Acid wasn't getting a whole lot of bad press at the time, and as I saw the whole bad-press thing happen, I became aware that the government had done a whole lie on all the other benign drugs as well. It became clear to me that the government wanted no real drug education.
— Tommy Rettig
There's a big difference between somebody who does acid on weekends and somebody who takes downers every day.
I was still thought of as a kid actor even though I was in my mid twenties.
Well, I went to school with Jan and Dean, Ryan O'Neal, some of the Beach Boys we all use to party together.
Marijuana. Boy, I thought that was just terrible. How could this great man do this to his life?
The kids put you on a pedestal. I didn't like it.
I had always turned it down-to me, smoking pot was absolutely the worst thing in the world. I thought of it as an addiction, and all my friends who smoked it, I felt they really needed help.
I was totally devastated for four years in the mid '60s when l tried to buck the tide.
Then l learned to play guitar and l started writing songs and my mother formed for me a publishing business, so we started publishing and managing artists.
I wanted to go to regular high school - it looked like a lot of fun.
So, in the last year, the whole cast sued for release from our contracts.
My mom was a Democrat and I was scared to death that she was gonna blow it. First I was going to hell with Monroe, and now to Republican hell with Nixon.
A lot of my friends were fooling around with drugs then.
It was the worst period of my life. I had all this gigantic acceptance as a kid, and all of a sudden there was this monumental rejection.
Once in a while there was some TV offer and I'd take it.
Yes, there was nothing else to do to get you high. I mean, there was, but white kids didn't hear about it.
I wanted to have a normal childhood. Normal relationships.
Yeah, dog was this man's best friend, for sure.
