It’s the start of a new festival season, as music lovers far and wide prepare for a summer full of multi-day events featuring some of their favorite artists and DJs, along with plenty of dancing. For many, the festival experience also involves consuming a variety of drugs to amp up the experience.

This year’s Drug Safety at Music Festivals study, conducted by research firm Innerbody, sheds additional light on the habits and plans of festival goers this year while also addressing some of the best ways for folks to stay safe should they decide to consume substances at these events.

The study uses survey data from 900 people and suggests that about 87% of festival attendees plan to take drugs, a 10% increase from last year’s figure. 

Examining Most Popular Festival Drugs, Genres and Events With Most Drug Use

The study focuses on a variety of topics surrounding drug use at music festivals, beginning with the most popular substances that festival goers plan to use during the upcoming season. 

Alcohol is always the top substance consumed at festivals, but the study did not include it and focused solely on drug usage. That said, cannabis takes the top slot by far, with 65.3% of festival goers who plan to use drugs saying they will consume cannabis. Authors note that the widespread legalization of recreational cannabis across the U.S. may make cannabis a less risky option for attendees. 

Cocaine was the second most popular choice (46.5%), followed by psychedelics (26.1%), MDMA (19.4%), ketamine (19.3%), amphetamines (13.7%), opioids (12.1%), benzodiazepines (10.1%), synthetic drugs like bath salts or spice (9.7%), hallucinogens like salvia or peyote (6.1%) and inhalants (6%).

Plans to use cocaine are up from last year’s numbers, though there was a 2% drop in the number of people who plan to use opioids — which authors noted as surprising given the continued opioid overdose epidemic though still “encouraging.”

The study found that rock, hip-hop and EDM are the genres most likely to have audience members under the influence of drugs, with Wisconsin’s Rock Fest claiming the top slot as the festival with the most anticipated drug use, according to survey participants. The weeklong Burning Man festival held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert took the second slot, while Coachella was third place for most anticipated drug use.

Festival Drug Concealment, Consumption and Drug Testing Behaviors

The study also looked at drug concealment, consumption and testing behaviors among those planning to consume for festivals, finding that just 32.6% bring their own drugs with them to the event while the remaining 67.4% buy them at the festival. Last year’s results found that 46% planned to bring their own drugs to the events. Millennials were the most likely generation to buy drugs at the venue rather than purchasing them beforehand.

In regard to drug testing, a majority (80.3%) test their drugs before the event or festival, an increase from last year’s approximately 67% figure. 

“This increase in testing could be due to more awareness surrounding the U.S. opioid crisis and the public education efforts that have taken place,” authors note. “But while the data is encouraging, it still reflects the reality that 20% of festival goers could be taking potentially dangerous drugs at concerts.”

Concealing drugs in backpacks and pockets are the most common choices, and researchers also found that attendees tend to take drugs in one of three places with a fairly balanced distribution: the restroom (29%), within the crowd (31%) or outside the festival gates (33%).

Health Issues, Risky Behavior Harm Reduction and Festival Drug Use

Though authors indicate that the broader prevalence of drug testing is encouraging, the study notes that more than half of survey participants said they had experienced health-related issues that warranted medical attention while under the influence of drugs at festivals. The most common complications attendees experienced were heat stroke, a bad trip and dehydration. 

The survey also found that drug use tended to lead festival goers to engage in riskier behavior at the events, with 66% of both Gen Z and millennial respondents reporting they had done so while attending festivals under the influence. Engaging in sex with a stranger was one of the most prevalent examples, most prominent among millennials, while one in every four millennials also reported “driving dangerously” after a festival ended.

Authors note that abstaining and testing drugs before using them are some of the best harm reduction methods, though surveyed festival goers largely reported self-education about the drugs they were using, the risks and potential side effects as their go-to safety measure. The second-most common strategy was starting with a low dosage, followed by drug testing.

“Being aware of your surroundings, remaining close to your friends, keeping hydrated, and familiarizing yourself with the location of medical tents are also easy and practical ways to help stay safe at music festivals,” authors close.

