Right out of the mind of a drug-thriller suspense screenwriter comes a reproduction of an actual historical practice of our own beloved CIA. Originally entitled Project MK-ULTRA, the super-secret project funneled tens of millions of dollars into a study on how to break human subjects with the use of hallucinogens.

Originally developed as a psychiatric drug, LSD was co-opted by intelligence agents with the intent of using it as a truth serum. The disorienting effects were thought to be useful to interrogators, who sometimes wished to extract information, and other times sought to brainwash and/or control the minds of targets.

This web series focuses on a branch of MK-ULTRA campily titled Operation Midnight Climax. Loosely speaking, the targets in this CIA human experiment got to unwittingly play Jim Morrison for a night. These lucky blokes were secretly dosed with LSD by a CIA-sponsored brothel. While hilarity could certainly ensue from such a thing, this series takes a serious, sobering look at the breaking of these mens’ minds. It’s some nice film-noir, complete with 50’s style dialogue and 50’s style hookers. Fun times.

Tuesday’s New York Daily News featured a story about an artsy fellow entrapped by police in a sting operation for selling weed, ecstasy and LSD. The obviously non-violent William Delp described himself as an filmmaker, composer, and social activist. His part time work at a Columbia University art studio apparently earned the headline in the paper.

While Delp is chalked up as another non-violent victim of the War on Drugs, a far more interesting development was the comment stream on the Daily News’s website.

User hjo4 noted:

I don’t know what world you live in but a drug dealer does more harm to society at large than a sick demented person who roasts a kitten. Both acts are despicable but drug abuse cost us ALL.

Thank you, hj04. If only we pursued serial kitten-roasters with the same fervor as casual psychedelic users in this country — we might one day eliminate the scourge of charred kittens altogether.

In response to a Delp neighbor comment that he was seen often flashing the peace sign, internet humanitarian, ThisisJoeGaggs noted:

Anyone who is constantley using the peace sign is a coward, only a coward will seek peace on a constant basis. When I want to use a greeting I use the WAR sign, which is done by holding up the first three fingers to form a W. Columbia is filled with a bunch of dis-illusioned future cowards who don’t have the brains or balls to understand that in order to achieve peace one must destroy his enemies.

There you have it folks. The voice of the War on Drugs. Murdering, raping, and turning cities into rubble is fine and dandy as long as it is done to enemy peoples (and preferably in countries that most Americans can’t visualize on a map.) Expanding your mind with plant cultivation, on the other hand, is the refuge of cowards and kitten roasters. Well said.

Nearly 40 years have passed since luminaries like Timothy Leary and Alan Watts have used LSD and psilocybin in a rigorous exploration of human “inner space.” Now, a new academic research tool called PsyComp will continue their work and boldly go where no search engine has gone before.

PsyComp seeks to be the first online resource to aid students searching for ‘educational pathways into psychedelic research.’ It is currently compiling a searchable database of undergraduate-level, psychedelics-related courses in such fields as pharmacology, cognitive science, and botany.

While institutional support for such scholastic projects remains sparse, a few intrepid PhDs have laid the groundwork for future forays through the doors of perception. In his essay, So, You Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher? [Warning: .pdf] Dr. Andrew Sewell offers the following cautions to potential future students.

First, examine your motives for entering psychedelic research. Is it because psychedelics are novel and cool? While Dr. Timothy Leary, perhaps the most famous of the psychedelic researchers, found it a route to enduring fame and hot sex with large numbers of young women, he did this primarily though his showmanship rather than his scientific research. If such a lifestyle is appealing to you, there are shorter routes to this goal than decades of scholarly study.

Despite the warnings, Sewell acknowledges that many great minds have come by history-making discoveries via altered brain states.

Scientists such as Ralph Abraham, Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, Andrew Weil, and Nobel Prize winners such as Francis Crick, Richard Feynman, and Kary Mullis have found psychedelics valuable tools in formulating their great discoveries… [Also], the discovery of LSD was what sparked interest in the serotonin system and prompted the explosive growth of modern psychopharmacology that continues today.

And now, it seems, these potential pathways to knowledge and enlightenment will be made available to the internet public, at large. It’s a Brave New World Wide Web out there.

Wrapping up a series of raids Tuesday, police seized over more than 100 pounds (45 kg) of ecstacy with a street value of over $2 million. The amount of powder found in the series of labs around Northern California is thought to be enough to make 88,000 ecstasy pills.

The raids were part of a sting investigation that netted nine arrests aimed at shutting down a drug ring called “dangerous” by Attorney General Jerry Brown.

