Speeding Toward Babylon: Subcultural Drug Use in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, 1960-1980

This dissertation examines the history of subcultural drug use in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, from 1960 to 1980. The primary method of investigation was oral interviewing, backed up with statistical analysis, NGO and government studies, and art, including music, novels, poetry, and comics produced in the era. Through this work, I have attempted to create a ground-up, “people’s history” of drug use in these three cities at this time.

Subcultural drug use became a recognized phenomenon in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with subculturalists like “jazz cats” and rock n rollers using drugs as varied as heroin, cannabis, and amphetamine. Following the “British Invasion” of 1964, subcultural drug use exploded and became much more common, especially under the banner of the “hippies,” a subculture so large it became a “counterculture.” Though there was plenty of darkness surrounding the hippies, the movement was overall an idealistic one, focused on peace, love, and having a good time. This reflected, and reflected upon, wider society, which saw massive economic expansion and a grand liberalization of society generally. With the economic downturn of the 1970s, the introduction of hard drugs, and the “death of the sixties dream,” the counterculture morphed into something more dystopian, finally reaching its apotheosis with punk.

The history of drug using subcultures in the 1960s and 1970s provides insights into several fields of Canadian history, beyond drug and subcultural studies. It reflects particularly on (1) the postwar growth of the Canadian economy and population; (2) the rise of the liberal welfare state and reaction to it; (3) the development of the teenager and extension of adolescence; (4) the spread of greater cultural tolerance, the politics around that tolerance, and reaction to it; and (5) the spread of communications, transportation, and pharmaceutical science and technology. This study analyses the conflicts and contradictions of a time and place where millions of youth had more opportunity than ever before, while at the same time being classed as the largest law-breaking cohort in modern history.