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Legal or not, people are experimenting with psychedelics, and they might as well be informed about their decisions in a logical manner, making situations safer. Colorado-based Unlimited Sciences, a psychedelic research nonprofit, unveiled the Psychedelic Info Line, a hotline that provides callers with data-driven education and informed resources for individuals considering exploring psychedelics.

The core goal of the info line is to improve outcomes and reduce harm by offering the needed tools and information on natural psychedelics. The information provided isn’t just anecdotal evidence based on hearsay. Psychedelic Info Line navigators share knowledge from an extensive research library of peer-reviewed studies with data sourced from thousands of participants worldwide, including the world’s largest naturalistic psilocybin study sponsored and conducted by Unlimited Sciences. 

Organizers say it provides a critical resource that no other organization provides. It offers informed answers to help people with their inquiries and make decisions before psychedelic use.

“The Psychedelic Info Line represents the culmination of years of high-impact research and dedication to advancing our understanding of psychedelics,” said Matthew X. Lowe, PhD, Executive Director at Unlimited Sciences. “We hope the first one-on-one education line of this nature will have a positive impact in helping individuals make more informed decisions about safely using psychedelics.”

In the past, the Cannabis Support Hotline was launched and provided by Unlimited Sciences’ parent nonprofit, Realm of Caring. The Psychedelic Info Line’s education specialists will not provide medical advice or encourage psychedelic consumption, rather they will foster a compassionate and supportive environment, striving to make every caller feel more capable in their quest for healing and self-discovery. Committed to community empowerment and safety, the Psychedelic Info Line is dedicated to educating and empowering the psychedelic community to navigate their journeys safely and responsibly.

“We know psychedelics can be safe and deeply meaningful when those seeking to use them are well-informed and approach them with care. Providing a compassionate source of knowledge for people exploring psychedelics for healing and personal growth is our mission,” said Lynn Marie Morski, MD, JD, Director of Education at Unlimited Sciences. “By helping to distill and distribute evidence-based information, we give callers the knowledge and power to make informed and responsible decisions with their healthcare providers.”

The Psychedelic Info Line is sponsored with support from The Wana Brands Foundation. Individuals who use the line and register through the Unlimited Sciences’ Client Portal receive access to exclusive educational resources including detailed guides on psychedelics, FAQs, and an extensive open-access research library. 

People are encouraged to call toll-free 1 (888) 210-3553 (Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. MST or email.

Set and Setting Matter in Psychedelic Trips

Researchers are examining ways to avoid bad trips. Negative experiences with psychedelics were linked to stressful environments, a September 2023 study suggests.

A study by researchers associated with Imperial College London indicated that stressful environments and other risk factors were associated with negative experiences with psychedelics, reaffirming the notion that “set and setting” play significant roles in positive experiences with psychedelic drugs. The study, which was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, gives new insight into the potential negative outcomes of using psychedelics in a clinical setting to treat serious mental health conditions.

Study author Rebecka Bremler of Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research told PsyPost that there was “a lack of research into this topic—at least when we started the project in 2021. There was (is) all of this amazing research on psychedelics’ positive effects on mental health, and some on acute challenging experiences (‘bad trips’) with psychedelics and what may contribute to them, but not so much on long-term negative psychological responses (which is what we focused on here).”

“We wanted to find what may be potential risk factors for having these experiences, but also for people who had had them to be heard,” Bremler added. “The latter was one of the reasons why we included extended participants’ quotes in the article: to tell it in their own words as much as possible.”

In the event of a bad psychedelic trip, you may be better off riding it through than taking additional drugs to extinguish the trip—which can actually be more dangerous. A recent study points out that psychonauts online are turning to benzodiazepines and other potentially dangerous drugs to end a psychedelic trip.

Doctors are warning about so-called “trip-killers,” or drugs used to counteract the effects of a psychedelic trip. What they found is that over half of anecdotal recommendations online call for benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, alcohol, and other remedies, but found that trip-killers are often more dangerous than the psychedelics themselves. 

The study, “Trip-killers: a concerning practice associated with psychedelic drug use,” was published in Emergency Medicine Journal on Dec. 19, 2023. It was announced in a news release the same day.

Things like the aforementioned practices could be avoided if people have someone to talk to before choosing to experiment with psychedelics.

