Posted on 06/04/2014 1:59:59 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
Alexander Shulgin earned his nickname, the Godfather of ecstasy, after honing a way to make the drug - and testing it out on himself to check it had worked.
A Facebook post by his wife and research partner, Ann, said he died "surrounded by family and caretakers and Buddhist meditation music".
He lived out his final years at his home in Northern California.
Shulgin began his study of organic chemistry at Harvard University in his teens and, after a stint in the US Navy during World War Two, returned to Berkeley to get his PhD in biochemistry at the University of California.
In his early working career, he joined Dow Chemical Company and, while there, developed the world's first biodegradable pesticide.
But it was while he was pursuing his own research that he began experimenting with psychoactive compounds.
He tested out his new creations on himself, inviting small groups of friends to join him in the tasting sessions.
During the swinging '60s, he says he made and tested hundreds of concoctions.
In 1965, he parted company with Dow, but continued his studies and began teaching classes at local universities.
Nearly a decade later, he came across a compound closely related to what we now call ecstasy or MDMA.
MDMA had been previously synthesised and patented in 1912 by the pharmaceutical company Merck, but was never fully explored within humans.
Shulgin decided to start human trials - again, starting with himself...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Your friend was correct. See post #20.
I’m thinking of my late uncle. Spent a week in the hospital dying. He could have been helped by the drug by making his death a happier one.
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