The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Website strongly refutes this notion. "You're kidding, right?" is the response to the FAQ about drug references in The Wizard of Oz. Baum himself was not a drug user, and while the effects of opium were well known at the turn of the twentieth century, they were not as stigmatized as they are now. Still, The Wizard of Oz does possess a trippy quality and Jim DeRogatis fittingly lists The Wizard of Oz on the list of "The Psychedelic Influence of Popular Culture" in his book Kaleidoscope Eyes. [2]

The website Planet Groovy offers a hilarious take on the imagery of the film called "The Wizard of Oz Is All About Drugs." Dorothy's never done drugs, but she's given a lollipop by the Munchkins, just as pushers often give drug users a free sample. The Scarecrow has been told that his brain has been fried by drug use. That he demonstrates more intellectual capacity than any other character in the story, however, reveals how damaging society's scare tactics against drug use are. The Tin Man is a heroin addict who needs a fix from a syringe-like oil can to be able to function. The Cowardly Lion is afraid that others will find out about his drug use, so he's "lyin'" about it. The yellow brick road symbolizes the money that can be made from drugs and the Wizard of Oz is the guru of the drug world, and oz, of course, is the abbreviation for ounces, often used as a unit of measure for drugs. Planet Groovy offers more detail, but I'll let you discover that on your own. Perhaps the observations don't always make sense, but this interpretation is highly entertaining. [3] David B. Parker said that once Littlefield's published his parable on Populism article, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was no longer an innocent fairy tale." [4] How far we have come.