LSD: The Rise And Fall Of The Grateful Dead

In addition to the bands’ and fans’ heavy drug use, the Grateful Dead inadvertently protested American ideas, because of the anti-establishment implications that surrounded them. This rebellion happened in the midst of people assigning political meaning to everything they did at the time, despite the band claiming to be apolitical. The Grateful Dead frequently refused to take any political stances because they didn’t want to ostracize any groups from enjoying their music or the LSD experience associated with them (Olsson 56). With prominent issues during their prime, such as the Vietnam War booming in the 1960s or the War on Drugs beginning in the 1970s, celebrities were often expected to take a stance, especially in regards such polarizing

The band’s original goal was to facilitate unity outside of the norm through the use of LSD, which is much of why LSD is so important to the culture surrounding the Grateful Dead (Olsson 119). It was more than just partying and fun - it was about breaking away and being truly free from the hardships of our world. As also put in the book Republic of Rock, “attendees at the Acid Tests wanted to have fun, but their pleasures were linked to trying to understand the American ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness within the setting of Cold War American power, abundance, and, more ominously, the ever-growing shadow of the escalating war in Vietnam” (Kramer 35). LSD represented a true level of freedom from authority that would not be possible without the psychosis and the hyper-awareness that the drug induced. However, this open mindset directly contradicted the ideas of the American government, who criminalized LSD and alienated hippie culture. LSD is physically harmless; there can be behavioral consequences for taking LSD, but taking LSD doesn’t affect your physical health (Anders). Regardless of this fact, LSD was harshly targeted by law enforcement. Counterculture (defined as the norms that may challenge or contradict the existing mainstream) was feared by politicians because they didn’t understand the nature of peoples’ affiliation with the drug (Kramer 9). This fear of drug use and harsh prosecution that followed triggered the ‘War on Drugs’; the term was coined in a 1971 speech by Richard Nixon that began a series of policies to criminalize drug use (Baum). John Ehrlichman, an assistant to Nixon in the white house, explained to a reporter from Harpers Magazine that “the Nixon campaign in 1968, and the