Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 7:03 AM 
 
 click to enlarge Shulgin, left, via Charlie Llewellin/Flickr 
 
 Before Pihkal, we had a real good relationship with the DEA. They have few people they can talk to who are on the other side of the fence who are honest. 
 
 click to enlarge Shulgin in younger days via Lorenzo Tlacaelel/Flickr 
 
 Sasha Shulgin died at 5pm this afternoon. He was a psychedelic chemist, a visionary, and a cognitive liberty advocate. He was also a dear friend, mentor, and role model to Earth & me (Fire). 
 
 
 
 We were lucky to know him. 
 
 He spent three decades synthesizing new psychedelic drugs in his California backyard lab, and he was credited with creating more than 100 previously unknown psychoactive compounds, but he was best known for a drug he didn't invent:Ecstasy.Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, who in the 1970s rescued the circa-1912 pharmaceutical from obscurity by suggesting it would be viable for mental therapy, died yesterday at the age of 88, the organization Erowid announced:The former Dow Chemical Co. research chemist synthesized drugs with the approval of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which gave him a license to analyze narcotics so that he could be an expert witness.He said he invented more than 150 drugs while he also worked a day job as a scientific consultant after leaving Dow.The Bay Area resident was of particular use in cases where the compounds were exotic or rare: Few "designer drugs" appeared to be outside his expertise and, often, he was their inventor."A lot of the materials in Schedule I are my invention," Shulgin once told us. "I'm not sure if it's a point of pride or a point of shameThe booksandcataloged Shulgin's recipes. But after this reporter profiled Shulgin in the Los Angeles Times the DEA got cold feet about the arrangement.Wife Ann told us back then that the souring had been a few years in the making:The feds' objections were too late, though, and the chemist became an icon just as the rave scene - particularly massive in L.A. - adopted the tactile, feel-good drug as its own."I still haven't found anything like it to this day," Shulgin told us in '95.Ecstasy was outlawed by the federal government in 1985 , after it had already become somewhat of a club drug in Dallas and beyond.Shulgin moved on to other compounds, trying each one himself or allowing trusted friends to partake for research purposes."Inventing new psychoactive drugs," Ann said to us, "is like composing new music."One drug that Shulgin called 5-TOM had a paralyzing effect, he said. But he wasn't afraid. He believed it was all worth it in the name of human discovery. And he wanted drugs like ecstasy legalized.Erowid said Shulgin had been "battling various illnesses" for several years and was recently diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He had a stroke in 2010, the organization said.In announcing his death, Erowid described him this way: Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero . Follow LA Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews ||||| Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, psychedelic pioneer, RIP 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, maverick chemist, psychedelic pioneer, and inspiring human being, died yesterday at 88 years old. Sasha is best known for popularizing MDMA (Ecstasy) and introducing it to the psychological community, and synthesizing hundreds of new psychoactive chemicals that he first tested on himself. His scientific research is detailed in a huge output of papers and books including the seminal tomes TIHKAL and PIHKAL, co-authored with his wife and research partner Ann Shulgin. 
 
 
 
 
 
 As Sasha once said, everyone deserves "the license to explore the nature of his own soul." 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sasha, you will be missed, and rest-assured the research will continue. ||||| It's quite a trip to visit maverick pharmacologist Dr Alexander Shulgin and his collaborator and wife, Ann, at their rustic home in California. It is a warm secluded place far from the UK's current controversy over drugs, fuelled by newspaper campaigns to legalise cannabis backed by Richard Branson, by Kevin Williamson's book Drugs And The Party Line (a scathing attack on drugs policy printed on hemp) and the Scotland Against Drugs campaign. 
 
 Sasha Shulgin, as he introduces himself, is the proud godfather of Ecstasy, the hit drug of so many raves. A respected chemist, his relationship with the substance started surprisingly long ago, in the 1970s, when a colleague sent him the 1912 German patent for what was then a little-known drug called methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). He synthesised and tested the orphan compound - Merck, the drug company, had never used it commercially - and has been raving about it ever since. Three years ago, for example, it was Sasha's expert testimony that led Spanish authorities to categorise it as one of the least harmful drugs. 
 
 Sasha has invented about a hundred other mind-altering substances, no mean feat since there may only be around 200 synthetics out there, not counting nature's own hallucinogens - magic mushrooms, peyote cacti, toad venom and the red beans of the Arizona and New Mexico Indians, among others. And for decades Sasha, 72, and Ann, a 66-year-old writer and researcher originally from New Zealand, have also imbibed psychedelics. In the name of science, they have taken assiduous notes on their trips, especially the benefits, ranging from increased self-awareness, compassion or spirituality to relaxation and great sex. 
 
