YIPPIES LANDED SHAKEN FROST IN DRUGS INQUIRY

DAVID FROST was investigated for allegedly allowing cannabis to be
smoked by the American "Yippie" Jerry Rubin during one of his
television programmes, it was revealed yesterday.

The Metropolitan Police spent six weeks investigating claims of
dope-smoking and obscene language when Rubin and two colleagues
appeared on a live edition of London Weekend Television's The David
Frost Show. Members of the public had made complaints during the
show's transmission from studios in Wembley on November 7, 1970,
according to police files kept secret until yesterday.

A 2 in-thick file at the Public Record Office in Kew discloses that,
while the show's producer was aware of the smell of cannabis, Frost
was "visibly shaken" when told that traces of the drug had been found
in cigarette butts gathered from the studio floor.

The papers show that Scotland Yard looked into events surrounding the
stunt in which "16 hippy types" stormed the stage and sprayed Frost's
face with a water pistol. They were Yippies, "political hippy" members
of the anti-war Youth International Party founded in the late 1960s by
Rubin and Abbie Hoffman.

The investigation did not lead to a prosecution of LWT or Frost for
allowing cannabis to be smoked. When officers arrived at the studios,
the main suspects -- Rubin, Bryan Flannigan and Stuart Allport -- drove
off without being questioned about the allegations.

Dozens of calls had been received by police during the programme:
viewers complained about obscene language and alleged that Rubin and
his friends were smoking pot. Rubin had told Frost that he had sought
a higher fee to "buy bombs to blow up your society" and "to smoke
dope". Rubin produced a cigarette that was the colour of paper and
asked Frost if he smoked dope.

Allport urged him to try it. When Frost declined, a number of Yippies
invaded the rostrum, forcing Frost to continue the show in another
studio.

Assistant Commissioner J. Starritt wrote to a Labour MP that though
complaints had been made about Rubin, he was not among the 16 people
who were searched when the show ended at 10.45pm. "It is not certain
how he left the building," Mr Starritt said.

Hours later Sergeant John Bunker found cigarette ends in the studio
bin and a "home-made cigarette wrapped in white cigarette paper with
the ends twisted". The Police Forensic Laboratory found that two butts
included cannabis traces and the joint contained half a gram of cannabis.

Having failed to interview the main suspects, the Yard admitted that
it had no evidence for a prosecution.

Rubin later turned himself from yippie to yuppie before dying in a car
crash.


Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jan 2002
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact: letters@the-times.co.uk
Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Richard Ford, Home Correspondent