Enjoy this Summer of Love footage from the ‘Legalize Pot Rally’ at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London. Featured are Allen Ginsberg and the rally’s organizer – the parapsychologist and cannabis law reform campaigner, Stephen Abrams.
Abrams can be seen at the opening announcing that ‘This is not a rally – it’s a picnic!’
The following week on July 24th 1967 a full page advert appeared in The Times proclaiming that ‘The law against marijuana is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice’. Arranged by Abrams and paid for in large part by Paul McCartney, its signatories included luminaries like Graham Greene, Jonathan Miller, and Francis Crick.
There’s more about Steve Abrams here in this podcast on Cannabis & Alchemy with Angus of The Real Seed Company and Conor of CANNAMANtv.
The SOMA of the title is Abrams’ Society of Mental Awareness. You can find more footage here.
