The Beatles were responsible for a worldwide increase in recreational drug use which continues to harm young people, Russia's top anti-narcotics official has claimed.
Yevgeny Bryun told a press conference in Moscow that the consequences of the Fab Four's propaganda in the 1960s were still being felt.
"After The Beatles went to expand their consciousness in India ashrams, they introduced that idea – the changing of one's psychic state of mind using drugs – to the population," he said. "When business understood that you could trade on that – on pleasure and goods associated with pleasure – that's probably where it all began." Mr Bryun said tough measures were needed to combat mass culture and advertising which promoted drug use today.
