LSD AND 'SHROOMS AT YALE? IN THE '60S, SURE

"I would like to see some college set up a psychedelic center and
after a great deal of careful preparation, make an expertly guided
session available to the students willing to prepare for it," said
former assistant professor of psychology Michael Kahn, advocating the
academically-sanctioned use of LSD.

These words were printed in an Oct. 1966 edition of the News, right
in the middle of an era popularly considered synonymous with flower
power, free love and psychedelia.

Was Kahn's comment reflective of the mood of the times?

Alumni and sources from the News' archives reveal that in the late
1960s and '70s, drugs were associated with progressivism and
intellectualism, and as a result became more widely discussed and
used, surpassing alcohol as the substance of choice for many students.

Christopher Buckley '75, the author of "Thank You for Smoking" and a
former editor for the News, said students also took mushrooms and
nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas.

He said a group of his friends had a connection to the night watchman
at New Haven Compressed Air, who often "looked the other way" as the
students carried out a tank of nitrous oxide, which they would use at
"laughing gas parties." On one occasion, a student dropped the tank on his toe.

"We all sat around doing laughing gas while his toe swelled to about
12 times its normal size," Buckley said. "But we had a supply of
anesthetic, so we elected to self-medicate him."

Although Buckley's experience was not necessarily the norm of the
era" a 1969 poll by the News said only 9 percent of students had
tried hallucinogenic drugs" milder drugs were a pervasive part of Yale culture.

Alumni said the most commonly used drugs of the era were marijuana
and LSD. According to a poll conducted by the News in 1969, 35
percent of Yalies had tried marijuana, compared to only 26 percent of
students who said they had in News poll of 850 students conducted
between Friday and Sunday.

In Dec. 1968, the News published an editorial by F. Jay Dougherty '71
arguing for the legalization of marijuana. The author, now a law
professor and entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, said he still
stands by the argument he made as a student.

During his time at Yale, he said drugs seemed to be used for reasons
other than simply recreation, as he thinks they are most commonly
used now, citing the "stupid, stoner image" of modern users.

"There was a lot of intellectual curiosity and an almost
anthropological exploration," he said, referring to students'
experimentation when he was at Yale. "People who got high were a
subgroup of people who were progressive politically."

Like Dougherty, history professor Geoffrey Kabaservice '88, who
studies Yale, said marijuana use at Yale during the '60s and '70s was
often a political act of defiance for students who thought the
government's classification of substances as illegal was arbitrary
and politically-based.

"[Marijuana] was a way to feel solidarity with that part of your
generation," he said.

Kabaservice said some sources have suggested that by the late '60s
and early '70s, marijuana had even replaced alcohol as the drug of
choice. He said that by the late 1970s, marijuana use had become so
prevalent that a professor once noticed a group of inebriated
undergraduates in one of the dining halls, and was surprised that
they were drunk and not high.

Many students continued to drink alcohol, Dougherty said, but it was
looked upon as primitive and conservative.

Throughout the era, topics related to drugs and drug use were
discussed openly. LSD, for example, showed up often in old News
articles" some of which addressed it directly, while others mentioned
it in passing.

One 1968 movie review printed in the News, on the psychedelic film
"The Trip," praised the movie for its similarity to an acid trip,
encouraging use of the drug in the piece.

"The sensitivity and expertise with which [the director] creates the
effects of LSD are evidence of his first-hand experience. The
spectacular visual effects are really psychedelic," said the October
1968 article. "If you're stoned when you see "The Trip," your
pleasure will increase tenfold."

But LSD and marijuana were not the only drugs on campus. One piece,
by Hugh Spitzer '70, on the rising prices of drugs, included a
laundry list of substances that the NHPD Gambling and Narcotics Squad
claimed were used on campus. Among these drugs were white acid,
mescaline, methedrine and various combinations with names like San
Francisco Speedball, Pink Wedges and Purple Owsley.

Dougherty added that some students used speed for studying" an
observation that mirrors current poll responses, though the results
show that students have now turned instead to prescription drugs instead.

Spitzer's story concluded with the following sentence: "Illegal or
not, drugs will most likely remain a part of the scene for some time to come."