 Indeed their 'Farm,' as they jokingly call the shambolic place, has been the site of years of radical group research. After they had worked up a new mind-expanding compound, they would bring in eight or so fellow believers - from physicians to psychologists, scientists to businessmen - to test it and record their reactions. Until recently, however, the Shulgins were barely known beyond the world of government-controlled psycho-pharmacology. 
 
 Their white wooden home, with a panoramic view to the east, sits atop the dry hills that stretch inland from the college town of Berkeley. Suburban drivers whiz down the four-lane road at the end of narrow Shulgin Road, so named because Sasha's family has owned the land since leaving Russia 50-odd years ago. 
 
 For more than 15 years, Sasha held a rare government licence allowing him to study and synthesise illegal drugs. He has testified as an expert on both sides of drug trials and wrote the classic reference book on US law and drugs, Controlled Substances: Chemical And Legal Guide To Federal Drug Laws. Then, six years ago, and to the dismay of the authorities, the Shulgins declared their love of psychedelics and belief that all drugs should be legal. 
 
 Adamant that their life's work should never disappear, they published a landmark book, the 1,000-page, oddly-titled Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story. The acronym stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved, and refers to a drug family that includes Sasha's beloved and already-illegal Ecstasy or MDMA. It contains recipes for 180 mind-bending chemicals and notes on the 'highs', often with artistic references and Ann's Jungian take on experience. Pihkal gained a cult readership, although the recipes are gobbledygook for amateurs. In its third print run, it has sold more than 21,000 copies, which is remarkable for a self-published book. 
 
 The Shulgins are now in the news again. To the fury of drug officials on both sides of the Atlantic, they have just published a second book, Tihkal: The Continuation, which covers the 'tryptamines' from toad venom and magic mushrooms to LSD. In the first month, they sold 3,500 copies through their Transform Press in Berkeley, a figure boosted by a rave review in New York's Village Voice. At a certain point, they say they will simply publish it on the Internet as they did with Pihkal. Their aim is not to make money but to release the psychedelic genie from the bottle by disseminating their know-how irreversibly. They give copies out, only asking you to pass them on to others who might be interested. 'It can't be exterminated now,' says Sasha. 
 
 Perhaps it's not surprising that the late Timothy Leary said the Shulgins are among the century's most important scientists. And Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD, is a friend with whom Sasha co-wrote the introduction to a 1977 book on hallucinogens by Aldous Huxley entitled Moksha, from the Hindu term for spiritual awakening. 
 
 Drug-induced states, argue Sasha and Ann, are so intrinsic to human nature that the use of intoxicants such as tobacco, opium, cannabis, coffee or alcohol can be traced back to the dawn of time. They advocate legalising all drugs, addictive or not. It should be a matter for personal choice, they say, something that is taxed but as available as tobacco and booze. Drug-related crime would drop, drug-fighting money would be saved and drug use might even fall without the attraction of illicitness. The only laws needed, Sasha says, would be to prevent people driving when high, drugging someone else without their permission, or giving substances to children. Drug users who get into trouble should be helped, not treated like criminals, adds Ann, as are people addicted to valium or alcohol. 
 
 Shulgin with his wife Ann at their home in Lafayette, California, USA in 2002. Photograph: Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns 
 
 Has this argument become truly prophetic, a much-needed scientifically-informed salvo in a one-sided debate? Perhaps spiritual awakening, relaxation and chemical freedom should be within everyone's grasp, especially since life is so harsh. Or is the Shulgins' view well-intentioned but irresponsible - a sort of heroin chic for middle-class libertarians, another take on Andre Breton's 'derangement of the senses' from two utterly charming but idiosyncratic advocates? After all William Burroughs, trying to kick junk, tracked down the psychedelic 'ayahuasca' in South America in the hopes of substituting a new addiction. The 'yage' ceremonies were like night-long raves. But he later asked if dropping acid is like opening a door: once you've found it why keep reopening it over and over again? On a sunny afternoon, Sasha and Ann serve sandwiches and cake on their patio. In the middle of the table, next to the potato salad, is a Bolivian cactus growing in a pot. It's hallucinogenic rather than decorative, something you learn is true of almost every plant within a stone's throw of their house. 
 
 Sasha's pharmaceutical calling came in, of all places, Liverpool. Two decades before the psychedelia of the 1960s, his epiphany was nothing to do with the Beatles' Yellow Submarine or Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds. He was in the US navy and had been whisked to hospital for an emergency operation. 'Goofed up' on Royal Navy rum, morphine and a barbiturates, he says he was given orange juice and was so convinced he was being re-drugged, he fell unconsciousness for too long. 'It was the ultimate placebo effect,' he recalls excitedly. 'I got interested in how you can modify the mind, how you can find out what's going on.' For years, Sasha worked as a scientist at Dow Chemical, although he had taken a psychedelic, mescaline, back in the 1950s. 'I saw colours I had never seen before,' he says. 
 
