CANNTHROPOLOGY

The High Priest of LSD

After experimenting with psychedelics in the early 1960s, Harvard psychology professor Timothy Leary experienced a spiritual awakening and became an unlikely icon of the counterculture. Preaching to the nation’s youth to “tune in, turn on, and drop out,” he became America’s poster boy for LSD — and “the most dangerous man in America,” according to President Richard Nixon. But it wasn’t acid that led to the controversial guru’s eventual imprisonment—it was Cannabis.

Timothy Leary with partner Richard Alpert (in the background) at an event at Harvard University in the early 1960s.

INTRO TO PSYCH The year was 1960, and a 40-year-old clinical psychologist from Massachusetts named Timothy Leary had recently begun lecturing at the prestigious Harvard University. There, he learned from a colleague about a sacred ceremony involving hallucinogenic mushrooms he’d recently experienced in Mexico. Intrigued, he traveled down to Cuernavaca that August, where he had his first psychedelic experience on psilocybin mushrooms, which forever changed his life trajectory.

After returning to Harvard that fall, he partnered with assistant professor Richard Alpert to found the Harvard Psilocybin Project: A research program to study psilocybin’s effects on human consciousness using a synthetic version of the compound created by Swiss chemist Albert Hofman of Sandoz Labs – the same chemist who discovered LSD.

Leary’s introduction to acid came in October 1961 through a mysterious British “rascal” named Michael Hollingshead, who reportedly showed up in Cambridge with a mayonnaise jar of sugar paste laced with it. Two months later, Leary finally agreed to try it – allegedly swallowing a heaping tablespoon of the stuff, then proceeding to experience an epic death-and-rebirth level trip that literally blew his mind.

Leary with Richard Alpert at Harvard, circa 1961.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

MILLBROOK Over the next few years, the Harvard Psilocybin Project conducted several studies, including the Concord Prison Experiment (evaluating the effects of psilocybin on the rehabilitation of paroled prisoners) and the Marsh Chapel Experiment (testing its ability to trigger religious experiences).

But the Project’s unorthodox methods, lack of objectivity and cavalier attitude soon lead to their dismissal from Harvard. Luckily for them, their work had attracted the attention of millionaire siblings Peggy, Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, who in late 1963 offered the duo their 64-room mansion in Millbrook, New York to continue their research.

At Millbrook, Leary and Alpert founded the Castalia Foundation and continued their entheogenic experiments – attracting visits from beatnik icons Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, jazz musician Charles Mingus and others. But within a few years, Millbrook had devolved from a research project into a hippie commune/party house. That party ended in 1966 when the estate was raided multiple times – first by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Department (led by future Watergate mastermind G. Gordon Liddy) in April, then several more times by the FBI.

After Millbrook’s implosion, Alpert took off for India (later reinventing himself as Ram Dass), while Leary headed to California to connect with the burgeoning new hippie movement.

LEGEND OF A MIND By this time, Leary was quickly became an icon of the new counterculture – embarking on college speaking tours, being interviewed by Playboy, and even having a song written about him by The Moody Blues.

In January 1967, Leary and Alpert were invited to speak at the Human Be-In – a seminal hippie gathering in Golden Gate Park featuring performances by Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, among others. It was here that he first coined his infamous mantra: “Tune in, Turn on, Drop out.”

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Recording “Give Peace a Chance” at John & Yoko’s Montreal “Bed-In For Peace” (1969).

It was also during this time that he became friends with John Lennon. Having been inspired to write the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” after reading Leary’s book “The Psychedelic Experience,” John and Yoko invited Leary and his new wife Rosemary to their “Bed-In For Peace” at Montreal’s Queen Eliza- Leary for Governor beth Hotel, where they famously recorded poster (1970). “Give Peace a Chance.” Lennon also offered to help Leary in his newly-announced gubernatorial race against Ronald Reagan in California by penning him a song based on his campaign slogan: “Come together, join the party.” Unfortunately, a pot arrest that December killed Leary’s political aspirations; “Come Together,” however, lives on.

BROTHERHOOD BUST At the end of 1967, Leary moved to Laguna Beach, where he became one of the spiritual leaders of notorious hash smugglers/ LSD evangelists Brotherhood of Eternal Love. On December 26, 1968, a rookie cop named Tim and wife Rosemary with Brotherhood of Eternal Love Neil Purcell – who had been leader Johnny Griggs (1967). casing the Brotherhood’s neighborhood (nicknamed “Dodge City”) – noticed Leary’s car parked suspiciously and decided to investigate. After recognizing the driver and claiming to smell burnt marijuana, Purcell searched the vehicle and discovered two roaches in the ashtray. Further exploration allegedly uncovered four pounds of marijuana and hashish, as well as a few tabs of LSD (all of which Leary claimed were planted). Leary, his wife and son Jack were all arrested and charged with suspicion of possession with intent to sell. Leary was later tried and convicted and on January 21, 1970, was sentenced to 10 years.

