The hippie adage, “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” now comes with a modern addendum: “Get federal funding.”
January marked the 50th anniversary of the Human Be-In, the historic drug policy protest that attracted tens of thousands of people to San Francisco in 1967 and served as the catalyst for the Summer of Love. It also spurred the radical ascension of psychedelic science research into mainstream medicine.
The Human Be-In sparked a cultural paradigm shift unrivaled since World War II, and despite a conservative backlash and decades-long prohibition, psychedelics are inexorably moving from the Polo Field of Golden Gate Park into the therapist’s office.
Federal research dollars now flow into studies that support giving marijuana and MDMA, or ecstasy, to post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers, and the hallucinogens LSD and psilocybin to cancer patients with depression and anxiety. The drugs work, modern studies show.