Haight Ashbury Free Clinic

Dr. David Smith, founder of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic... 

Dr. David Smith had just established the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, first of its kind in the country. For about ten months, I spent every Thursday evening working as a volunteer doctor, interviewing and treating young people who had taken too much LSD, PCP or STP. No one was sure just what STP was at first. Some were sure it stood for serenity, tranquility and peace. Actually, it turned out to be DOM, a psychedelic amphetamine derivative created by Dr. Alexander Shulgin. 

In 1978,1 joined with Tom and Dr. David Smith (founder of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic) in support of Dr. Arnold Mandell, Chief of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. Amie had been taken to task when he tried to wean football players from amphetamines (without keeping adequate notes) and consequently had his prescribing license suspended. Eventually he regained it on appeal. I also teamed up with Tom and five other doctors to petition the FDA (unsuccessfully) to set clear standards for generic drugs. 

A confrontation resulted in which two doctors from the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic were questioned, one representing each side in the dispute, who eventually agreed that the incidence of abuse that they had seen was very slight — less than 1 % of those coming in for help. They also stated that most who were having difficulties simply needed a supportive environment and tended to become reoriented as soon as the drug was metabolized. 

Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 

At the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, it has been noted that some of the clients self-medicated their hallucinogenic-precipitated psychotic episodes with amphetamines. ° Often, this self-medication with amphetamines resulted in the development of amphetamine abuse, followed by secondary heroin, barbiturate, or alcohol abuse patterns, to ameliorate the side effects of the amphetamines. Thus, in certain patients, chronic psychological problems induced by LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs led to complicated patterns of polydrug abuse that required additional treatment approaches. ... 

A. Ian Smith / Baker Heart Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia David E. Smith / Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 

The DEA called Daryl Inaba, a medical director at the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in San Francisco, as an expert witness who might paint a picture of abuse by street persons who were said to be taking MDMA in alarming amounts, resulting in serious problems. 

Haight-Ashbury, 34 Haight-Ashbury Flashbacks, 35 Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, 68... 

By 1967, the Kesey cult had disseminated such quantities of LSD that a sizable drag population had emerged, centered in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Here Huxley collaborator Bateson set up a "free clinic."... 

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