LEARY V. THE UNITED STATES But that wasn’t the first time Leary had been busted for weed – a year earlier, he was arrested in Laredo, Tex. while he and his family were returning from vacation in Mexico. At the border, a Customs agent reportedly noticed small bits of marijuana and seeds on the vehicle’s floor. Upon searching the car, they discovered a quantity of weed (initially reported as three ounces but later revealed at trial to be around half an ounce), including 11 grams hidden in his daughter Susan’s underwear. Though Leary took full responsibility for the weed, he and his daughter were both arrested.

Leary was charged on three counts: the smuggling and unlawful transportation of marijuana into the U.S., and not paying federal tax on said marijuana (as required by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937). Leary’s initial defense was a religious one, claiming that the marijuana was for sacramental use and invoking his right to use it under the Free

Exercise Clause of the First

Amendment. Unfortunately, that defense failed and the jury took just 45 minutes to find him guilty on both counts. On March 11, 1966, the judge fined him $30,000 and sentenced him to a staggering 30 years in prison.

Facing what amounted to life behind bars, Leary hired a crack team of lawyers to defend him. His attorneys appealed the ruling on the basis that the Marihuana Tax Act was unconstitutional, arguing that to obey the federal law, he would’ve been forced to incriminate himself under state law – a clear violation of the Fifth Amendment.

His case, Leary v. United States, eventually reached the Supreme Court. On May 19, 1969, the Court ruled unanimously in his favor – declaring the Marihuana Tax Act unconstitutional, thus overturning his conviction and negating America’s federal Cannabis prohibition. (Unfortunately, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act months later, re-criminalizing it along with most other drugs). Despite this victory, he was still found guilty of the other charges and on March 2, 1970, was sentenced to 10 years. Combined with the Texas conviction, he nevertheless faced 20 years in prison.

THE FUGITIVE PHILOSOPHER On May 13, 1970, Leary was remanded to the California Men’s Colony – a minimum-security prison in San Luis Obispo. After his final appeal was rejected in June, Leary arranged (allegedly through his lawyer Michael Kennedy) to have the Brotherhood pay the radical leftist group the Weather Underground $20,000 to bust him out. On the night of September 14, Leary climbed a telephone pole, shimmied along the wire across the yard, then dropped down over the fence, where the Weathermen were waiting nearby to spirit him away. After that, The Black Panthers provided him and Rosemary with fake passports and smuggled them to their safe haven in Algeria. Soon after, they moved to Switzerland and remained on the lam until 1973 – when they were recaptured by the Bureau of Narcotics at Kabul airport and extradited back to the U.S. Leary spent the next three years in Folsom Prison, during which he apparently cooperated with the FBI and informed on all of his associates in exchange for a reduced sentence. Though he claimed he only gave the Feds info that was outdated or that they already knew, most of his friends disowned him as a rat. DESIGN FOR DYING Leary was released from prison by Gov. Jerry Brown in April 1976, after which he spent a short time in witness protection before returning to public life. He spent the next two decades lecturing as a “stand-up philosopher” – appearing in movies and TV shows (including the famous cameo in Cheech & Chong’s “Nice Dreams”) and writing books on “far out” topics like space colonization, near-death and out-ofbody experiences, and the afterlife.

Upon learning that he had inoperable prostate cancer in January 1995, the ever-eccentric iconoclast said he was “thrilled” – celebrating his imminent demise by hosting a “death day” party, consuming multiple drugs, and recording the whole thing to broadcast online. He died in his sleep just after midnight on May 31, 1996, at the age of 75. A year later, a portion of his ashes were sent up in the Pegasus rocket – fulfilling his dream of becoming an “ashtronaut” and proving to the world one last time how “spaced out” he truly was.

Leary’s mugshot (1970).

Leary was charged on three counts: the smuggling and unlawful transportation of marijuana into the U.S., and not paying federal tax on said marijuana (as required by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937). Top: Leary’s Calif. Dept. of Corrections escape bulletin. was a religious one, Above: Tim & Rosemary’s claiming that the marijua- fake passport photos. na was for sacramental use and invoking his right to use it under the Free

Exercise Clause of the First

Amendment. Unfortunately, Poster for fund to raise money for Leary’s legal defense. “Nice Dreams” cameo.

For our podcast & more Cannabis history content visit worldofcannabis.museum/cannthropology.