{{Short description|American chemist and recreational drug explorer (1925–2014)}} {{About|the scientist}} {{Expert needed|chemistry|ex2=pharmacology|reason = a need to review the content for use of less than independent, reliable sources (like Shulgin's work per se), for disconnection of article from actual source content, and for straying from NPOV in only positive perspectives outside the lead | date = September 2024}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Shulgin sasha 2011 hanna jon.jpg | caption = Shulgin with his wife Ann in 2011 | birth_name = Alexander Theodore Shulgin
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|6|17}} | birth_place = Berkeley, California, U.S.{{citation needed|date = September 2024}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|6|2|1925|6|17|mf=yes}} | death_place = Lafayette, California, U.S. | spouses = Nina Gordon (deceased)<br />Ann Gotlieb (deceased) | children = 1 | fields = Chemistry, psychology, philosophy, biology | workplaces = {{Plainlist| * MAPS * Dow Chemical * San Francisco State University * San Francisco General Hospital * Bio-Rad Laboratories * Cognitive Liberty/Ethics Centre }} | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Harvard University * University of California, Berkeley (PhD) }} | doctoral_advisor = David M. Greenberg | academic_advisors = | thesis_title = The synthesis of several isotopically labelled amino acids | thesis_url = https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/907983586 | thesis_year = 1955 | known_for = {{Plainlist| * Rediscovering MDMA * 2C Family * DOx Family * ''PiHKAL'' * ''TiHKAL'' * Shulgin Rating Scale * Shulgin Index * Shulgin Research Institute * Various phenethylamines and tryptamines }} | awards = {{Plainlist| DEA Awards (numerous) }} | signature = }}
'''Alexander Theodore "Sasha" Shulgin''' (June 17, 1925 – June 2, 2014) was an American biochemist, broad researcher of synthetic psychoactive compounds, and author of works regarding these, who independently explored the organic chemistry and pharmacology of such agents—in his mid-life and later, many through preparation in his home laboratory, and testing on himself.<ref name=PowerMedium/> He is acknowledged to have introduced to broader use, in the late 1970s, the previously synthesized compound MDMA ("ecstasy"), in research psychopharmacology and in combination with conventional therapy, the latter through presentations and academic publications, including to psychologists; and for the rediscovery, occasional discovery, and regular synthesis and personal use and distribution, of possibly hundreds of psychoactive compounds (for their psychedelic and MDMA-like empathogenic bioactivities). As such, Shulgin is seen both as a pioneering and a controversial participant in the emergence of the broad use of psychedelics.<ref name=PowerMedium/><ref name="nyt"/><ref name="Kent2014">{{Cite web |last=Kent |first=James L. |date=September 10, 2014 |title=Godfather of Ecstasy: Alexander Shulgin's Last Trip |url=https://hightimes.com/culture/godfather-of-ecstasy-alexander-shulgins-last-trip/ |access-date=April 15, 2023 |website=High Times |language=en-US | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200311075358/https://hightimes.com/culture/godfather-of-ecstasy-alexander-shulgins-last-trip/ | archive-date = 2020-03-11 | url-status = dead | quote=When I ask Ann about his favorite among all the chemical compounds he’d created, she answers immediately: “It would have to be 2C-B. He was always very proud of that one. He called it the ‘Great Teacher’ … although I preferred 2C-B-FLY a bit more.” [...] Although Shulgin worked with many types of drugs, his favorites were the phenethylamines, psychedelics that are more thoughtful than overpowering.}}</ref>
In 1991 and 1997, he and his wife Ann Shulgin compiled the books ''PiHKAL'' and ''TiHKAL'' (''Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved'', likewise for ''Tryptamines''),<ref>{{Cite web | author = Erowid.org Staff | date = 2024-09-09 | title=Library: Books Online—"PIHKAL" |website=www.erowid.org | url=https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml |access-date=2024-09-09 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | author = Erowid.org Staff | date = 2024-09-09 | title=Library: Books Online—"TIHKAL" |website=www.erowid.org | url=https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal.shtml |access-date=2024-09-09 }}</ref> from notebooks that extensively described their work and personal experiences with these two classes of psychoactive drugs. Shulgin documented the chemical synthesis of many of these compounds. Some of the syntheses catalogued by Shulgin in his books include chemicals in the 2C family (such as 2C-B), compounds of the DOx family (such as DOM), and tryptamines (such as 4-HO-MET and 4-HO-MiPT).
