Stephen Irwin Abrams (15 July 1938 in Chicago, Illinois[1] – 21 November 2012) was an American scholar of parapsychology and a cannabis rights activist who was a long-standing resident of the United Kingdom.
Presented in the sensationalist manner for which the paper was known, the story emphasized Abrams claim that 500 of Oxford's student body were cannabis users.
On 1 February, the same day as long clarifying letter from him was printed in The Daily Telegraph,[10] Abrams announced, via the pages of student newspaper Cherwell, the formation of SOMA, an acronym for the Society of Mental Awareness, as a drug research project.
Two weeks later, on 15 February 1967, Abrams gave evidence before the University Committee on Student Health, which agreed to pursue his suggestion that the Home Secretary be prevailed upon to institute an inquiry.
Hoppy himself, a member of the editorial board of the underground newspaper International Times, had been arrested for cannabis possession the previous December, after police raided his London flat.
The idea was that this could serve the double purpose of raising awareness of Hoppy's case and to influence the Wootton Committee, who everyone thought was going to legalise cannabis use.
After a third night of protests, again met with police violence, Abrams was among those whose picture appeared on the News of the World's front page on 2 July.
A permit having been refused for a larger event, the protesters led by Abrams – and including speakers Allen Ginsberg, Caroline Coon, Stokely Carmichael, Alexis Korner, Spike Hawkins, Clive Goodwin and Adrian Mitchell – split into small groups in this famous haven of free speech.
Abrams speculated around 1988 that, if it were not for the furor over the Rolling Stones case – which included the famous William Rees-Mogg editorial Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
A week after the advertisement appeared, on 31 July 1967, Keith Richards' cannabis conviction was quashed, and Mick Jagger's prison sentence (for possession of amphetamine tablets) reduced to a conditional discharge.
At the 1967 Tory party conference, the Shadow Home Secretary, Quintin Hogg said he was "profoundly shocked by the irresponsibility of those who wanted to change the law", describing their arguments as "casuistic, confused, sophistical and immature."
The Wootton Committee's Report, when submitted in November 1968,[16] specifically cited the advertisement's influence on its proceedings, noting that the advertisement's claim that "the long-asserted dangers of cannabis are exaggerated and that the related law is socially damaging, if not unworkable', had caused the committee to "give greater attention to the legal aspects of the problem" and "give first priority to presenting our views on cannabis.
[19] The Home Secretary of the day, James Callaghan denounced the Report, claiming its authors had been "overinfluenced" by the "lobby" responsible for "that notorious advertisement."
Later, it was incorporated as the Soma Research Association, Ltd. Apart from Abrams, directors included Francis Crick, four psychiatrists: Professor Norman Zinberg of Harvard, Dr. Anthony Storr, Dr. R. D. Laing, and Dr. David Cooper.
They compared the action of the isomers of THC and tried to distinguish euphoria from intoxication by measuring the apparent tridimensionality of visual perception, the extent to which the world appeared, as it were, "spaced-out."
These activities attracted the attention of the News of the World, which printed a sensationalist exposé on the front page of its July 7, 1968 issue with the headline "This dangerous man MUST be stopped!"
Abrams was remembered at the 'Abrams Picnic,' an outdoor event in the grounds of Greenwich University, London, during Breaking Convention - the 2nd Multidisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, on Sunday 14 July 2013.