With the sweet aroma of marijuana wafting across the fields of the Woodstock '94 festival last weekend, and tabs of LSD changing hands as easily as candy bars, it was as if there had never been a drug war.
Woodstock 25 years later was still a big, sprawling party with plenty of drugs. Experts say that is intriguing, since even though casual drug use had dropped significantly since the 1970's and 80's, it is on the rise again. Woodstock may be an indication of that, they say.
"The fact that drug use was so widespread and so open suggests a troublesome reversion to earlier practices of extensive and heavy use of marijuana and LSD," said Dr. Lloyd D. Johnston, a University of Michigan researcher who has been tracking drug use for 25 years.
On the Rise Again
In July Federal health officials reported that a long decline in drug use had halted and that the use of some drugs -- particularly marijuana, LSD and heroin -- was increasing once again. One reason for the reversal, drug experts said, was a lack of national leadership on the drug issue.
Another reason, the experts say, is that marijuana is being glamorized as part of a new fashion statement with leaf-imprinted T-shirts and hats and in some of the most popular new music. Some of that music was shaking the hilltops at Woodstock.
"We're seeing a gradual slippage of the gains we have made," said Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, the president of Phoenix House, the largest residential drug treatment organization in the country.
Whether the acid highs and cannabis clouds at Woodstock '94 were confirmation of a surge in drug use or merely exemplified another generation's determined effort to re-enact a fabled memory is not clear. But what seems indisputable is that despite more than two decades of widely publicized Federal anti-drug initiatives, drugs remain very much a part of American life. Police officials said that they did not find drug use at Woodstock '94 out of character.
A Typical Concert
"I don't think there was any more substance abuse than at any other concert of this type," said James W. McMahon, the superintendent of the New York State Police, who had dispatched 600 troopers to keep order on highways and in nearby towns.
"We didn't have any heavy reports of overdoses," he said. "And there were no deaths."
The promoters of Woodstock '94 had banned drugs and alcohol. But their private security force apparently did little to stop drug use.
No one, it turns out, was keeping track of drugs and alcohol and no one seems to know what drug was most popular. Some veterans say there was more marijuana and less LSD at the first Woodstock and that the reverse was true last weekend. Others say marijuana was more prevalent this time. They agree, however, that while beer was rare at the original event, it was plentiful this year.
Beer Was Big
Cases of beer were virtually walking out the door of stores in Saugerties until the state police asked merchants to suspend sales Saturday afternoon.
"The crowd started getting very boisterous, and that's putting it gently," said Jim Atkins, a state police spokesman. "They were getting intoxicated and getting wound up with the music at the same time."
Some beer sellers set up shop in the back of trucks near the gates of the festival and were charging $40 for a case of beer that usually goes for less than half that price. Zachary Carey, 24, a volunteer health care worker at the festival, said that by 9:30 A.M. Saturday, 75 to 80 people were lined up behind one truck selling beer and that some people were paying an extra $10 a case to avoid the wait.
Breaks and Sprains
Of the 8,000 people treated by medics, most were seen for broken bones and sprains, attributed to the rain, the mud and exuberant dancing styles, instead of drugs, according to Dr. Fernadine Anderson, the head of emergency services at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston and the medical director of the festival. He estimated that 1 or 2 percent of the cases were reactions to drugs, adding that about 30 people were hospitalized for drugs.
"There was rampant drug use," Dr. Anderson said. "But the fallout was minimal."
The state police issued a handful of traffic summonses and arrested only two people on drug charges, one for driving while impaired and another for possession of psychedelic mushrooms. "It wasn't a violent crowd," he said. "It was a very cooperative crowd."
Panic Attacks
Some of what looked like trouble with drugs may have been something else. Dr. Bruce L. Wilson, a psychologist who is the co-director of the Stress Medicine Group in Pleasantville and who worked as a festival volunteer, said that while there was "a tremendous amount of LSD" at Woodstock '94, he found many people suffering panic attacks, "which are not unlike a bad trip."
Many participants, he said, had driven long distances, slept little and had used coffee and amphetamines to stay awake. Then, he said, as crowds built to 250,000 to 300,000, according to police estimates, "the press of people was overwhelming."
"There was not much individual space," he said, "and people were told that at best they could get out the next day if they wanted to leave. You couldn't design a better situation if your job was to induce panic attacks."
Dr. Wilson said he thought that young teen-agers got into trouble with LSD at the festival because they were trying the drug for the first time and underestimated its effect.
They Knew Their Drugs
However, Dr. Colleen Ballerino Cohen, an anthropology professor and director of women's studies at Vassar College, who worked at the festival as a volunteer health worker, said some young people seemed quite sophisticated about drugs.
"There were kids coming up to me asking if I knew which the good acid was compared to the bad acid," she said, "and there was always one kid designated to be the one that would stay straight. The kids were great. They took care of themselves and each other."
Hoping to protect people from poorly made LSD, Michael Berg, the executive director of a social services organization called the Family of Woodstock, which grew out of the first festival, collected a list of brand names that had left users "depressed, paranoid and shaky." The list was read periodically from the main music stage.
"Some grass was being offered around that within 10 minutes had people shaking and depressed," Mr. Berg said. "A lot of people were just grooving to the music. They were very high and fine. But some people were in tremendous pain. We had some people like that for five hours, crying; very intense stuff."
