Abstract
This chapter examines the end of Prohibition and the rise of a new age of “peace pills.” Drugging fears were relatively quiescent and I consider whether this had to do with newly restored, positive regard for alcohol. Governments become involved in tactical drug experimentation, and mid-century public figures consider the promise and peril of hallucinogens. LSD spiking is considered as a unique concern, as it is a stimulant. The postwar rise in both illicit and prescribed psychoactive drug use shapes these fears. This is the onset of the age of pharma-ubiquity.
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Notes
- 1.
Gusfield, 8.
- 2.
I used ProQuest Historical Newspapers database to search the Washington Post from 1900 to 1969, after which nearly all of the scant references were metaphorical. The term “chloral” only appeared to replace the term “knockout drops” up until 1907, then also fell off. The New York Times rarely used the term “knockout drops.” Using their own index, I found only 10 such references up until 1914, after which the term “chloral” or “chloral hydrate” is used exclusively: 139 such references between 1900 and 1910, 39 from 1911 to 1920, 41 between 1920 and 1930, and then significant declines after that.
- 3.
Nelli, 153; Deborah Blum, “The Chemist’s War,” Slate.com, February 19, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2016. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_chemists_war.html.
- 4.
The book is an odd combination of practical political proposals, some dodgy storytelling, projections into the features of a future utopia, and self-help physical health and nutrition advice. Upton Sinclair, The Book of Life: Mind and Body, Los Angeles: Library of Alexandria, 1921.
- 5.
Nelli, 146.
- 6.
Lori Rotskoff, Love on the Rocks: Men, Women and Alcohol in Post-World War II America, (Durham, NC: University of North Carolina Press), 2002.
- 7.
Rotskoff, 38–39.
- 8.
Harry G. Levine and Craig Reinarman, Alcohol prohibition and drug prohibition. Lessons from alcohol policy for drug policy. (Amsterdam: CEDRO), 2004.
- 9.
Levine and Reinarman, 2004.
- 10.
B.S. Katcher, “The post-repeal eclipse in knowledge about the harmful effects of alcohol,” Addiction, June 1993, vol. 88, no. 6, 729–44. Commentary in a subsequent edition of Addiction journal (May 1994) criticizes Katcher for overstating his case.
- 11.
Rotskoff, 19.
- 12.
See, for instance: Eleanor Barkhorn and Ashley Fetters, “How to Redeem ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’: Fix the Lyrics,” The Atlantic, December 11, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/12/how-to-redeem-baby-its-cold-outside-fix-the-lyrics/266117/#article-comments. Retrieved December 17, 2015. Counterpoints, origins and role variations: Ken Layne, “How ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ Became America’s Secular Christmas Anthem, Despite People Claiming It’s About Date Rape,” The Awl, December 21, 2012. http://www.theawl.com/2012/12/baby-its-cold-outside; Leslie Kendall Dye, “Warming up to ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’: What my mother taught me about the guy who wrote the ‘date-rape’ Christmas song,” Salon.com, December 6, 2015. Retrieved December 15, 2015. http://www.salon.com/2015/12/06/warming_up_to_baby_its_cold_outside_what_my_mother_taught_me_about_the_guy_who_wrote_that_rapey_christmas_song/#comments. The song also contains the line “the answer is no,” but this seems to have attracted some, but considerably less, attention. For a recent role reversal version, with the lyrics intact, find Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s 2013 version.
- 13.
W.H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue. (New York: Random House), 1947.
- 14.
Richard Davenport-Hines, The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, (New York: Norton), 2001300–305.
- 15.
Tone, 59–65; Elena Conis, “Valium Had Many Ancestors,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2008. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/18/health/he-esoterica18. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
- 16.
Tone, 88–89.
- 17.
UPI, “US Opens Inquiry on Tranquilizer,” New York Times, June 28, 1966, via New York Times Archive.
- 18.
