant while Ecstacys not as bad but its not for me. Speed is somthing ive never had, seems too punk for me. Im more of the "expand your mind" kinda guy than the "lets get high" guy...does that make sense?

I heard that skunk is waaay more powerfull than back in the 60's and it'll make you go mad etc. Do you guys and girls think that this is another government plot to make us all stop smoking or will i eventually go insane and think that the monsters under my bed are real?

 

I just have a few thoughts on the subject (well i have a lot more, but i dont feel like going off on it all). First off, you might want to look into CIA and drugs. They actually gave them to people in order to study the drugs' effects.
Also, the main difference in drugs then and now is that in the 1980's we started the "War on Drugs" which meant telling kids a whole bunch of lies and scarying them out of doing drugs.
And lastly, I just want to say that I don't think drugs were just all of a sudden a huge thing. Native Americans did them way before colonization. I'm sure there was some in Europe too (though I havent studied European history too much, so I have no examples). And they were used then to reach new dimensions, thoughts, or whatever. Drugs have been used for spiritual reasons for YEARS AND YEARS. As well as for peace. I think the reason the 60's made it so famous was that there was the baby boomers, and because society changed in what they were willing to show. Things were kept quiet before. Like with other things too (such as JFK sleeping around a lot.. as compared to Clinton getting a BJ). In the 60's there was a lot of movements. A lot of kids went "this is reality, we all do this." It was just all of a sudden thrown into people's faces and no one could live in denial anymore.

 

May love and peace be within you and around you always and the stars of freedom shine forever in your mind R.A.T AUZTRALIA

 

ive nevee tried the stuff. Doe's Pure LSD-25 exist? Love and Peace. R.A.T AUZTRALIA

 

Im a senior in high school in suburban PA. A few days ago I was in my English class and talking to my friend about salvia divinorum and how its legal and if he tried the stuff. One kid overheard us and asked about it. Before we knew it, the entire fucking class was talking about salvia divinorum.

Where I am from, drugs are accepted as part of the teenager culture. Most kids don't do them, but accept them. I think the reason most kids don't do them is because of programs like DARE emphasizing the negative aspect of drugs and because they are illegal.

But looking at drugs from a purely cultural perspective, they are widely accepted.

For those who dont trip or smoke or whatnot, a vast majority of the kids here drink. Probably because it's not as illegal as most narcotics.

 

Awesome essay and informative document on the search for the perfect drug, and why so many drugs fail at being it.

http://biopsychiatry.com/

 

the only drug you really need is life oh and maybe the odd hash cake

 

this is not completly true, not all drugs have gotten a lot stronger. for example LSD has become WAY less potent then during the 1960s. smoking a joint without worrying it was laced? you have to be pretty braindead to not notice its laced.