The Times advert files

Additional papers are in PP/SAB/B/1/3/9, PP/SAB/B/1/3/11, PP/SAB/B/1/3/13, PP/SAB/B/1/5/3 and PP/SAB/B/1/5/10.

1967-1998

9 files

In April 1967 the Home Secretary appointed the Sub-Committee on Hallucinogens (part of Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence) chaired by Baroness Wootton to report on cannabis. That summer, Stephen Abrams proposed the idea of publishing an advert in a national newspaper that would serve to both petition the Wotton Committee to consider cannabis law reform and to raise awareness of the case of John "Hoppy" Hopkins, a photographer and activist arrested for cannabis possession. The advert was paid for my Paul McCartney and signed by various notable people of the day including the rest of the Beatles, Francis Crick, Graham Greene, David Bailey, David Dimbleby, R.D. Laing and Francis Huxley. It was published in The Times on 24 July 1967 and began "The law against marijuana is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice" and went on to call for more research into the uses of cannabis, permission for cannabis to be smoked in private premises and relaxation of cannabis laws.