“‘Behavior’ Drugs Now Envisioned; Aldous Huxley Predicts They Will Bring Re-Examining of Ethics and Religion,” New York Times, October 19, 1956. Via New York Times Archive.
- 19.
Tone, 62–64.
- 20.
Tone, 176.
- 21.
Leary and Alpert, “Letter to the Editor,” Harvard Crimson, December 13, 1962. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/12/13/letter-from-alpert-leary-pfollowing-is/. Retrieved December 21, 2015. Leary and Alpert were dismissed in 1963.
- 22.
Tone, 21.
- 23.
Albert Hofmann, LSD: My Problem Child, Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1983.
- 24.
Erica Dyck, “Flashback: Psychiatric Experimentation with LSD in Historical Perspective,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, June 2005, v.50, #7, 381–387.
- 25.
Joe Holley, “John K. Vance; Uncovered LSD Project at CIA,” Washington Post, June 16, 2005. Retrieved December 14, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/15/AR2005061502685.html. At least one staff member, Frank Olson, committed suicide. He and three others were apparently drinking spiked Cointreau at a meeting weeks earlier and he lapsed into a sudden, intractable depression, notoriously crashing out a New York hotel room window. Kim Zetter, “April 13, 1953: CIA OKs MK-ULTRA Mind-Control Tests,” Wired Magazine, April 3, 2010. http://www.wired.com/2010/04/0413mk-ultra-authorized/. Later, they thought it might be used as a kind of intentional mind-gibberish generator foisted on an enemy, perhaps Fidel Castro.
- 26.
UNITED STATES SENATE, NINETY-FIFTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, Project MKULTRA, The CIA’s Program of Research in Behavioral Modification, Joint Hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, AUGUST 3, 1977. http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/95mkultra.pdf. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
- 27.
Raffi Khachadourian, “High Anxiety: LSD in the Cold War,” New Yorker, December 15, 2012. http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/high-anxiety-lsd-in-the-cold-war. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
- 28.
UNITED STATES SENATE, NINETY-FIFTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, Project MKULTRA …
- 29.
Lieberman, E.J. (1962) Psychochemicals as Weapons, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 1962, Vol. XVIII, no. 1, 11–14.
- 30.
Specifically, about the ethics of medicine, Lieberman meant that, because scientists already know that indiscriminate use of drugs can cause harm and paradoxical effects, the Hippocratic Oath might well enjoin participation of those who understand the potentialities of the drugs the best.
- 31.
Lieberman, 13–14.
- 32.
Andy Roberts, Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain, (Tarrytown NY: Marshall Cavendish), 2012, 46–60. Only part of Roberts’ book deals with government experimentation, but the bibliography contains references to the official inquiry reports as well as news coverage of the scandal, more broadly known as “Porton Down.”
- 33.
Erika Dyck, “Flashback: Psychiatric Experimentation With LSD in Historical Perspective,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 50, No. 7, June 2005, 381–389.
- 34.
Kobler is more well known for his 1971 biography of Al Capone. Notable also is his 1968 biography of Henry Luce: Luce: His Time, Life, and Fortune, (New York, Doubleday), 1968.
- 35.
Time, “Instant Mysticism,” October 25, 1963, Vol. 82, Issue 17, 106.
- 36.
Hofmann, 2013.
- 37.
Patti Boyd, “Patti Boyd: The dentist who spiked my coffee with LSD,” August 5, 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-473207/Patti-Boyd-The-dentist-spiked-coffee-LSD.html#ixzz3xhajgRdM. Boyd, Wonderful Tonight, (New York: Three Rivers Press), 2008, 101–103.; Martin Lee, And Bruce Schlain, Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD; the CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond, (New York: Grove/Atlantic), 1985, 180.
- 38.
