40 years ago teenagers were smoking catnip

Excerpts from an archival post in the StarTribune's Yesterday's News column, originally published November 26, 1969:

There seems to be no doubt, however, that sales of catnip in the Twin Cities boomed last summer and that current sales, although down some, are continuing above normal.

“We couldn’t keep catnip on the shelf for a while,” said Richard Andersen, owner of four Twin Cities pet centers. “Lots of kids were buying a dozen or two dozen packages at a time. I knew something was abnormal. The cat population couldn’t have increased as much as the sales of catnip. Large-quantity sales have diminished, but they are still going on.”

Principal reason given for the catnip smoking is that catnip is legal and cheaper than marijuana. Illegal marijuana in the Twin Cities cost[s] $10 to $20 an ounce.

Legal catnip costs about 30 cents for a one-ounce package...

A University of Minnesota pharmacologist said he was not aware of any demonstrated hallucinogenic qualities possessed by catnip.

“The chemical ingredient in catnip that affects cats is Nepetalactone,” he said. “This doesn’t have a true hallucinogenic affect on cats. It appears to be a sex attractant.”

Minneapolis Tribune photo by Richard Olsenius