The "60's Mentality" and Faulty Perception

Although I couldn't see it, I was making some very poor choices. My own strict rules were changing...My early drug experiences had been very powerful, very positive, and very life-changing. I learned how to play guitar, literally overnight, on an acid trip. In six weeks time I was playing better than the guitarist in my band at that time, who had been playing for most of his life, and was a guitar teacher. Most of my values and beliefs..not my parents'..not society's, but mine...had been formed by Woodstock Nation, the Counterculture, the music I listened to, and my hippie friends...and my own life experience. The "proof" that we were on the right path was clear..we had brought an end to the Vietnam War, we had exposed Nixon for what he was, and Civil rights...racial and gender equality...was finally a priority. I had a deep belief that there was a lot in America that needed to change. I still do. One of those things is misinformation and propoganda. When smoking pot became the thing, the government had countered with the "Reefer Madness" mentality, saying if you smoked the "devil weed" you would want to rape and kill. It didn't take too many joints for me to realize that was bullshit. Then they said that psychedelic drugs would cause brain damage and birth defects, but for me, they were a Spiritual and musical awakening. And a few years later, they even said that Cocaine was not addictive, and although at the time, I thought they were finally getting honest about drugs...I found out the hard way, years later, that wasn't true either. It got to the point that whatever I heard about drugs from the "establishment", I immediately believed the opposite was true. There was only one problem... they weren't lying about heroin. But, of course, I didn't find that out until it was too late...