Activist, anarchist, and drug advocate Abbie Hoffman would have been 83 on November 30. To celebrate the late revolutionary’s birthday, we’re republishing a series of short interviews with his friends and colleagues, conducted shortly after his death on April 12, 1989 and published in the July, 1989 issue of High Times.
Michael Kennedy, Lawyer; Defended Rennie Davis at Chicago 8 Trial
The first time I met Abbie was in a hotel room in the fall of 1967. He had a pot of honey laced with acid. We were all supposed to take a big finger full of honey and sit down and formulate a strategy and that’s what we did.
Abbie would try anything. In the old days, he did acid the way some people would do bacon and eggs. He obviously was not averse to drugs—they were a very important part of his personality. I just don’t think he intended to kill himself. I can imagine it as an accident because he was very compulsive and unafraid of any kind of drug or pill.
Abbie saw the next four years as critical. He was looking forward to riding another wave. He was ready. For instance, he was going to go up to Alaska to defend the otters. The [oil spill] depressed the hell out of him, but he was not the type to give in to depression. Being a manic depressive, we learned years ago that that was a power—that depression is as much a power as mania is. If you could harness it—that’s where the lithium came in—you could turn it into positive political activity. That’s why he had this incredible fucking energy. Abbie lived about as fully as anybody I’ve ever known.
David Peel, Marijuana Activist and Leader of the Group, Lower East …
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Author: High Times / High Times