The seizures also included 23 pounds of psychedelic mushrooms and more than half a million dollars in cash, which was found in a different home. 30 pounds of marijuana said to be valued around $50,000, and what is thought to be LSD powder, was found in yet another house. The sting operation began on an anonymous tip to police about a potential drug lab, which then led to the surveillance that uncovered the drug coop.

The San Jose Mercury News also reported agents seized a .45-caliber handgun, thousands of dollars worth of chemicals, commercial-grade laboratory glassware and more than 100 gallons of toxic, poisonous and flammable liquids and solids. Hazardous chemicals and laboratory equipment filled 40 large barrels.

[img via Oakland Press]

Dr. Roland Griffiths, a Maryland area doctor, got rare government permission to test whether psychedelic drugs could aid cancer patients.

He conducts research at John Hopkins not with the goal of making patients physically better, but mentally better.

This is not a cure for cancer, but it is an intervention that back in the 60s people found very helpful for terminal cancer patients. [...] These are not drugs that can be used lightly.

In this video, Dr. Derek Valcourt examines whether drugs that cause hallucinations could actually make a difference.

If unsupervised, hallucinations can be an obvious danger. To some, they may induce acute flashbacks, intense fear and panic that in the worst case lead to suicide. On the flip side, 60% of Dr. Griffiths patients reported an almost spiritual feeling and said these mental trips brought on long-lasting positive changes.

The second part of “LSD Medical Research Used For Terminal Cancer,” after the jump.

Part #2

In a 1966 chat with Dr. Timothy Leary, a pioneer of the acid trip, Leary espouses ideology, and societal reflections in a recorded audio clip turned podcast.

Even if you have no interest in acid or trips whatsoever, Leary’s philosophical meandering may seem obtuse but provides insight all these years later on what was going on during one of the most tumultuous times in American history.

Additionally, he was an integral part in changing the public perception of counter-culture and the rejection of mainstream acceptance.

Leary said:

I think it wouldn’t be hard to prove my point, that most Americans are involved in a meaningless, robot, assembly-line series of activities. They don’t really know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, but they’re just pushed off to this assembly-line and off they go.

Leary goes on to explain his famous quote in less abstract terms, which makes it no less confusing.

[By drop out] we mean drop out of the meaningless and tune in to the productive.

Not clear enough for you?

You have to go out of your mind to come to your senses.

You’ve done got schooled Leary-style.

While self-diagnosis is always shady, this man found a cure to his “cluster headaches,” through the use of LSD. I might be desperate enough to try acid if I suffered from CH.

According the article there are two types, and they both sound pretty shitty.

Sufferers of episodic CH are struck by headaches for one or two months of the year, often when the seasons change; the attacks can arrive at the same time each day and night. The symptoms then die down for up to 11 months before the cycle starts again.

Sufferers of chronic CH, however, enjoy no respite at all. They are plagued by up to nine attacks per day, every day; untreated, each attack can last up to two hours. CH is characterized by a pain so severe that it makes the most debilitating migraine look like a mild hangover.

Damn. Go ahead son – Tune in, Turn on and Drop Out.

The grandfather of psychedelic experimentation, Albert Hofmann, has passed away.

Best known for his discovery of LSD (or Lysergic Acid Diethylamide for you scientific types), Albert is also responsible for the synthesis of psylocybin. I don’t know how many of our readers have had mind-altering experiences, but they are the direct result of this little known man, his scientific skills and a small dash of luck.

After creating LSD-25 and leaving it alone for 5 years, Albert accidentally ingested a small sample while revisiting his work. Without that small mistake, he would never have taken 250ug of LSD on his bike ride home.

It’s a sad day for responsible people worldwide, not the morons who take 15 tabs and end up arrested by police while trying to catch the sun in their mouth. It took serious balls to be the first person to take a trip down Hallucinogen Lane and I salute the man.

If you want to learn more about Albert and his life, check out the most recent LA Times article (very descriptive) or his Wikipedia page.

[photo Walter Bieri / Associated Press]

Correction: Looks like I messed up, thanks to lsdboy and our other readers who caught the 250mg of LSD mistake. It has now been corrected to 250ug.

Here is a really excellent interactive flash animation done by the University of Utah.

What it does is simply & effectively explain the different ways that illegal substances interact with the brain. As an added bonus, it’s a pretty damn cool presentation with well-animated mouse characters that fit all the stereotypes of the major drug users in this country.

Marijuana, methamphetamines, ecstasy, heroin, alcohol, LSD and cocaine are all covered and each one affects us in different ways. You learn something new everyday…

Click to view the animation…

[via University of Utah]