Head-shop hippies were right: new research shows benefits of psychedelic drugs

Photo: Stephen Poirier

   Many mature Montrealers will recall the Purple Unknown, Montreal's first head shop - technically a poster shop - at 2145 Bleury in a building that has since been replaced.

Deborah Milner working the rotary Photo Stephen Poirier

 The store opened in 1968 not far from the cool strip of Sherbrooke where the booming youth demographic hung out at the Swiss Hut, Spanish Club and New Penelope.
  Psychedelic drugs were seen as beneficial and even an essential experience, as they brought people in touch with their inner selves.
   But of course, some people had bad trips, so the drugs were outlawed and strictly banned, leaving head shops subject to suspicion.
  Nevertheless the Purple Unknown stuck around until the 1980s as did several other such places, including one run by a friendly older guy with massive whiskers on Bishop just south of St. Catherine.
  Now, rather unexpectedly, hallucinogenics are regaining respectability in the mainstream.
    A must-read New Yorker article by Michael Pollan has probed some recent scientific research that demonstrates the need to reconsider our ban on magic mushrooms and psychedelic trip-inducing substances.
   Chemists had long hoped to find a useful application for psychedlic drugs and it now appears one group has emerged that can greatly benefit from the experience brought by psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms.
   The article notes that people with fatal disease can greatly benefit from such psychedelic drug trips.
   But there is also evidence that tripping can help normals too, giving a sense of profound self-understanding, in some cases helping conquer alcoholism and addiction and in others in reducing anxiety as well as boosting creativity.
   The research stresses that people with certain psychological conditions should avoid experimenting with such substances, so caveat emptor.
   The Purple Unknown was a poster shop perhaps best known for its excellent homemade graphics and art.
   It published advertisements of the finest graphic design quality. The message is that there was an irrefutable link between creativity of that era and psychedelic trips.
  It might very well be time to re-appreciate the legacy of that such establishments brought to the city.    Many thanks to Stephen Poirier for the original photos and Genevieve Markle for pointing me to the New Yorker article.