Bicycle Day Research Paper

The death of Dr. Olson came to the discovery of Project MKULTRA, According to PDF page 4 “In 1953 Dr. Olson a civilian employee of the army at Fort Detrick, leaped to his death form a hotel room window in New York City about a week after having unwillingly consumed LSD administered to him as an experiment at a meeting of LSD researchers called by CIA”.

The most famous drug used was LSD. This drug is a form of acid known for its psychological effects. The people involved with this drug had different reactions. Some were inspired by it and others became terrified of it. There were several victims that were put on LSD. Ken Kesey was one of them; he was still a graduate student at Stanford University when he was out on LSD. Kesey was known as an outstanding athlete and an intelligent young man. He had never been the type of person to do drugs. He had no belief that this project was run but the CIA, until later on, he found out what the project was really about. (Wolfe Par.

LSD has potential medical and therapeutic uses. Even though LSD 's illegalization caused a drastic

     The modern world’s first glimpse into the world of psychedelics was through d-lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by two Swiss chemists from the alkaloid lysergic acid found in ergot, a parasitic fungus that grows on rye and other grains. Five years later, on April 19, 1943 Albert Hoffman, one of LSD’s co-discoverers

It was known as “St. Anthony’s Fire” because of the burning sensation in the limbs and blackening of the skin. Monks, who ate white wheat bread and not rye bread, were treating the victims and shared their wheat bread with them, which helped the victims to heal because they were not eating infected bread (Bonnet & Basson, 2004, p. 213). Ergot has been used for medical purposes since the late 1500s but was not acknowledged academically until the 1800s. Midwives used it to prevent excess bleeding during childbirth. It was not used for long because it caused uterine spasms and dangers to the child. In the early 1900s, W. A. Jacobs and L.C. Craig of the Rockefeller Institute of New York developed lysergic acid by studying ergot. Swiss chemist, Albert Hoffman, experimented with the mold, ergot, and the alkaloids that made up lysergic acid, and was studying diethylamide but the new substance had no medical uses. From this, he subsequently created the drug LSD. (May, 1998)

Since the 20th century, many medical professionals and researchers have been attempting to utilize psychedelic drugs in psychological illnesses treatments. In many testing cases, these psychedelic drugs were having hallucination effects on the patients. For examples, psychedelic drugs such as LSD and methoxamine are capable of changing a person’s moods, feelings, or even behaviors in either positive or negative ways. However, after decades of restriction on psychedelic drugs in 1960s, hallucinogens have been researched constantly in order to find a proper ways to utilize them in medicine. In other words, medical experts have been testing these drugs occasionally on patients, raising questions about medical ethics as a result. For instance, various patients reported to experience drug addiction, violent or suicidal thoughts, and physical syndromes such as coma, seizures, or loss of muscular coordination. Therefore, not only the testing of psychedelic drugs causes ethical debates, but the use of these drugs in general also questions whether they should be used in medicine at all.

     Ecstasy, or 3, 4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, was first synthesized and patented in 1914, by the German drug company Merck. The original purpose of the drug was to be an appetite suppressant, however in 1970 it was given to clinical depressed patients to open them up and talk about their feelings. Then in 1986, Ecstasy was determined to cause brain damage (http://faculity.washington.edu/chudler/mdma.html).

Ergot, the toxic fungus found on rye, is mostly found during the spring and summer months with humid climates (Clues and Evidence). When reproducing, the contaminated grain releases a yellow thick, sticky substance which contains the fungus that spreads the poison throughout the crop. Once the grain is infected, it’s seeds contain lysergic acid which is what the hallucinogen LSD is created from (Clues and Evidence). Some side effects of ingesting Ergot are: “... strange mental aberrations, hallucinations, a feeling of burning skin or insects crawling under the skin. Women frequently miscarried, and fertility was generally reduced during outbreaks… many victims lost hands and feet” (Schumann). Victims of the lethal infection also experienced convulsions, paralysis, tremors and acting disturbed or insane(Schumann).

LSD or lysergic acid diethylamide is synthesized from a grain fungus called ergot. Ergot fungus commonly grows on rye grain but can be found on other grains as well. LSD was first

Within the 1960’s a new form of drug was created and was said to be an essential pharmaceutical that should be in every doctor’s bag. This drug was called lysergic acid diethylamide, but is more commonly know as LSD. Albert Hofmann, as Swiss chemist, created this new drug in hopes that he might have found a profitable analeptic that could cure migraines. However, this was not the case. Hofmann decided to dose himself with the drug to see if it would help subdue headaches. He quickly discovered that this new

The earliest projects focused on the affects of different illegal drugs and began in 1953, with an initial budget of $300,000. Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke focused on hypnosis and giving patients LSD and morphine. The Agency tested this experiments on whom they believed were inadequate in the community, which included gay individuals and racial minorities (kaye). One of the first controversies surrounding Project MKULTRA involved Dr. Sidney Gottlieb in November of 1953. Dr. Gottlieb was one of the main researches in this operation. At a meeting, Gottlieb gave Dr. Frank Olson, who was an active CIA researcher focusing on biological weapons, an immense dose of LSD without his knowledge. He had a bad trip and remained depressed even after coming down from his psychedelic trip. Dr. Olson committed suicide very soon after by throwing himself out of a window. Dr. Gottlieb famously retorted, “This was just one of the risks running with scientific experimentation” (otterman). Another contentious assignment was Operation Midnight Climax. Dr. Gottlieb hired prostitutes to pick up men and bring them to a CIA safe house, where the agents would spike hard alcohol with LSD. The johns were then observed with a two-way mirror, to see changes in behavior. These LSD experiments stopped in 1963 when other agents became aware of these

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide commonly known as LSD-25 first appeared in the scientific literature in 1943. “Lysergic acid diethylamide is a hallucinogen derived from lysergic acid, a constituent of ergot alkaloids. It has consciousness-expanding effects and is capable of producing a state of mind in which there are hallucinations (false sense perceptions)” (Medical Dictionary). Humphry Osmond was a psychiatrist who believed that hallucinogenic drugs may be beneficial in treating mental illness. He investigated d-lysergic acid diethylamide, Osmond noticed that LSD

A Swiss chemist named Dr. Albert Hoffman first produced lysergic acid Diethylmide –or best known as LSD in 1938 (Dye, 1992, p. 2). Hoffman discovered the drug while trying to synthesize a new drug for the treatment of headaches. He obtained the lysergic acid from the parasitic fungus that grows on rye plants known as ergot. From the lysergic acid, he synthesized the compound LSD. He used the compound to test for its pain killing properties on laboratory animals. Being that appeared totally ineffective, the bottle of LSD was placed on a shelf and remained untouched for five years.

LSD, which was the catalyst for psychedelic music, was discovered on April 16, 1943, by Albert Hofmann. For months he

It is no secret that drug use has the ability to completely alter a person’s state of consciousness, whether it be through extreme euphoria, increased hyperactivity, pain relief or psychedelic hallucinations. Although many drugs are used for medical purposes, the global issue of recreational drug use is now being fronted as an extremely serious matter that is steadily on the uprise. Recreational drug use is often associated with negativity, addiction and as having serious physical and mental repercussions. One of the few class of drugs that is often associated with both positive and negative connotations are hallucinogens, otherwise known as “psychedelics”, which have powerful altering effects on ones sense of perception, brain function