
Goodbye to Sasha Shulgin, Godfather of Psychedelics - sbilstein
http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2014-08-04/goodbye-godfather-psychedelics-sasha-shulgin-now-tripping
======
jeffbr13
This really bothered me in an article remembering a man who spent most of his
life studying and trying to raise awareness of psychoactive chemicals:

> Ecstasy, known as MDMA

It's MDMA (the chemical compound 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine)
that's _usually_ known as "Ecstasy", but many other chemicals are also sold as
"Ecstasy" as well.

Very few people die from MDMA overdose, or even the effects of MDMA, but that
doesn't always extend to the other chemicals sold as ecstasy[1] - I was at the
Warehouse Project opening night last year where a guy died and several others
were put in induced comas because they were supplied with PMA rather than
MDMA[2]. Whether or not you agree with using psychoactive chemicals
recreationally, any misinformation can be dangerous to the people who _will_
use them. I feel this error should have been caught by the editor.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA#Purity_and_dosage_of_.22e...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA#Purity_and_dosage_of_.22ecstasy.22)
[2]: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-
manchester-24314997](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-24314997)

~~~
llllllllllll
Typically ecstasy is MDMA pressed in pill form together with an amphetamine,
although as you noted MDMA is often changed out for some other 'research
chemical' that is cheaper to source, and sometimes very dangerous.

Yet another obvious reason to legalize all recreational drugs...

~~~
perrylaj
'Typically' seems unlikely to me. I am not up to speed (no pun intended) on
drug manufacturing/distribution, but years ago I wrote a psychopharmacology
meta-study on the topic and most research I remember found that 'mixtures' or
'cuts' with two 'mainstream' active drugs were very uncommon due to increased
costs and independent value. Most often, the active ingredient would be wholly
substituted or mislabeled.

Perhaps that's changed, but it seems far more likely that cheaper substitutes
would be used (ephedrine, 'research chemicals', etc).

------
rpearl
It is rare to be able to pinpoint a experience as a life-altering event in
one's life. It is even more unique when one can trace the experience to the
work of one individual.

Dr. Shulgin's work directly and positively effected profound change in many
lives. He was a uniquely talented chemist and thinker, and his genius will be
sorely missed.

"There are no casual experiments."

------
matthewwiese
An extraordinary man, both in personality and genius. If you haven't watched
the documentary about his life yet, I highly suggest it: _Dirty Pictures_
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5q1bBVzDpc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5q1bBVzDpc)

This man is an inspiration for a coming generation of scientists whose love of
knowledge and truth should not be discredited because of their willingness to
experiment with life and reality. He knew the chemistry and made it beautiful.

~~~
mr_sturd
His work is also discussed at some length in Mike Power's _Drugs 2.0_ , it's
an interesting read.

------
GuiA
HN thread from when he passed away (early June 2014; he was known as Sasha &
Alexander):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839226](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839226)

~~~
pantalaimon
> Sasha […] originated in countries of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe as
> a diminutive of Aleksander and Aleksandra.

------
netcan
There's a strange hypocrisy or at least contrast in view on his wikipedia
page.

In a paragraph it mentions his work with the DEA, his seminars and reference
books. Immediately below he's photographed in an erowid t-shirt and talk about
his experiments with friends.

Every time I read an article or have a discussion even remotely related to
this topic I feel like I have to fight back the urge to go into rants and
platitudes. Even the path to effective decriminalization of marijuana (and
perhaps later some psychedelics) through medicinal use is enraging.

It's like ending race based slavery on the grounds that the majority of slaves
have some white ancestry.

~~~
yebyen
He was doing experiments that you can only do with a special permissions grant
from the DEA. A chemist, he was bestowed with the rights to house and
manufacture the chemicals that are on Schedule I (no source, sorry) and later,
when it was more convenient for the DEA to discredit him, they drummed up some
phony test results showing slightly elevated levels of mercury in the ground
around his lab, and used this as an excuse to destroy his lab and revoke his
certifications.

I never heard of this person before he died, but I did read about him after
that, and he was no friend to a tyrant, let me assure you. Spend some time
reading other sources about him if you are really interested, I'm sure the
Wiki article as they tend to do paints both pictures, but I think you'll find
very few (individual) people with a single mind about him that didn't like him
a whole lot.

------
RangerScience
Here's a favorite thing from that last year or so of his life:
[http://teafaerie.org/2013/02/456/](http://teafaerie.org/2013/02/456/)

There a wizard you know of needs a retirement plan?

------
smanuel
Is he considered the Godfather of Psychedelics because he was a chemist? I've
read a lot about Timothy Leary and John Lilly who have also done a lot about
psychedelics but I've never seen them referred to as Godfathers. Yes, they
were psychologists and not chemists but I think that doesn't diminish the
value of the research they've done. Don't want to make this sound as a rant
but rather try to understand the criteria behind such... titles.

