the merry pranksters

everywhere i read that the pranksters were heavy users of acid, marijuana and AMPHETAMINES. werent hippies against evil drugs such as heroin, cocaine and amphetamines? Why would they used amphetamines? there arent any mind expanding effects from taking them. cannabis is a holy herb which gives a positive outlook about life, lsd is a mind expanding substance that takes u into into various realms of the unknown. what the fuck were amphetamines used for, im kinda confused? could be false information? btw sorry for posting this here, i chose the lsd forum cuz that was what the pranksters were knwon for the most.

 

I dunno about the pranksters, but a lot of the hippies that normally would be anti-speed were sorta driven to it for survival reasons. living on the street and seasonal mj supplies drying up compelled many to use speed. there was a bit of an epidemic. a lot of those hippies' values didn't last though.

 

Because it was available. Because it was about choice. They must have dug the drug.

And hardly any values in hippies prevailed... Remember? Yippies now?

 

yeah i know alot of the brothers started getting into heroin and cocaine, and imo that was a main reason behind the scene getting destroyed. however even hippies who started using hard drugs never endorsed them or recommended them, n deep inside were guilty about their uses. however the pranksters used to supply amphetamines along with lsd and marijuana during their bus tours. unlike the brotherhood of eternal love who supplied marijuana hash and lsd in the beginning then when the love era ended some of them got into smuggilin cocaine in the late 70s for materialistic n egoistic reasons. the pranksters were into amphetamines from the beginning.

 

yippies are hippies who supported violence when necassary like abbie hoffman. correct me if im wrong...

 

evil drugs?


wtf is an evil drug?

 

thats what they used to call them

 

I thought a yippie was someone with hippie values but lived a yuppie life. I remembered it cuz it's sort of what I am.

 

its sort of what i am too, lol...

 

Read Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"

It'll pretty much sum it all up for you.

 

Among hippies in general, heroin was frowned upon while coke and speed were considered okay if you did them in moderation. Acid was also recommended in moderation, especially in the case of emotionally sensitive people. Problem is, some people can't seem to moderate their drug use, they're never satisfied with their high and they always want to get higher. This more than anything kept the drug culture from gaining greater acceptance.

 

The Pranksters most definitely used speed, either in conjunction with marijuana and/or LSD or by itself (less common). This would have most-likely been an illegal form of the drug, as many producers of LSD at some time or another had produced amphetamine (most-notably Owsley Stanley).

I think you have to remember the climate: in the early-mid 1960's everyone from your average housewife to the beat junkie were taking Amphetamines as they were legal to prescribe for weight loss, narcolepsy, and just general fatigue.

Having said that, one of the prankster's favorite slogans was "weed, speed, and LSD." In combination, these three drugs in particular work well for calming the physical body (weed), while stimulating the mind (speed), so that you are able to concentrate on the spirit (LSD). The so-called Holy Trinity.

Neil Cassady was one exception the rule, often opting for just weed and speed.

 

on the other hand the holy trinity of the brotherhood of eternal love was weed, hash and lsd. great info bro, i was lookin forward for a reply like this, thx alot.. BTW where did u get it from? im buying the EKAAT book and the brotherhood of eternal love one. what i find weird though that weed isnt enough at all for calming the body after an amphetamine comedown, i find it increases the anxiety.

 

Most of my information comes from Tom Wolfe's account in the EKAAT, but also from reading random, long lost, interviews with Kesey and various other pranksters and jesters that were hanging around La Honda in the mid-60's.

But Wolfe makes it very clear in the book that the pranksters and Kesey enjoy amphetamines, especially in combination with marijuana due to the "leveling out" that occurs when an upper and downer are taken.

The Brotherhood surfaced in or around late 1966 at the behest of Timothy Leary, where they mostly dealt in LSD and Hashish with the cash being funneled back to various funders Leary had lined up. These were the people/surfers responsible for making and marketing Owsley's tabs, but they became monoliths on the scene with the product that Owsley's associates--Tim Scully and Co., began to distribute: an analogue of LSD-25 known as ALD-52 or Orange Sunshine. Many an old head will recollect about the days of the "orange barrell" - an orange caplet filled with up to 300 ug of ALD-52.

As I understand it, to a large part this group did not use amphetamines. Most of them lived near or around Laurel Canyon, where they had seen first-hand what happens to chill hippies when they start injecting large doses of amphetamine. This was a major problem in California due to the fact that the streets of the Haight Ashbury and colonies like Laurel Canyon had become intensely overcrowded. By late 1967 you could hardly find any marijuana circulating due to the influx of people. There was plenty of LSD, but nobody wanted to take it because they were surrounded by millions of strangers now flooding the streets. There was, however, plenty of cheap speed and many people turned to this drug, which inevitably destroyed well over half of its users. By 1969, its dangers were more than obvious, whereas this was not the case before.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that none of the Brotherhood took amphetamines, as it includes so many people, but most of them didn't.

Sorry if this was overly informative, I just wanted to give people an idea of what we were talking about. I hope this helps! You're gonna love the books!

 

amazing info, really appreciated. btw theres a documentary comin out called "orange sunshine" about the brotherhood. check out the trailer on youtube, just type orange sunshine, looks promising. it talks about how they smuggled marijuana and hash from foreign countries and supplied people with scullys "orane sunshine" lsd. one last question bro why did the hippies choose speed? when the mj supply was dry wouldnt it make more sense to start doin ludes which r downers and were widely available n cheap than uppers like speed. why the speed? if they were mainlining that shit why not got for heroin and coke. or where they misinformed and thought at that time that amphetamines werent as "Evil" as heroin and coke. i mean that era was known for excessive cannabis and lsd use, among other psychedillics, however as i read more im discovering that they were so into speed to. btw thanks for all the info, u knw ur shit, respect.

 

I'm glad I could help! As to your question; one can only speculate, but I'd say they turned to amphetamines for a few reasons:

1. It was being produced by underground chemists in much the same way it is now, whereas downers were not.

2. It was abundant and thought to be safe.

3. Cheap, cheap, cheap.


Basically it was their only alternative, imho.

 

does anyone know where to find the merry prankster footage tom wolfe mentioned in his book. someone told me it was on youtube but i looked and couldnt find anything...

 

The Pranksters were using speed before hippys even existed lol

 

Actually there are mind expanding qualities to amphetamines. Although it is easy for amphetamine used to fall into the abuse category it can be used with spiritual and psychological benefit. Sleep dep can be really trippy and believe it or not I learned a lot! The mental alertness and the conversations you can have with yourself, others and the voices in your head can actually be very therapeutic.

 

True. Some people would dispute the spiritual authenticity of sleep deprivation, but personally, I become increasingly aware and develop a great sensitivity of my own chakras when I've been without sleep for a substantial amount of time.