Re-Creational Uses 14
Somewhere around late 1977, there emerged a second wave of interest in LSD, which once again expanded the clientele. By this time media horror stories had largely disappeared and the subject of LSD was rarely mentioned.
Interestingly, one of the things happening at this time was the appearance of relatively large amounts of the Stropharia or Psilocybe cubensis mushroom. Manuals were published that showed how it was possible -- for those who could more or less do simple canning -- to cultivate this fungus on rye. This was something new, in the sense that until this time most of the attempts to culture Psilocybe-type mushrooms had failed because the conditions needed to prevent contamination went beyond the skills of most attempting the task.
This mushroom variety, however, not only could be cultivated successfully without that much care, but it also contained an unusually large amount of psilocin and psilocybin. Also, this cubensis variety could be fairly readily identified by comparing it to photographs. Many individuals who had been turned off to LSD due to difficulties in identifying the pure product came to feel that this mushroom was a reliable source of psychedelic substances. The resulting trip was gentle, and as home-production spread, this began to rekindle interest in psychedelic effects for some of those people who had dismissed further involvement with LSD.
Another new development in 1977 was the appearance of Albert and Anita Hofmann at two conferences on the West Coast. In 1969 Hofmann had been invited to speak at a gathering of researchers in San Francisco, but declined because he felt that whatever he would have to say, as the father of LSD, would be greatly distorted by the press. Now, however, it became evident that most of the previous hysteria about LSD was over. Hofmann and his wife served as magnets, bringing together previous researchers.
These two conferences -- along with several others that have happened since then -- helped to restore aspects of LSD's previous respectability. For one thing, it became evident that LSD and issues related to LSD could be discussed openly, without becoming instantly sensationalized. Additionally, those participants who had retreated from LSD indicated that they had not really lost interest and that they regarded prior findings as important, even if those findings had been eclipsed as the LSD scene went underground.
At the end of the 1970s and since then there appears to have arisen a renewed interest in LSD, with somewhat of a less flamboyant character than earlier. There also appears to be renewed distribution of high quality LSD. One might speculate that this results from several decades during which many of the more dedicated users came to grips with the study of organic chemistry.
What the future portends for LSD is unknown, but in an article in New West magazine in 1979, Charlie Haas stated what was obvious even then:
"LSD -- the scariest and most tantalizing thing you can buy without a prescription, the white hope for instant psychotherapy that became a CIA toy and a bazooka in the Bohemian arsenal, the portable Lourdes that oiled the transition of American youth from Elvis to Elvish and made all those honor students start dressing funny and printing up those unreadable purple-and-aqua posters -- that LSD -- is as nationally popular now as it was ten years ago, despite the fact that the same media which then could speak of nothing else are now virtually silent on the subject. Among people who swallow it or sell it, or who monitor its use from the vantage point of drug-abuse counseling, there is some sporting disagreement as to whether acid has been enjoying a renaissance for about two years or never went away in the first place. But there is consensus on at least two points: The bad trips and mental casualties that made such hot copy in the '60s seem to have diminished radically, and the volume of acid changing hands suggests that there are actually more users now than there were a decade ago . . . ."
