Psychedelic Scare Videos

The LSD Crisis [1966]

Tim Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Meltzner interviewed on the grounds of the Millbrook estate. A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV Special.

Alternative title: “How to Go Out of Your Mind: The LSD Crisis”

Dragnet The LSD Story (aka "Blueboy") [1967]

"The LSD Story" is an episode of the American television series Dragnet that appeared on the NBC network on January 12, 1967, the season premiere.

It was written, produced and directed by Jack Webb, who also starred as Joe Friday.

Something Weird: LSD Trip Or Trap [1967]

A classic, over the top, anti-LSD film from 1967. The movie was directed by Sidney "Sid" Davis (1916 – 2006), who was an American director and producer who specialized in social guidance films. Vision Associates Productions produced the film, who also produced The Mind-Benders (1967).

Danger: LSD [1967]

Examines cultural, legal and medical issues related to taking recently outlawed psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Includes interviews with: a Bay Area housewife who has taken more than 15 acid trips.

THE MAZE: Etched in Acid [1967]

Part 1 of a 3 part series.

The Bay Area’s CBS affiliate, KPIX, aired special reports on the hippie phenomenon in 1967: “The Maze: Haight/Ashbury,” a tour of the burgeoning neighborhood led by Beat poet Michael McClure, and “The Maze: Etched in Acid,” a skeptical look at LSD enthusiasts. The music of the New Salvation Army Banned plays under both.

The Maze: Haight/Asbury

Part 2 of a 3 Part Series

(We have not been able to locate a print of Part 3, The Maze: Liverpool, USA)

From https://summer-of-love.blog4ever.com/...

"[Haight] is described as the center for the growing hippie movement. The narrator, Rod Sherry, does not try to hide his dislike for the movement. Sherry says, “Some call Haight Ashbury another bohemia, like the Left Bank, Greenwich Village and others. . . . But it's more like Brigadoon: a magical land that appeared only yesterday and may be gone tomorrow. But if it lasts, the effect on the rest of society could be far reaching. And that's why the outside world must try to understand what is happening here.”

Trip To Where [1967]

Trip to Where is a propaganda film produced by the US Navy warning sailors on shore leave about the dangers of LSD. Featuring: Tim Knight (narration), Timothy Leary, and Richard Lynch

The Hippie Temptation [1967]

Explores the way-out world of the Hippies and the Haight-Ashbury psychedelic 1960s LSD scene. Footage of LSDs users experiencing bummer trips. The Diggers, the Oracle and cool street and Golden Gate Park scenes with hippies tripping out. The Grateful Dead are interviewed and are shown performing "Dancin' in the Streets" on a flatbed truck in Golden Gate Park.

LSD-25 [1967]

The dangers of LSD are driven home to teenagers in this classroom training film, which is "narrated" by an LSD tab. The "tab" tells kids that he is "a depth charge in the mind!" and various teenagers are shown babbling about their LSD experiences. "Experts" are presented who warn that LSD makes kids "paint themselves green" and has various other horrible side effects, the most serious of which is that it gives users a police record, and that there is "no known way of getting your fingerprints out of a police file once they're in there." -from IMDB

Beyond LSD (1967)

1967 anti-LSD propaganda film.

LSD: Insight or Insanity [1968]

1968 propaganda film, warning of the dangers of LSD. Includes interviews with actual experts in LSD research, however, the overall tone is consistent with other propaganda films of the era. One "bad trip.... instant insanity, never to return", we are told. Soon we are shown young adults jumping off cliffs and jumping in front of cars.

Dragnet: The Prophet [1968]

Dragnet returns to psychedelics, with The Prophet, featuring an intellectual “Brother William” preaching about the wonders of psychedelics. Sgt Joe Friday and his partner, Officer Bill Gannon reject Brother William’s arguments.

Give Dragnet some credit in its anti-LSD scare tactics. They often would present at least a flimsy version of the pro-drug arguments, before rejecting them with standard issue 60s anti-drug arguments.

These episodes remain among my favorite anti-drug films. Working on a shoe-string budget (three actors, two cameras, a basic set and a script), these guys presented visually interesting shows in which the police are generally decent people robotically enforcing the law and repeating the widely accepted anti-drug propaganda of the era.

LSD: The Other Side of Reality [1968]

An anti-psychedelics propaganda film from 1968, produced by Professional Arts, Inc., for San Mateo (Calif.) Union High School, in cooperation with the San Mateo County Medical Society, San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, LSD Rescue in San Francisco, McAuley Neuropsychiatric Institute, and the narcotics bureau of the San Francisco Police Department.

Case Study LSD [1969]

Case Study: LSD is a certifiable batshit film that could never convince anyone in their right mind that its intentions were to educate, with absolutely zero information about the drug’s properties. The short was released in 1969, part of a four-film series. Read more at MaryJane.com. Introduction voice-over by Sono Bono

LSD and the Hallucinogens (1970)

In 1970, the FDA produced a film to describe the dangers and potential benefits of LSD. Not surprisingly, the scale was heavily weighted on the dangers, fueled by Nixon's war on drugs. Most notable about this film is the psychedelic images included. The film has be digitized from an original print. While this is believed to be the best copy of the film available, audio and visual artifacts remain.