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It’s already fairly well known that music festivals tend to come with plenty of illicit drug use. The activity is so common at festivals, and in dance scenes as a whole, that organizers and attendees alike are becoming increasingly more equipped to combat potential overdoses through a variety of measures.

A new study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy underscores the impact of these harm reduction strategies and consciously incorporating them into events, looking at the amount of drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals, the common trends and what may have helped to prevent them.

Moreover, the researchers ultimately confirmed that mobile medical care, drug testing and increased consumer education and awareness could have prevented these largely unintentional deaths.

Examining Modern-Day, Drug-Related Deaths at Australian Festivals

Researchers note the high prevalence of drug use among festival attendees compared to the general population, citing a study finding that 44% of over 5,200 surveyed Australian music festival attendees reported past-month use of illicit drugs. That said, it’s no surprise that more instances of drug use often result in increased cases of drug-related harm.

To examine the prevalence of drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals, researchers conducted a descriptive case series study using the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) looking at relevant data between July 2000 and December 2019.

The study noted a total of 64 deaths, predominantly males (73.4%) aged in their mid-20s (ranging 15-50 years old). MDMA and alcohol were the most common substances across the study period, reported respectively in 42 (65.6%) and 30 (46.9%) cases and with alcohol co-detected with MDMA in 14 (33.3%) cases. 

Deaths were primarily associated with toxicity from MDMA and other stimulants (19 cases), toxicity from other drugs or drug combinations (11 cases) and either natural causes (10 cases) or external injuries (24 cases) in the setting of drug use, like those involving motor vehicle or train collisions or a passenger or driver using drugs. The majority of cases involved unintended harm, with 11 deaths (17.2%) related to intentional self-harm.

Drug-Related Harm Reduction at Music Festivals

So, what exactly are the ways to prevent a drug overdose at these events?

Authors note that there is limited evidence surrounding the efficacy of specific law enforcement-related approaches. While drug detection dogs have been utilized in Australian festivals for more than two decades, researchers note some research showing this can actually increase risk of drug-related harm. They also mention that this method may “paradoxically increase the risk of overdose,” with attendees potentially leading to festival goers hiding drugs internally or quickly consuming drugs to avoid arrest.

There’s drug checking and testing, which allows members of the public to analyze drugs to confirm if they contain any potentially dangerous or unexpected substances and how much of a substance is actually in a given powder, pill, tablet and so on. 

Researchers note the body of research finding that this option indeed demonstrates a reduction in drug use and related harm. Combating the notion that people may be more inclined to use drugs with the ability to test them, researchers cite a recent study finding that festival attendees are no more likely to use drugs at festivals whether drug testing is provided or not.

Music festivals also tend to have mobile paramedics, peer harm reduction workers, chill-out spaces and may even incorporate specific physical design elements to reduce the risk of drug-related harm.

Preventing Overdose Through Drug Testing and Other Measures

Authors note that in these 64 cases, the most common cause of death was MDMA toxicity. While there are a variety of factors associated with increased risk of adverse effects surrounding MDMA usage, researchers highlight the variability in dose amounts as a key factor. For this study, the average MDMA concentration among the deaths was above a range usually associated with toxicity, showing an opportunity for harm reduction by drug checking and testing.

“Drug checking is not merely an analytical process; counsellors are available on-site to discuss analytical results and provide important harm reduction interventions,” researchers write. “This approach is favoured by festival patrons and has resulted in positive outcomes including changing dosing patterns, trust of health providers, and increased drug harm reduction knowledge.”

However these services are still in their infancy in Australia, despite being available throughout Europe and North America for a number of decades.

“Harm reduction strategies such as roving first aid volunteers, mobile medical care, spaces to rest, hydration stations, and drug checking services, may best address some of the risks associated with illicit drug use at festivals, in addition to increased consumer education and awareness,” authors conclude. “It is important to understand the factors involved in these incidents in order to inform policies around harm reduction and law enforcement at music festivals in future to prevent further deaths.”

In an interview with online music magazine and community platform Resident Advisor, co-author Dr. Jennifer Schumann underscored the findings around harm reduction, citing that two in three Austalians support drug checking services along with recommendations from coroners throughout the region to implement these services.

