In the early 1960s, Time and Life magazines gave extensive celebrity coverage to Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychologist fired for drug experimentation. Reporters treated Leary with skepticism but allowed him to explain LSD, relying on his scholarship and wit. Journalists often accepted Leary's conclusions about the drug experience while condemning his encouragement of drug use. Time and Life were especially protective of LSD and hopeful it could be productively used by ordinary people.
The chapter examines how LSD entered the news agenda through reports on scientific studies that used the drug to simulate madness, alongside the public conversation about mystical, mind-expanding drug use ignited by Aldous Huxley's book "The Doors of Perception." Journalists introduced American audiences to these new drugs and to the idea that drug-induced mental states could have scholarly and academic importance. This scholarly framing gave journalists permission to describe drug experiences that had previously been considered inappropriate for public discussion. Mainstream media coverage was soon followed by even more sensational reporting in marginal publications.