The term contact high has its roots in the
drug culture of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969, a
drug abuse book for high school students defined "contact high" as "becoming high merely by interacting with one who is high". In 1971, a glossary of drug users' language describes a contact high as "a
psychogenic 'trip' without taking drugs, by being close to somebody while he is on drugs". The term is sometimes incorrectly used to describe the
high experienced by a person who has inhaled
secondhand smoke. In
Alexander Shulgin's book
PiHKAL, under the
2C-I entry, a notable reaction was observed in a participant who took a
placebo while in an environment with other people who are under the influence of a drug. The participant wrote that he had "absorbed the ambience of the folks who had actually imbibed the material". == In popular culture ==