Sasha Shulgin Smacks Down George Ricaurte

Above: the Professor with visionary scientist Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin.

I attended a delightful lecture by Sasha yesterday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore -- home of the recent Psilocybin as a catalyst for mystical experience study.

At the end of Sasha's talk, after he had explained his very cautious methodology for evaluating new compounds and introducing them to his research group, a well-dressed, carefully groomed guy in the front asked a rather loaded question. I'll paraphrase:

Guy in front row: "Surely, you know about the people in California who ingested MPTP thinking it was heroin. This must have concerned you. It must have shaken up your group."

Shulgin: "No, it didn't."

Guy in front row: "I have a hard time believing this didn't worry you. You're testing compounds that you know nothing about. Those people got Parkinson's. And that doesn't worry you? You're not at all concerned about the safety of yourself and your group?"

Shulgin: "No."

Guy in front row: "I find that very hard to believe...." yadda yadda yadda.

Shulgin: "Let me turn this question around. How do you propose evaluating novel psychoactive effects in animals?" (Sasha's reply was much more nuanced, but that was the gist of it.*)

Guy in front row: (Uncomfortable silence)

My suspicions were correct -- the guy in the front row was none other than George "Oops, I fed my monkeys methamphetamine instead of MDMA!" Ricaurte. Had I known for sure it was him, I would have followed up with "Well, at least Sasha and his group KNOW the substances they're evaluating are the real things.... unlike a well-known, well-funded (pdf) scientist and his unfortunate monkeys ....**"

Damn, what a missed opportunity.

* Shulgin once said, "There are real problems involved in testing a rat for empathy or changes in self-image."

** MAPS has collected a trove of documents chronicling Ricaurte's research and the ensuing controversy. To be fair to Ricaurte, he has gone on record as admitting that MDMA may eventually be a legitimate medicine.

Prescription Ecstasy and Other Pipe Dreams: An Update on Psychedelic Research

RU Sirius interviews Jag Davies of MAPS about developments in psychedelic research:

RU: So a while back, MAPS got approval for a study in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Where are we at with that?

JAG: It’s almost over. They’ve treated 15 out of 20 patients. It’s very slow. There are lots of pre-conditions for the study because it’s such a controversial substance. But the results are ridiculous. Their CAPS score—(CAPS is the Clinician Administered PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] Scale) is about five times higher than in treating chronic treatment-resistant patients with Zoloft. It’s very likely that we’re going to be able to go on to do our next set up studies—Phase III studies. And there are a whole other slew of studies that are sort of copying this one that we’re doing in a bunch of other places like Switzerland, and Israel, just to be sure.

More at link.

Al Qaeda Suspect: U.S. Government Gave Me LSD

More confirmation that MKULTRA never went away.

Lawyers for Padilla, who was born in Brooklyn and converted to Islam while in prison for gang-related crimes, made the claims of torture in a motion filed last week with a federal court in Florida.

"He was threatened with being cut with a knife and having alcohol poured on the wounds. He was also threatened with imminent execution," the chief federal defender in Miami, Michael Caruso, wrote. "Additionally, Padilla was given drugs against his will, believed to be some form of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or phencyclidine (PCP), to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations."

See also the Sex, Drugs, Mind Control, and Torture index.