 Ann, who experimented with mescaline-laced peyote at around the same time, adds: 'It opens up doors you wouldn't even know were there otherwise. It was a very extraordinary, sacred experience - everything you look at is infused with light.' On the way to Sasha's laboratory, he points out an acacia tree with psycho-active bark - DMT, often the source for an intoxicating snuff in the Caribbean and South America - and a mint used by Mexican Indians that he says often gives the user an 'out of body' or astral experience. 
 
 His lab is cobweb-entangled and autumn leaves are piled in the corners. Drawers are crammed with beakers and test-tubes. On the wall near an old fireplace is a Voodoo doll Sasha says he uses to invoke a certain copper reaction. 
 
 What about bad trips? I ask 'Oh, they're real,' he replies. 'Even in the research group, we'd have idiosyncratically-sensitive people.' Once, a friend became temporarily paralysed on one of Sasha's creations, 5-TOM. 'A pretty heavy-duty experience,' says PIHKAL. 'The consensus is that it wasn't worth the struggle.' The war on drugs, he says, is a waste of money, more to do with political control, profit-making and fear of the unknown than medical or social concerns. 'Is MDMA a dangerous drug?' he fumes. 'It's been used so much in the UK, and there's been one death in a million.' 'Recreational' heroin at your local off-licence? 'It's highly addictive, but perhaps not quite as much as tobacco,' he says. 
 
 Think about recreation, says Ann. 'Re-creation. Young people grow up in big cities, they have to be so street-wise and untrusting. At a rave, that can drop away, leaving a sense of sharing and commitment with people they just met.' As if on cue, one of their fellow researchers drops by. Tony Sargent is a retired chemist who used to run radiology experiments at the respected Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He's now a wine-maker, and is dressed with a casual conservatism- quite a contrast to Sasha with his Einstein hair and baggy ethnic-patterned shirt. They talk about psychedelics and how pharmacologists used to describe them as creating a temporary psychosis. Sasha is recalling a scan on the brain activity of schizophrenics, or 'schitzies' as he calls them. But surely you can't liken taking a drug voluntarily to a psychosis that can condemn someone to a life of isolation? Later, Ann will announce that a new crate of cacti has arrived. One of the Shulgins' means of staying ahead of the authorities is to work with psycho-active substances that are not yet categorised or outlawed. They are preparing their third book, tentatively called Qihkal, the 'Q' standing for quinolines, the hallucinogenic substance in cacti. Since many of the plants originate in Central or South America, they are not properly classified by Western botanists let alone pharmacologists. 
 
 A few days later, we talk on the phone. The Shulgins are excited about reports from a forum for police on 'more pragmatic approaches' to substance abuse at the conservative Hoover Institution, at Stanford University. Former Secretary of State George Shultz and Nobel economist Milton Friedman had told the police that America's war on drugs is a failure that has led to massive, cruel imprisonment, inner-city destruction and widespread drug gangs that thrive on high profits and violence. 
 
 For all their shamanistic talk, the Shulgins have experienced the war on drugs first-hand. Twice in 1994, US agents searched their home and lab, in part because drug officials were livid about the publication of Pihkal. Unable to halt the Shulgins' books because of the First Amendment, the authorities instead fined them Dollars 25,000 and made Sasha relinquish his drug-handling licence. 
 
 They might have had cold feet sooner had they known his dedication. Sasha estimates he has popped 200 or so psychedelics not of his own invention. And he has invented 100 or so psychedelics, some potent enough to get street credibility or to be used by maverick psychotherapists - 2C-B, DOM or STP, the now-illegal DOB and DOI. Ethical and sincere in his beliefs, Sasha tried them first on himself, as did Hofmann with LSD and Salk with the polio vaccine. With a subversive-sounding chuckle, he makes a final charming quip: 'Oh, so many drugs and so little time.' So little time indeed, and there must quite a few out there who wish his calling were inventing a vaccine for Aids.
– A chemist named Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin has died at age 88, notes Gawker, and while that might not be a household name, his nickname explains the attention: "godfather of ecstasy." Shulgin didn't invent the drug otherwise known as MDMA, but he "rescued the circa-1912 pharmaceutical from obscurity by suggesting it would be viable for mental therapy," explains LA Weekly. The rest is rave history. Shulgin did, however, invent somewhere around 150 psychedelic drug compounds with his wife, Ann, using themselves as test subjects. The respected chemist began his career with Dow Chemical and eventually authored two books with his wife titled TiHkal (Tryptamines I Have Known And Loved) and PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved). The Guardian and Vice have resurrected their interviews with Shulgin from years past. In its tribute to this "maverick chemist, psychedelic pioneer, and inspiring human being," Boing Boing quotes Shulgin himself: Everyone deserves "the license to explore the nature of his own soul."