ABSTRACT
Mind-altering drugs are, with the exception of alcohol and the opiates, relatively new tools which a technological society has developed to control nature, in this case the nature of inner man. The drug movement is certainly not the only movement to incorporate psychological and social interests in a drug-centered activity. The major disputes about drug use, as contrasted with public concern or alarm, are not over the sedatives, tranquilizers, energizers, stimulants, or analgesics, nor even over the intoxicants, such as marijuana and alcohol. The disputes center about the hallucinogens : peyote, mescaline, psilocybin, and “the king of drugs,” Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25 (LSD-25). With LSD, it is not so much a question of effects, but more of the rights of persons to use such a drug, the propriety of their aims and values, and the acceptability of the kinds of experiences and personal and social behavior which ensue.