Hollingshead came to be regarded suspiciously by Leary and friends, who were still at Harvard, but he had a great deal of high-quality product and may have actually been first among the psychonauts to try LSD. See Lee and Schlain, 84, 98, 116. Hollingshead does not appear to address the “coated doorknobs” claim in his writings, though he notes in his own book that, in London, “[t]he place was a centre for all kinds of psychedelic experimentation, and it was only a matter of time before someone complained or turned me in. There had been a number of ‘incidents’ surrounding the history of this flat, such as a party attended by some eighty guests who got accidentally turned on via a spiked fruit-and-wine punch, amongst whom were some police spies masquerading as hippies.” At the time, LSD was not yet prohibited in either country. Michael Hollingshead, The Man Who Turned on the World, (London: Blond and Briggs, 1973). Available online at http://www.psychedelic-library.org/hollings.htm, see chapter 7.
- 39.
Albert Rosenfeld, “A Remarkable Mind Drug Suddenly Spells Danger: LSD, The Vital Facts” Life, March 25, 1966, vol. 60, no. 12, 28–30D.
- 40.
Lee and Schlain, 147.
- 41.
“LSD Use Out of Control, Says Dismissed Doctor: Out of Your Mind Disturbing Incidents,” Washington Post, May 14, 1966, A8. Via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- 42.
Robert Greenfield, Timothy Leary: A Biography, (Orlando, FL): Harcourt Books, 277; Jean White, “Leary Proposes a Ban on LSD Except in ‘Psychedelic Centers’” Washington Post, May 27, 1966, A2. Via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- 43.
Stephen Siff’s study of the early era (1954–1968) shows that the Luce publications covered LSD more extensively, that is, more frequently and more in-depth, than its competitors. The affection of the Luce family, owners of Time-Life Incorporated, for LSD as a psychotherapeutic and spiritual adjuvant has been widely discussed, particularly as it seemed to affect their magazines’ positive, at times or at least not uniformly condemning, view of LSD’s rising popularity. Jack Shafer, “The Time and Life Acid Trip,” Slate.com, June 21, 2010, Retrieved January 19, 2016. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2010/06/the_time_and_life_acid_trip.html; Stephen Siff, Acid Hype: American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press), 2015.
- 44.
“Metropolitan: Man admits guilt in LSD cases,” Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1971, A2; “Acid by Accident,” Time, April 20, 1970, Vol. 95, Issue 16.
- 45.
“LSD in Cafe Hospitalizes 2,” Washington Post, April 15, 1971, A3; via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- 46.
Lester L. Coleman, “Speaking of Your Health: Letter from Mr. H.H.,” Version published in Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter, September 10, 1973, C-2. Via Google News: Newspapers. Retrieved December 30, 2015. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=6w2ZCmoKEM0C&dat=19730910&b_mode=2&hl=en.
- 47.
Beatrice Sparks, writing as Anonymous, Go Ask Alice: a Real Diary, (New York: Simon and Schuster), 1971.
- 48.
Albert Hofmann, LSD: My Problem Child, Jonathan Ott, trans. (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2013, 57.
- 49.
G. Gordon Liddy, Will: the Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy, (New York: St. Martin’s Press) 1980; Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: the rise of a president and the fracturing of America, (New York: Simon and Schuster), 2008. On Millbrook: Lee and Schlain, 1985.
- 50.
UPI, “4 Manson Followers Jailed in LSD Case,” Washington Post, April 17, 1971, A1.
- 51.
PBS, “Independent Lens: Chicago 10,” [broadcast documentary], 2008; Lee and Schlain, 1985.
- 52.
UPI, “Students Spiking Food, Guardsmen Are Warned,” Washington Post, Jun 12, 1969, A7. Via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- 53.
Stephen Tropiano, Rebels and Chicks: A History of the Hollywood Teen Movie, (New York: Random House), 2006.
- 54.
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, (New York: Random House), 1971.
- 55.
David Dalton, Robin Green, Mindfuckers: a source book on the rise of acid fascism in America, Straight Arrow Books, 1972; Bruce Chatwin, What am I doing here?, (New York: Penguin), 1990.