“It’s possible that information about the drugs these people were taking, along with harm-reduction advice from drug-checking service counsellors, may have prevented death in some cases in our study,” Schumann said.

It’s a particularly relevant topic Down Under, with renewed calls for more safety measures after nine people were hospitalized in January from suspected MDMA overdoses at Melbourne’s Hardmission Festival.

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On Sept. 20, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council published the UN Human Rights Office Report regarding human rights issues that have developed due to the War on Drugs. This report was created by request of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in April 2023, and was introduced during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, which lasts between Sept. 11-Oct. 13.

“UN report urges [member] states to end overreliance on punitive measures to address drugs problem & shift to interventions grounded in #humanrights & public health. It is essential that laws, policies & practices deployed to address drug use must not exacerbate human suffering,” UN Human Rights posted on X.

The report suggests that decriminalizing drug possession for personal use should be a priority. “If effectively designed and implemented, decriminalization can be a powerful instrument to ensure that the rights of people who use drugs are protected,” a UN press release stated.

According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, global change is sorely needed. “Laws, policies, and practices deployed to address drug use must not end up exacerbating human suffering. The drug problem remains very concerning, but treating people who use drugs as criminals is not the solution,” Türk said in a press release. “States should move away from the current dominant focus on prohibition, repression and punishment and instead embrace laws, policies and practices anchored in human rights and aimed at harm reduction.”

Ultimately, the report gathers that “disproportionate use of criminal penalties” lead drug users away from seeking out a treatment. Statistics gathered from the 2023 World Drug Report show that 660,000 people die from drug-related causes annually, and 10% of new HIV infections in 2021 were related to people who injected drugs.

The report calls the effects of the War on Drugs as “profound and far-reaching.” “Militarization of law enforcement in the so-called War on Drugs contributes to severe human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings. And disproportionate use of criminal penalties contributes significantly to prison overcrowding,” the UN press release said.

The UN also stated that the people who are most negatively affected by current drug policies are Black women, women in general, indigenous people, and youths who come from poor backgrounds. “Today’s drugs policies have the greatest impact on those who are poorest and most vulnerable,” Türk added.

Due to an increase in people receiving the death penalty for drug-related convictions, many people have suffered at the hands of these policies. An estimated 37% of global executions were related to drug convictions, and those offenses doubled in 2022 compared to data provided in 2021.

Particularly in Singapore in recent years, the death penalty has been issued to people trafficking cannabis. In July 2022, Singapore executed a 49-year-old man for cannabis trafficking. In May 2023, the country hung a 37-year-old man for trafficking cannabis in the amount of three pounds, in addition to another individual who was hanged just a few weeks prior.

“The current overemphasis on coercion and control to counter drugs is fanning an increase in human rights violations despite mounting evidence that decades of criminalization and the so-called War on Drugs have neither protected the welfare of people nor deterred drug-related crime,” Türk concluded.

The press release for the report ends by applauding the countries that have worked to adopt policies that protect the public and defend humans rights, through “evidence-based, gender-sensitive and harm reduction approaches.”

The UN report includes a multi-point list of recommendations on how to reapproach drug policies and step back from harmful, punitive models. This includes suggestions such as implementing decriminalization, and adopting drug policies that “advance the rights of people who use drugs” and offer medical care to treat drug related conditions (such as viral hepatitis or HIV by way of injection). It also suggests policies that don’t lead to parents having their child removed from their care, or punishing pregnant people. The report also recommends abolishing the death penalty for all crimes, not just drug-related offenses, among many other strong proposals to put people first. 

The UN will review the 2019 Ministerial Declaration, which is an ongoing multi-year work plan to keep track of drug policy commitments made by member states, in 2024. That review will lead to the development of drug policies that need to be addressed by 2029, with the goal of having protected human rights by the 2039 UN Agenda.

In December 2020, a U.N. Commission for Narcotic Drugs panel voted to reclassify cannabis. While this recommendation didn’t guarantee that any member states would immediately legalize cannabis possession and use, it was still a monumental announcement. “This is a huge, historic victory for us, we couldn’t hope for more,” said independent drug policy researcher Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli. Many advocates applauded the decision and hoped that it would empower other countries to implement regulatory frameworks for cannabis. 

