Just to be clear . . . from 2012 . . .

When LSD Was Legal (And Cary Grant Was Tripping)

In the latest episode of Mad Men Roger Sterling, the silver-haired drunkard rascal of SCDP, attends a high society LSD party. For some 21st century viewers this seemed strange - wasn't LSD a hippie drug? Wasn't it all about long hairs and weird tribal imagery? Eventually that would be the case, but the early of history of acid - before it became illegal - was filled with trippers who were at the very top of the social order - the richest and most famous people in America.

LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by Dr. Albert Hoffman in Switzerland, but it wasn't until five years later that anybody knew what it did to you. That's because it wasn't until 1943 that Hoffman accidentally took some of the drug and embarked on history's first acid trip. While man had been tripping on hallucinogens since the dawn of time - we have receptors in our brains designed to accept psychotropic chemicals - acid is quite different. And besides, it's unlikely that Dr. Hoffman was doing a lot of peyote, so he wasn't very prepared. His first experience was actually fairly nice, but three days later - April 19! A day before dumb 420! - he dosed himself on purpose. That didn't go so well; bicycling home he really fell apart, thinking his neighbor was a witch and that LSD had poisoned him. Eventually he got his shit together and had a nice finale to the trip.

Everybody knows that the CIA seized on acid as a possible mind control drug, using it in their MKULTRA experiments. They would pay prostitutes to dose unsuspecting businessmen and then watch what happened; there were deaths, including that of Frank Olson, who either freaked out and jumped from a 13th floor window or was pushed by the CIA (the reason he was pushed, perhaps: he knew that in 1951 the CIA had dosed an entire French town, Pont-Saint-Esprit, leading to 50 psychotic episodes, a number of people being institutionalized and four deaths). 

But acid wasn't just being used for sinister purposes. At the same time that the CIA was conducting MKULTRA experiments, a Los Angeles psychiatrist named Oscar Janiger began experimenting with the drug for therapy, with a special focus on how it impacted creativity. While Timothy Leary will forever be remembered as the foremost medical advocate for LSD, Janiger was the true pioneer. His patients included Aldous Huxley (who had already written The Doors of Perception about his experiments with mescaline), Anais Nin, Andre Previn, James Coburn, Billy Wilder's writing partner Charles Brackett and Cary Grant. Grant dropped acid probably well over a hundred times, a pretty remarkable number of trips for a guy who seems like the emodiment of the squarely suave 40s. 

Crazy times indeed! But more fun and adventurous than today, no doubt.

Actually the Pont-St.-Esprit story is incorrect. It was proven that the poisening was due to ergot contaminated rye flour. All sick had eaten bread from the same bakery. Or nitrogen chloride which was used to illegally bleach flour.

Great article!

I had fun with acid in my punk and goth days.

No bad trips for me.

I do have friends in the ground because of drugs, but I always had a line I would never cross - never inject anything.

That rule kept me safe.

Yeah, who likes needles anyway.

Don't know if it's still there, but when I took R&R in 1968, I stayed at the Menzies Hotel in Sydney. While there I dropped one of the previously mentioned Owsley Sunshine barrels that my high school squeeze had sent to Vietnam. I recall leaving my room and 'wading' down the hall to the elevator on their blue and green carpet which approximated the look of water *oh, wow FLASHBACK!*

Kind of like this:

I wish that I had kept a record of the various venues I enjoyed under the influence. I could have filled a fairly substantial notebook *chuckle*. The ocean was always a prime spot - surfing or sailing, no scuba! Tide pools teeming with life! Disneyland was a trip with or without. Woodstock, of course, and too many rock concerts to count. Hollywood jazz clubs, or even just staying indoors. Bob Dylan was the soundtrack of my initial journey in '64 and oranges were a new a strange mystery fruit *far out*.

The effects were salubrious in youth, but I haven't partaken for maybe 30 years. I've still got a tab in the freezer (in case of the apocalypse), but I fear the effects won't mirror those felt when I was young and immortal.

Actually, there's a pretty good chance that I was blazing when my profile photo was taken . . .

. . . yeah, a good chance!

That was then, this is now, but through it all, I remained true to my core values and love of liberty . . .

A very good episode - Andrew exposes the Left's longtime agenda . . .

No News, All Agenda 

The Andrew Klavan Show Ep. 568

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7KZmQEo_y8

I like his "quotes".

I enjoy his podcast immensely - he usually echoes my own thoughts.

Hope you had a nice holiday - swim with dolphins? I used to do that daily *chuckle*, but my favorite times was when they surfed the wake of my sailboat . . .

As a sailor I can only say that this is one of the best moments of the day!

I never heard of the man, where do you see his show?