Following in the well-worn footsteps of the Beats, the hippies also used cannabis (marijuana), considering it pleasurable and benign. They enlarged their spiritual pharmacopeia to include hallucinogens such as LSD, psilocybin and mescaline. On the East Coast of the United States, Harvard University professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) advocated psychotropic drugs for psychotherapy, self-exploration, religious and spiritual use. Regarding LSD, Leary said, “Expand your consciousness and find ecstasy and revelation within.

On the West Coast of the United States, Ken Kesey was an important figure in promoting the recreational use of psychotropic drugs, especially LSD, also known as “acid.” By holding what he called “Acid Tests”, and touring the country with his band of Merry Pranksters, Kesey became a magnet for media attention that drew many young people to the fledgling movement. The Grateful Dead (originally billed as “The Warlocks”) played some of their first shows at the Acid Tests, often as high on LSD as their audiences. Kesey and the Pranksters had a “vision of turning on the world. Harder drugs, such as amphetamines and heroin were also used in hippie settings; however, these drugs were often disdained, even among those who used them, because they were recognized as harmful and addictive.

Les psychotropes

Le LSD fut découvert en 1943 dans le laboratoire suisse Sandoz et sera déclaré illégal aux États-Unis le 6 octobre 1966. L’esthétique psychédélique peut être assimilée aux visions provoquées par le LSD. Il provoque en somme, une déformation de votre vision et vous entraine dans un état rêveur où réalité et rêve sont confondus. Le psychologue Timothy Leary, le chimiste Augustus Owsley Stanley III et le romancier Ken Kesey ont parmi d’autres encouragé la consommation de LSD. À cette époque, de l’acide a notamment été distribué gratuitement lors des acid tests des Merry Pranksters.

Il est possible de rattacher de nombreux courants artistiques à la consommation de psychotropes, aussi bien la musique (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix…) que le dessin et la mode.Outre le LSD, le cannabis était aussi massivement consommé par les hippies, en particulier sous sa forme la plus répandue, la Marijuana (qu’ils appelaient maryjane ou thé).

Pour les hippies, le but de cette consommation de psychotropes est une volonté d’ouverture d’esprit et d’abolition des frontières mentales.