The Brotherhood of Eternal Love
| Founded by | John Griggs |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Orange County, California, United States |
| Criminal activities | Drug use, manufacturing and distribution |
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. They produced and distributed drugs in hopes of starting a "psychedelic revolution" in the United States.
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 5-year sentence for possession of marijuana.
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. More members were arrested in 1994 and 1996, and the last of them in 2009; he served two months in jail after pleading guilty to a single charge of smuggling hashish.
In 2010 Nicholas Schou published a book called Orange Sunshine on the brotherhood. In 2016 a documentary directed by William Kirkley also named Orange Sunshine (named for the LSD they distributed) was released.
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