Many problems have been glossed over in the psychedelic, Jefferson Airplane, \u201cmake love, not war\u201d\u009d sheen the era has received, not least of which was the soaring rate of sexually transmitted diseases. There was a price for all that free love. From 1964 through 1968, the rates of syphilis and gonorrhea in California rose 165 percent, according to published reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of drug use, group sex, communal sex,\u201d\u009d says Dr. David Smith, who founded the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic with $500 of his own money. \u201cIt would be an understatement to say there was a spike in STDs. That\u2019s like saying a hurricane is a strong wind.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Clinic doctors would regularly visit local communes to track sexual partners of infected people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Bill had sex with John, and John had sex with Cindy,\u201d\u009d explains Smith. \u201cSo we often said, \u201d\u02dcWell, let\u2019s just bring in a gallon of penicillin and inject everybody.\u2019\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Smith sums up his feelings about how the scene degenerated from carefree experimentation into a disease-ridden mess: \u201cWe went from idealism to despair.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n