It’s safe to say that over the past three years, many countries have begun to reevaluate their drug policies and embrace cannabis legalization. 

The country of Malta became the first in the European Union to legalize cannabis in December 2021. Earlier this year in July, Luxembourg became the second EU country to legalize. Thailand also removed weed from its list of banned substances in June 2022.

Other countries, such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, are working on cannabis pilot programs to test how legal cannabis would work in their respective regions.

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A New York Senate committee passed a bill authorizing the establishment of a state-sanctioned overdose prevention center (or OPC, also referred to as supervised consumption sites or safer consumption spaces). Safer consumption spaces are supervised places to use illegal drugs under medical supervision. The legislation, Senate Bill S399A (the enactment of the Safer Consumption Services Act, or SCSA), would require the New York State Department of Health to authorize at least one supervised consumption site. While OPCs already exist, this bill will make it easier for harm reduction workers to do their jobs and solidify the work that is already happening. 

New York City opened the first city-authorized safe consumption sites in late 2021. The advancing legislation will provide a sterile environment for people to use pre-obtained substances (they won’t provide you with any), giving them a safe alternative to bathrooms or other sites frequented. In addition, the prevention center will also keep medical workers on site to ensure folks are administering the drug more safely. Such sites also offer protection that’s not available when using the drug in a non-monitored establishment, as medical workers will be there to treat any overdoses properly. Naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses will be at the safer consumption site. On-site workers will also educate participants on safer consumption practices and information on treatment. While the site can collect aggregate data on its participants and their experiences, participants and the staff at the safer consumption site will have immunity from prosecution for the sanctioned activities. 

For some history, in 2015, IDUHA (the Injection Drug Users Health Alliance) released a memo essentially directing Harm Reduction agencies to act on the assumption that people using their bathrooms would likely be using opioids and therefore be at risk of overdose, a New York City harm reduction worker explains to High Times. However, most agencies have a policy wherein anyone using the bathroom gets a knock on the door every few minutes, and staff can access the bathroom and provide overdose support (including naloxone and rescue breaths and contacting EMS) when the occupant is unresponsive. “On average, my team responds to one overdose a month in our bathroom, with several utilizations a day not resulting in overdose. We have to wait for someone to stop breathing and stop responding to a knock at the door, at which point they may have been not breathing for several minutes,” our source says. “The SCSA is an important bill because it acknowledges work that is already happening—harm reduction workers and people who use drugs and their peers are already on the front lines of the overdose crisis.” 

The Senate Health Committee passed the harm reduction legislation from Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D) in a voice vote on Tuesday, and it will now go to the Finance Committee for consideration. The Assembly companion version of SCSA, sponsored by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D), cleared the chamber’s Health Committee in March.

“Harm reduction works. Harm reduction is a modality—a way to approach dealing with an issue which assumes, first, that a person who uses drugs is a person, and that they have to be met where they are,” Rivera said at the hearing. “Fact number two, criminalization has not worked.”

“Over decades of the drug war, it is pretty clear that we have lost said war,” he continues. “The notion that we could arrest our way out of addiction—that we could arrest our way out of overdoses and deaths—has been proven to be a lie based on all of these years of experience. Criminalization does not work.”

It marks a milestone in harm reduction history. “Today, the Senate recognized the dire situation New York is in because of the overdose crisis and failed War on Drugs era policies,” the advocacy group VOCAL-NY said in a press release on Tuesday. “New York is one step closer to seeing Overdose Prevention Centers authorized across the state,” the group’s Users Union leaders elaborated. “The legislature needs to keep the momentum and pass the Safe Consumption Services Act out of both houses by the end of session.”

However, the New York City harm reduction worker High Times spoke with explains that this bill may be simply securing what already exists, thanks to the hard work of passionate harm reduction groups. “Every OPC will be placed in already existing harm reduction agencies. In a very real way, the bill will not change much. Last week I went to Albany with a cohort of workers and participants at VOCAL-NY, Housing Works, and OnPoint to speak to legislators who had not signed on yet. When we met with [New York State Senator] Tim Kennedy’s legislative director, I told her: we are already doing this, but because we can’t acknowledge it, we have to keep the bathroom door closed. Let us leave the door open—that’s all we’re asking.”

