When LSD was mainstream.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Briefly Noted - Brief article - Book review

Thanks to the war on drugs, the representation of illicit substances in our media has been overwhelmingly negative. But as Miami University journalism professor Stephen Siff demonstrates in his fascinating book Acid Hype: American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience (University of Illinois Press), that wasn't always the case. LSD (along with its natural sister psilocybin mushrooms) had a midcentury decade of press coverage that was surprisingly educated and positive.

Psychedelics benefited from an elite pedigree, thanks to the writer Aldous Huxley and the personal enthusiasm of Time/Life...