~~~
anewcolor
in writing pihkal and tihkal he earned the title.

~~~
smanuel
Timothy Leary wrote "The Psychedelic Experience" in 1962. Aldous Huxley wrote
"The Doors of Perception" in 1954. And I guess there are many other books on
psychedelics which I haven't read.

But still it's a chemist, who earned the title by writing a book about
psychedelic chemical compounds and their effects, but which is not as...
psychologically deep as other books (some of which have been written almost
half a century ago) on psychedelics.

~~~
Nursie
Sasha discovered whole families of psychedelics, and increased our knowledge
of them exponentially (IMHO). He deserves the title.

That said, my Goddaughter has two Godfathers, so why can't psychedelics? I
would honour Albert Hofmann with the title as well.

~~~
conformal
entirely untrue. do your homework.

sasha almost exclusively synthesized compounds that were already in the
academic literature. he reproduced others' work and gave minimal attribution.

~~~
Nursie
Please provide references.

~~~
conformal
even better, how about you name the compounds he "discovered" and demonstrate
that they were not the subject of prior work.

maybe i should write a book about a whole bunch of stuff other ppl did, not
give proper attribution, then demand that people prove that i did not invent
it.

~~~
Nursie
If it's that well known that he just copied other's work, please provide some
references. You're clearly the expert here, so why not use that superior brain
of yours to share some information with us mere mortals?

------
lawnchair
Super guy. Check out PiHKAL and TiHKAL for some good reads.

------
lilbola
I had the opportunity to meet him a few years back. Very nice dude.

------
lowglow
Do all the psychedelics you can.

~~~
sehr
Do all the research about psychedelics you can first, though. Trips are always
easier to handle if you know what's happening!

~~~
cloudwalking
[http://erowid.org](http://erowid.org)

------
illumen
Americans taking credit again... lol.

"MDMA was first synthesized in 1912 by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch" \--
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA#History)

~~~
conformal
i know i'm going to get downvoted, but illumen is completely correct.

there is nothing so american as downvoting the truth.

~~~
Nursie
And there is nothing so arrogant as filling a thread with aspersions about the
man without providing any sort of reference other than your own repeated
assertions. You come across as a contrarian troll.

~~~
conformal
it's not slander, it's the truth. someone else discovered and tested MDMA many
decades before sasha, but he is credited with "discovering" the compound.

~~~
Nursie
1\. I didn't say it was slander, I said you come in casting aspersions without
references, which you have

2\. The article doesn't say he discovered it, I didn't say that either, only
that he introduced it to psychiatrists.

So what exactly are both of you talking about with taking credit?

(for reference I'm not american either)

------
andyl
A great popularizer of psychedelics - a real-life Walter White. To his credit,
he doesn't shy away from the fact that some people never return from their
trip. That happened to my cousin.

~~~
wavefunction
Walter White was a greedy asshole in a fictional story.

Sasha Shulgin was a true hacker with a great heart in real life.

------
conformal
it is sad to hear that sasha passed, he was a great man. he did a lot of
really positive work for expanding the public's knowledge of hallucinogenic
compounds, mainly 5HT-2A agonists of various varieties.

that said, he is typically over-attributed as being the 'godfather' of this
field in an academic context when nearly every single compound he synthesized
was originally synthesized and researched by someone else. there are thousands
of researchers from the pharma industry and academia who spent huge parts of
their adult lives just synthesizing a few of these compounds who often receive
zero attribution for their life's work. knowing this, i find it rather
offensive that an academic institution would provide such a trumped-up tribute
to sasha shulgin.

oh, and for the record, a lot of the syntheses in tikhal and pikhal have
_intentional_ omissions and errors, which makes those texts mostly useless
from a synthetic standpoint.

~~~
Nursie
>> oh, and for the record, a lot of the syntheses in tikhal and pikhal have
_intentional_ omissions and errors, which makes those texts mostly useless
from a synthetic standpoint.

I've never heard this said before. Can you be more specific or point to a
reference I could read on this?

~~~
conformal
just like most people who are sasha fanboys, you obviously have zero domain
knowledge on this subject.

try them out yourself, see what happens.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
No, it doesn't work that way. When you make a claim, and someone politely asks
for a source, you don't get to go "LOL ur dumb" and think that constitutes a
reply. "Try it yourself" doesn't work either, since I'm sure you didn't do
that. Only crackpots get angry when asked reasonably to show their work.

