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| Photo: Stephen Poirier |
The store opened in 1968 not far from the cool strip of Sherbrooke where the booming youth demographic hung out at the Swiss Hut, Spanish Club and New Penelope.
Psychedelic drugs were seen as beneficial and even an essential experience, as they brought people in touch with their inner selves.
But of course, some people had bad trips, so the drugs were outlawed and strictly banned, leaving head shops subject to suspicion.
Nevertheless the Purple Unknown stuck around until the 1980s as did several other such places, including one run by a friendly older guy with massive whiskers on Bishop just south of St. Catherine. Now, rather unexpectedly, hallucinogenics are regaining respectability in the mainstream.
A must-read New Yorker article by Michael Pollan has probed some recent scientific research that demonstrates the need to reconsider our ban on magic mushrooms and psychedelic trip-inducing substances.
Chemists had long hoped to find a useful application for psychedlic drugs and it now appears one group has emerged that can greatly benefit from the experience brought by psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms.
The article notes that people with fatal disease can greatly benefit from such psychedelic drug trips.
But there is also evidence that tripping can help normals too, giving a sense of profound self-understanding, in some cases helping conquer alcoholism and addiction and in others in reducing anxiety as well as boosting creativity.
The research stresses that people with certain psychological conditions should avoid experimenting with such substances, so caveat emptor.
The Purple Unknown was a poster shop perhaps best known for its excellent homemade graphics and art.
It published advertisements of the finest graphic design quality. The message is that there was an irrefutable link between creativity of that era and psychedelic trips.
It might very well be time to re-appreciate the legacy of that such establishments brought to the city.
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Purple Unknown was still going strong in December 1981 and Deborah Milner was still there, in her fourth year of toiling at the retail operation.
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| Deborah Milner working the rotary Photo Stephen Poirier |
1- "Alternate lifestyle" Christmas cards that included gay themes. "We sell a lot of these kind of card," owner Michael Hutton-Williams said.
2-Christmas cards with female Santas.
3-Essentials oils
4-Shoelaces with painted red lips on them
5-Tiger balm
6-Bttons that read I (heart) drugs.
7- Wallets that float
8-Pouch reading "one night stand survival kit."
9-Incense
10- tea in elderberry, jasmine and lotus.
11 - Decals of unicorns,l puckered red lips, dragon, Pegasus, peace dove.
12- Greeting cards with "artistic photographs of underage nudes."
13 - Imitation snakeskin wrapping paper
The article mentioned in passing that the place sells goled plaited razor blades ofr cutting cocaine, a powder to dite cocaine, kits for analyzing purity of cocaine, plus scales for weighing doses and smoking devices for hash or marijuana.
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| Purple Unknown shoppers |
Many thanks to Stephen Poirier for the original photos and Genevieve Markle for pointing me to the New Yorker article.
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| Milner from 1981 article, Gazette photo by Ryan Remiorz |
psychedlic drugs good old days
ReplyDeleteI have a pair of earrings and a necklace that I bought at the Purple Unknown in the late 60s. I was 16 on a bus trip with my Grandmother and aunt from Massachusetts. It seemed that there was a fabricated(it looked like paper mache over wire) tunnel to enter the shop. My friends were afraid to go in, but I thought it was cool.
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