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6 June 2012 Barb Boal, Editor The American Philatelist 100 Match Factory Place Bellefonte – PA 16823 Dear Barb Boal, As a long-time philatelist and recent subscriber to The American Philatelist, I have finally decided to follow through on one of my ambitions and write an article on philately. I’m hoping your magazine finds it worthwhile enough to publish. Abstract: My article will cover the U.S. Post Office’s brief and virtually unknown flirtation with selling LSD-laced stamps in the Berkely, CA area back in 1967. Their idea, according to Marvin L. Habermeyer, California Postmaster General at the time, was to design a series of musician-based stamps that contained a slight amount of lysergic acid diethylamide to the adhesive backing. Habermeyer, among others, believed that doing so would entice otherwise infrequent postal patrons (whom he had demographically identified as “hippie types”) to buy more stamps, since after licking the LSD-laced stamps, he believed they would forget they had made a purchase and then return to the Post Office to purchase more. While the LSD stamps were never issued, the Post Office did, in fact, develop a prototype Jerry Garcia stamp that has seen extremely limited circulation within a very small corner of the philately market. As one of the few possessors of the Jerry Garcia block, I would include 2-3 original pictures with the article. Length: 750 words Completion Time: 1 week Biographical Information: Blah blah blah that’s it. I hope you find my article idea interesting and look forward to hearing from you. Warmly, Dennis Hopper |