The Brotherhood of Eternal Love

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love was an organization of drug users and distributors that operated from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s in Orange County, California; they were dubbed the Hippie Mafia.[1] They produced and distributed drugs in hopes of starting a "psychedelic revolution" in the United States.[2]

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love
Founded byJohn Griggs
Founding locationOrange County, California, United States
Criminal activitiesDrug use, manufacturing and distribution

The organization was started by John Griggs as a commune, but by 1969, had turned to the manufacture of LSD and the importing of hashish.

In 1970, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love hired the radical left organization Weather Underground for a fee of $25,000 to help Timothy Leary make his way to Algeria after he escaped from prison, while serving a ten-year sentence for possession of marijuana.[3][4]

Their activities came to an end on August 5, 1972, when a drug raid was executed on the group where dozens of group members in California, Oregon and Maui were arrested. Some who had escaped the raid continued underground or fled abroad.[2] More members were arrested in 1994 and 1996, and the last of them in 2009;[1] Brenice Lee Smith served two months in jail before pleading guilty to a single charge of smuggling hashish, and then was released after being sentenced to time served.[5]

In 2010, Nicholas Schou published a book called Orange Sunshine on the brotherhood.[6] In 2016, a documentary directed by William Kirkley also named Orange Sunshine (named after the LSD they distributed) was released.[2]

References
  1. Schou, Nick (Nov 12, 2009). ""Hippie Mafia" Hash Smuggler Arrested". Archived from the original on 23 November 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  2. Schou, Nick (7 June 2007). "Eternal Sunshine". OC Weekly. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  3. Brian Flanagan (2002). The Weather Underground (mp4). The Free History Project. Event occurs at 0:59:00. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
  4. Rudd, Mark (2009). Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen. New York City: William Morrow and Company. pp. 225–7. ISBN 978-0061472756.
  5. Schou, Nick (Dec 3, 2009). "Case Closed on "Hippie Mafia" Smugglers". Archived from the original on 23 November 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  6. Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World, Nicholas Schou (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2010), ISBN 9780312551834.
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