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The tainted drug supply in the United States continues to exact a grim toll as overdose deaths exceeded 107,000 in 2021, according to an estimate released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a statement that the most recent overdose numbers are “truly staggering.”

The CDC estimate exceeds the previous record for the number of overdose deaths set in 2020 by 15% and represents the equivalent of a death caused by drug overdose in the United States approximately every five seconds. The new record continues a trend of an increasing number of overdose deaths that has plagued the nation for more than twenty years, largely fueled by the nationwide opioid epidemic.

Deaths Involving Synthetic Opioids Also Up

Last year, the number of overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, a 23% increase over 2020. Deaths involving cocaine also increased by 23%, while deaths involving methamphetamine and other stimulants rose by 34%.

Fentanyl is often used by illicit manufacturers in counterfeit prescription opioids, making the drugs’ dosage and risk of overdose uncertain. CDC officials also noted that other drugs are often cut with fentanyl by unscrupulous dealers, who often leave their customers unaware of the danger.

“The net effect is that we have many more people, including those who use drugs occasionally and even adolescents, exposed to these potent substances that can cause someone to overdose even with a relatively small exposure,” Volkow said, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

The nation’s epidemic of overdose deaths continued to rise last year as the coronavirus pandemic isolated those with drug problems and made effective substance misuse treatment and mental health services more difficult to access. Keith Humphreys, an addiction and drug policy researcher at Stanford University, believes that the deadly trend is likely to continue.

“2022 will probably be as horrible as 2021 was, quite possibly worse,” Humphreys told the Washington Post.

The rise in overdose deaths last year varied geographically. Alaska saw the biggest jump in deaths with an increase of 75%, while Hawaii saw a 2% reduction in deaths caused by drug overdoses.

Humphreys said that the United States is likely to see more than a million overdose deaths in the span of a decade without substantive public policy changes. He also noted that the rise of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl will also continue because they can be produced in a lab more easily than traditional plant-based drugs can be grown. The ramifications of the readily available drugs, which can easily be bought through social media apps and other online platforms, remain to be seen.

“There may not be much heroin around in 10 years because everything is fentanyl,” Humphreys said. “What do you do in a world where no one needs a farm anymore to make drugs?”

Harm Reduction Saves Lives

Humphreys said that a single solution will not be the answer to the nation’s epidemic of drug overdoses. But harm reduction measures including increasing access to the drug naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an overdose, can help reduce the death toll.

“I think of naloxone like I do fire extinguishers,” he said. “Generally, they sit on a wall and they’re not needed. But when there’s a fire, there’s nothing like a fire extinguisher.”

Drug policy advocates including Sheila Vakharia, deputy director of research and academic engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance, expressed dismay at Wednesday’s news from the CDC.

“It’s absolutely devastating and heartbreaking that we continue to remain in this position,” Vakharia told NPR. “We are over 20 years in this overdose crisis and there’s no sign of any kind of slowing down of deaths. If anything, things have only seemed to have gotten more dire.”

Last month, the Biden administration announced a plan to address the rising number of overdose deaths, which includes support for harm reduction methods including increased access to naloxone. The new funding is a positive sign from the federal government, according to Vakharia.

“Harm reduction has historically been incredibly underfunded and has been relegated to state and local funding or private funding to sustain itself,” she said.

Vakharia noted that much more can be done to increase harm reduction programs, including support for overdose prevention centers like the one that opened in New York City late last year. Despite the success of the centers internationally, there are only “two legally operating above-the-ground harm reduction overdose prevention centers in the country,” when they could be saving lives across the nation with more support.

“And so I think that all of our efforts moving forward can definitely be further enhanced, can be further amplified and further ramped up,” Vakharia added.

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Learn more about the link between cannabis and psychosis, and harm reduction strategies for ‘lower risk cannabis use.’

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By swapping cannabis for alcohol, patients have been recovering their health since the 1970s.

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Leafly exclusive: Film set photos capture the legendary actor practicing harm reduction, circa 1976. Booze was killing him, so he switched to weed.

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