FROM THE ’60s TO THE ’70s: “MIND AND BODY”<\/p>\n
At the end of the 1960s, rhetoric was rampant (peace, love, free sex) and certain drugs were capable of expanding the mind; they were head drugs. While the hippie counter-culture used LSD and other substances derived from hallucinogenic mushrooms, “stimulants” like Popper reigned supreme in the gay disco scene.
\nPOPPER was inhaled directly on the dance floor and caused a sharp drop in blood pressure and a state close to loss of consciousness. There was also QUAALUDE, originally a sedative-hypnotic that led to a state of euphoria and relaxation with a consequent lowering of inhibitions. Disco represented a return to the body in a physical and political sense, and the drugs that accompanied the phenomenon were also ‘physical’; they were drugs for “action.” <\/p>\n
THE SYMBOLS
\nDrug emblems were present in all New York clubs. It is impossible not to mention THE MAN ON THE MOON inside “Studio 54.” At midnight, a crescent moon with a human profile was lowered toward the audience, next to a spoon filled with glowing crystals that in turn illuminated the profile’s nostril up to the eye.
\nIt was the end of the ’70s, and the drug of celebrities was bursting onto the scene: COCAINE. <\/p>\n
ITALY: A REALITY APART
\nThe “Drugs & Disco” phenomenon was more subdued in Italy.
\nWhen the disco craze exploded in Italy as well (1977-1978), young people found themselves at a crossroads. The pressing and invasive political commitment required by school militants, or the escape of disengagement represented by sports activities and the emerging discotheques? This divide was also determined by the financial means of individuals. The choice was between spending pocket money with friends at the disco or buying some weed. Cheap drugs did not exist, and the circles young people were forced to frequent to obtain them were often quite dangerous. Despite this, drugs had already taken hold in schools and militant politics.
\nSocial groups were a rampant phenomenon at the end of the ’70s (“The Warriors”); even there, the divisions between “disco-goers” and the politically committed were sharp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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