It’s time to move on from 420. It’s time to move on from 420.
In 1964, Bob Dylan, the folk singer, climbed the elevator at the Delmonico Hotel in Manhattan’s Park Avenue for the first time to meet the Beatles who were on tour in the United States. Beatlemania, at the height of its popularity, was in full swing. Twenty policemen stood by the entrance to the Beatles’ suite on the sixth floor as Dylan and the rest of his group entered.
Dylan then suggested they smoke a little grass after an exchange of courtesies. Dylan was shocked to discover that the Beatles had never smoked marijuana. Dylan was carrying a bag with him of marijuana and tried to make a joint. Bob, however, was unable to roll the joint. His driver Victor Maymudes and close friend did. To hide the smell, blinds were closed and towels placed carefully before doors that had been locked. Dylan lit up the reefer, and everyone laughed wildly a few moments later.
Paul McCartney remarked later, “We were proud of having been introduced by Dylan to pot.” That was quite a coup.
The Beatles used purple hearts, and other forms of uppers to stay on top of the late night club scene in Germany and Europe. Cannabis is a completely different substance. UK. Marijuana eased them into a soft yet lively space, a cushioned reprieve from the bizarre fishbowl sensation—the hysterical fans, the constant media attention—that accompanied their vertiginous rise to rock stardom. Since that time, the Beatles have consumed cannabis regularly. John Lennon would always say “Let’s have a larf!” whenever he felt the urge to get stoned.
The Beatles began to see themselves not only as performers, but also artists after they smoked grass. This herb gave them a surge of creativity that changed the way they wrote and recorded songs. (“We were smoking marijuana for breakfast,” Lennon jibed.) Cannabis opened new dimensions to popular music. The Beatles took the youth around the world over the psychoactive threshold.
In many Beatle tunes, cannabis was mentioned in a subtle or less-than-subtle way. McCartney stated that the Beatles song “Got to Get You into My Life,” a weed inspired tune on their Revolver record, is “entirely pot.” McCartney acknowledged marijuana’s impact on The Fab Four during the mid-1960s.
The Beatles’ next album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had more explicit references to drugs. Ringo Starr sang about his “getting high” with the help of friends. McCartney had a cigarette and “went to a dream.” Lennon said: “I love you!”
What caused Pepper? McCartney spoke to a journalist. Drugs. Pot.”
You weren’t always on the phone.
We were. Sgt. McCartney said that Pepper was “a drug album”.
You can also find out more about the following: BBC The station banned several songs, including “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, on the basis that they promote the use of illicit drugs. This ungainly attempt to censor the Beatles, who were at the zenith of their influence, underscored Britain’s befuddled — some might say schizoid —attitude toward marijuana and its most influential proponents. In fact, Queen Elizabeth had only recently honored the Beatles. Lennon said later that the pair smoked pot in the Buckingham Palace’s bathroom.
Cannabis was banned in Great Britain in 1928. Recreational reefer was confined to Caribbean immigrants until the flower power exploded in Merry Olde England. The Beatles led the charge to legalize marijuana. The Beatles paid for an controversial full-page ad in The Times of London in 1967 that criticized Britain’s marijuana laws, calling them “immoral and ineffective in practice.”
Specifically, it called for the British government:
- Cannabis research should be allowed
- Cannabis should be removed from the dangerous drug list and possession punished by a fine
- Allowing cannabis use in private spaces
- Release all those who are in prison for possession of marijuana.
It was also signed by 65 British dignitaries including two MPs, 12 prominent doctors and clergy, many writers, artists and Nobel-winning scientists, as well as the Beatles.
Following the Wootton Report in 2007, the British Parliament’s Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence issued a thorough study that prompted a public discussion by giving marijuana a near-clean bill of health. Under the leadership of Baroness Wootton Abinger, an internationally renowned social scientist, the committee’s advisory concluded that: “long-term consumption in moderate doses of cannabis does not have harmful effects.” and, “the law, while unworkable, is certainly socially detrimental.”
Cannabis is less harmful than opiates and amphetamines and less hazardous than alcohol [and] The Wootton report asserted that it was the character of the individual, not the substance, which is most likely to lead to the use of other drugs.
The report was shocking to those who were accustomed to seeing marijuana as an evil menace. After Baroness Wootton’s study was presented, British politicians were quick to denounce its conclusions. It was just another normal day for the Beatles, and their millions of pot-smoking supporters.
Martin A. Lee serves as the director at MEDCAN24. He’s authored and edited several books, including Smoke Signals, Acid Dreams, and The Essential Guide to CBD. © Copyright, MEDCAN24. May not be reprinted without permission.
Note from the editor: This article was first published on August 25, 2016. MEDCAN24 re-published this article to its homepage as a way to mark the anniversary.