A few words from our dear friend, Dr. David E. Smith, founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in 1967, and currently the Haight Ashbury Psychedelic Center (HAPC).
Dr. Dave: Bill Graham was the patron saint of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. When I first started the clinic we had no government funding. It was all volunteer. We were seeing about 200 to 300 patients a day. Bill organized benefits because he saw the people that were coming to our clinic for medical help were the same ones that were going to some of his concerts.
We had some of the most incredible benefits at Winterland with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Carlos Santana. The initial ones were all at the Fillmore but the crowds got bigger and went to Winterland.
There was an increase in adverse drug reactions. Bad trips. As a result of all this, we named one of our buildings the Bill Graham Center for Health and Recovery.
When I started the clinic, I was very involved in psychedelic drug research. Today, the P.E.A.C. [Psychedelic & Entheogen Academic Council] Roundtable is the third psychedelic revolution, which is the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, for PTSD, depression, substance abuse disorders, and we’re starting psychedelics and recovery.
HSV: The P.E.A.C. Roundtable with HAPC is on January 5, 2024. Anyone who’s reading, please come! Dr. Dave, what would you like to say to the Haight community and to communities everywhere in the world this holiday season?
DD: Recovery works. There are very serious addiction problems that are going on. We have to focus on individuals as human beings. Health care is a right not a privilege, and that’s the whole purpose of what we’re doing.
HSV: Bill Graham cared about people, and how important community is.
DD: Bill had a rough exterior but a heart of gold. He always rooted for the underdog.
HSV: The P.E.A.C. meeting on January 5 is your effort to heal people. Bill healed people through music and community, and your efforts are about healing through recovery. [For more information about HAPC’s quarterly P.E.A.C meetings, please email us at haightstreetvoice@gmail.com]
DD: Yes. Psychedelics and recovery to overcome trauma and to seek spiritual solutions because recovery is focused on spiritual solutions. Those that benefit from psychedelics at the higher dosages, it’s the spiritual experience that transcends their trauma. And much of the evidence at UCSF is that that’s the dosage that re-wires the brain. It’s fascinating science.
HSV: How has music influenced your life, Dr. Dave?
DD: Our clinic was built on rock and roll. In the early days, the psychedelic sound, the Grateful Dead taking LSD and having a different vision of what music is was very influential. I was a laboratory scientist living in the Haight. I observed the impact of psychedelics on music and culture. It was absolutely fascinating.