- 56.
N.N. Boutros, M.B. Bowers, and D. Quinlan, D., “Chronological Association Between Increases in Drug Abuse and Psychosis in Connecticut State Hospitals,” Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 10, February 1998, 48–54.
- 57.
It was not—due to the research design—the same young adults who showed up on the hospital steps dissociating a few years later; rather, the authors used the early spike in drug admissions as a kind of proxy for an overall use surge in Connecticut (and which was, of course, matched by a nationwide trend).
- 58.
Donovan, 2004.
- 59.
Jean-Bruno Renard, “Les décalcomanies au LSD,” Communications, 52, 1990, 11–50. doi:10.3406/comm.1990.1781
- 60.
“Payphone Poison,” Snopes.com, 2011. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/payphone2.asp. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- 61.
Tone, 176–187.
- 62.
Jan Harold Brunvand, The Choking Doberman and Other Urban Legends, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1984: 78–92.
- 63.
Stephan Barlay, Bondage: the Slave Traffic in Women Today, New York: Dell, 1969.
- 64.
By Rorer and Company in North America and Roussel Laboratories (Sanofi-Aventis) in the UK.
- 65.
Victoria Bekiempis, “Do People Still Take Quaaludes?” Newsweek, August 2, 2015, Retrieved January 16, 2016, http://www.newsweek.com/do-people-still-take-quaaludes-357914.
- 66.
The best-selling brand in North America is Benadryl, made by Johnson & Johnson; internationally, the name “Benadryl” is also licensed to other, nondiphenhydramine preparations.
- 67.
Over 50 women have made such claims. See Amanda Holpuch, Jessica Glenza and Nicky Woolf, “The Bill Cosby sexual abuse claims—57 women and the dates they went public,” The Guardian, UK Edition, December 31, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/31/bill-cosby-sexual-abuse-claims-57-women-dates-public-accusations. Most of the incidents took place too long ago to result in prosecution. Attempts at civil remedy remain possible in some of these cases. More recent allegations have not resulted in prosecution. Sam Levin, “Bill Cosby will not be charged in two sexual assault allegations in LA County,” The Guardian, UK Edition, January 6, 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/bill-cosby-will-not-be-charged-in-two-sexual-assault-allegations-in-la-county. For his part, Cosby has filed defamation suits against some of his accusers: Amanda Holpuch, “Bill Cosby files defamation suit against women who accused him of assault,” The Guardian, UK Edition, December 14, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/bill-cosby-defamation-lawsuit-women-sexual-assault. One criminal prosecution is currently ongoing, related to similar claims of misconduct lodged by Andrea Constand in Pennsylvania. See Holpuch, Glenzam and Woolf, 2015.
- 68.
Graham Bowley and Sydney Ember, “Bill Cosby, in Deposition, Said Drugs and Fame Helped Him Seduce Women,” New York Times, July 18, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/arts/bill-cosby-deposition-reveals-calculated-pursuit-of-young-women-using-fame-drugs-and-deceit.html. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
- 69.
Darryl S. Inaba, George R. Gay, John A. Newmeyer, Craig Whitehead, “Methaqualone Abuse: ‘Luding Out,’” Journal of the American Medical Association, June 11, 1973; 224(11), 1505–1509; Emil F. Pascarelli, “Methaqualone Abuse, The Quiet Epidemic,” Journal of the American Medical Association, June 11, 1973.): 1512–1514.
- 70.
David McDowell, “Marijuana, Hallucinogens, and Club Drugs,” in Richard J. Frances, Sheldon I. Miller, Avram H. Mack, eds., Clinical Textbook of Addictive Disorders, Third Edition, New York: Guilford Press, 2005.
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Donovan, P. (2016). Baby, It’s Cold War Outside: An Era of Pharma-Ubiquity. In: Drink Spiking and Predatory Drugging. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57517-3_4
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