“There Are People in All Walks of Life Who Are Using This Substance”: Drugs, Discourse, and the Student Counterculture at the Le Dain Commission, 1969–70

Abstract

The late 1960s were a turbulent time on Canadian postsecondary campuses. University students were both the subjects of and participants in the broader discourse regarding the counterculture and drug use. Many participants in this discourse presumed a close relationship between students, drug use, and countercultural perspectives, but the records of the Le Dain commission challenge some of these associations. Held throughout 1969 and 1970, the Le Dain commission transcripts from hearings held on university campuses across Canada suggest that while Canadian postsecondary students broadly endorsed drug policy reforms, they simultaneously resisted the more radical aspects of the late-1960s countercultural discourse.