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There are moments in time when two elements come together in a synergistic bond creating an outcome greater than their parts. Like when macaroni met cheese, when peanut butter met jam when Tacos met Tuesday.
This is a little story about Alexander Sasha Shulgin, his wife Ann Shulgin and how their synergy led to many extraordinary contributions to the world of psychopharmacology. You’ll also find out how they freely shared their discoveries for the greater good of psychonauts and psychedelic enthusiasts everywhere, at the cost of their peril.
Before Sasha met Ann, he was a superstar research chemist at Dow Chemicals where he created all kinds of compounds including Zectran, a highly profitable biodegradable pesticide. This discovery pretty much allowed him to be left alone to freely explore and experiment in his laboratory. However as his research leaned further in the direction of psychopharmacology, they told him not to associate Dow Chemicals with any of his wacky hippy drug research because it would be bad for their brand.
Inevitably, Shulgin and Dow Chemical’s relationship soured. In 1966, Alexander Shulgin left Dow Chemicals to pursue his education in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
Dow chemicals went on to create Naplam and Agent Orange to kill innocent Vietnamese civilians and destroy their agriculture, leaving a future generation with crippling birth defects. They even poisoned the lands and rivers in the United States too. Dow Chemicals galvanized its outstanding brand reputation by losing many lawsuits for manufacturing leaky breast implants, tax evasion and price fixing.
In his home lab where he happily spent the majority of his career creating new psychedelic analogs and published his findings, Sasha’s expertise was sought after by the DEA. In return, the DEA gave him his coveted license to freely research and synthesize schedule 1 psychoactive compounds to his heart’s content.
Aaaa lucky!
So what does a brilliant chemist with a passion for psychedelics do with that kind of freedom? Well produces over 230 psychoactive compounds in his home laboratory for starters.
The most famous compound that he is known for is one he didn’t even discover. MDMA also known as Ecstasy or Molly was discovered back in 1912 by Merck Pharmaceuticals. Sasha developed a new, easier way to synthesize MDMA and then Introduced it to his friend, Leo Zeff an American Psychotherapist who went on to pioneer its use in psychotherapy. Ann Shulgin contributed to Leo Zeff’s book The Secret Chief Revealed, a groundbreaking publication on the use of MDMA in psychotherapy.
Before Anna met Sasha, She studied art and was an artist. When she met Sasha she worked as a medical transcriber. This occurred around the time MDMA was first being used in Leo Zeffs Psychotherapy. She set up her therapeutic practice using MDMA and 2C-B, which was one of the many Phenethylamines Sasha discovered in his laboratory
In 1990, the sum greater than their parts occurred when Sasha and Ann Shulgin co-authored the cosmic shifting book PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story – Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved.
This book boldly describes the effects, dosage and potential use of each of the many phenethylamines including how to make them. That’s right, there are detailed chemistry recipes on how to create MDMA, mescaline and 2C-B. Yeah, good luck Capurnicous.
Unfortunately, this book was found in every illegal lab busted by the same DEA that gave Sasha his Scheduled 1 clearance which led to his own lab being raided by the Drug Task Force, his chemicals seized and losing his precious license.
Did this deter our Sasha and Ann? Nope, they continued on to co-author their follow-up book TIHKAL: The Continuation – “Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved
In a similar format as PiKHAL, TiKHAL focused on Tryptamines such as DMT, Psilocin, and ibogaine.
As for the DEA, they continued to spend their bloated budget of Trillions of dollars putting mostly black folks and addicts in a for-profit prison system, while making no significant dent in their continuous losing war on drugs.
Well, I hope this episode was both informative and enlightening. There is so much more I could have included in the story of Alexander Sasha Shulgin and muse, Ann Shulgin but who has the intention span for that?
So until then, Remember to Respect The Medicine.