In describing Shulgin's work in psychedelic research and his preparation and experimentation with psychedelic drugs, he has been dubbed the "godfather of ecstasy"<ref name="Kent2014" /><ref name="Calamur" /> (and to a much more limited extent, the "godfather of psychedelics"<ref>{{cite AV media |people= TotC Pictures Staff |date= March 6, 2010 |title= Dirty Pictures: Alexander Shulgin Documentary Movie Trailer, SXSW 2010 |trans-title= |type= movie trailer blurb, streaming video |language= en-us |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA8ddx_iC_g |access-date= 8 September 2024 |format= |time= |location= New York, NY |publisher= Dirty Pictures/Turn of the Century (TotC) |id= |isbn= |oclc= |quote= Dirty Pictures: a documentary about Dr. Alexander Sasha Shulgin, the rogue chemist who discovered the effects of MDMA (aka Ecstasy) and over 200 other mind-altering drugs. Shulgins alchemy has earned him the title "The Godfather of Psychedelics," and a reputation as one of the great chemists of the 20th century. }}{{dubious|date = September 2024}}</ref>{{better source needed|date = September 2024}}).
Writing in 2005—in the decade before Shulgin's death—a retrospective by Drake Bennett of ''The New York Times Magazine'' noted that as a consequence of Shulgin's testing his various synthetic compounds "for activity by taking the chemicals himself ... most of the scientific community consider[ed] Shulgin at best a curiosity and at worst a menace", but Bennett goes on to say that "near the end ... [Shulgin's] faith in the potential of psychedelics ha[d] at least a chance at vindication", going on to note the various clinical trials underway on compounds of interest to Shulgin.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |first = Drake |last = Bennett |date = January 30, 2005 |title = Dr. Ecstasy |work = The New York Times Magazine | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/magazine/30ECSTASY.html |access-date = July 8, 2006 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111117063356/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/magazine/30ECSTASY.html| archive-date=November 17, 2011| url-status= live | quote = Shulgin tested for activity by taking the chemicals himself ... Most of the scientific community considers Shulgin at best a curiosity and at worst a menace. Now, however, near the end of his career, his faith in the potential of psychedelics has at least a chance at vindication. A little more than a month ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved a Harvard Medical School study looking at whether MDMA can alleviate the fear and anxiety of terminal cancer patients. And next month will mark a year since Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist in Charleston, S.C., started his study of Ecstasy-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. }}</ref> The early 2000s also was a period when Shulgin was witness to a series of incidents in which young men overdosed on a novel psychoactive agent whose preparation was disclosed by Shulgin in one of his books. Before his death (and before the onset of his late life dementia), Shulgin expressed sadness over the deaths, but argued that all drugs, including aspirin, carry risks with incorrect use.<ref name=PowerMedium/><ref>Likewise, his collaborator David Nichols, while blaming "the growth of unregulated, untested legal highs" on drug laws, admitted being bothered, saying, "[w]hen I used to talk about psychedelic research, the one thing you could say was these drugs do not kill people ... But then when I started seeing people killed by this irresponsible marketing and use, this was not something I intended.” See Power (2014), op. cit.</ref>
==Early life and career == Shulgin was born on June 17, 1925,<ref name="Kent2014" /> in Berkeley, California,<ref>Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905–1995 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: State of California. California Birth Index, 1905–1995. Sacramento, California: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.</ref> to Theodore Stevens Shulgin (1893–1978)<ref name="Ancestry 2000">Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940–1997 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: State of California. California Death Index, 1940–1997. Sacramento, California: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.</ref> and Henrietta D. (Aten) Shulgin (1894–1960).<ref name="Ancestry 2000" /><ref>{{cite book|author =Lawrence, Alberta Chamberlain |title=Authors Biographical Monthly Service |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TEE7AQAAIAAJ |year=1952 |publisher=Golden Syndicate Publishing Company}}</ref> His father was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia; his mother was born in Illinois. Theodore and Henrietta were public school teachers in Alameda County.<ref>Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Year: 1930; Census Place: Berkeley, Alameda, California; Roll 111; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 320; File: 1029.0.</ref>
Shulgin studied organic chemistry at Harvard University as a scholarship student, and was enrolled there at the age of 16.<ref name="nyt"/><!--SOURCE DOES NOT SAY WHEN HE STARTED.--> He dropped out to join the U.S. Navy,<ref name="nyt"/><ref>Power states at ''Medium.com'' it was the United States Marine Corps. See Power (2014), op. cit.</ref> during his second year at Harvard.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shulgin |first1=Alexander |title=PIKHAL |date=1991 |publisher=Transform Press |isbn=0-9630096-0-5 |page=10}}</ref> In 1944 a military nurse gave Shulgin a glass of orange juice prior to a surgery for a thumb infection,<ref name="nyt"/> while serving on USS ''Pope'' during World War II;<ref name=PowerMedium/> he drank the juice and, assuming that crystals at the bottom of the glass were a sedative, "fell unconscious".<ref name="nyt"/> Upon waking he learned that the crystals were undissolved sugar, and that doctors had administered anesthesia after he was already unconscious—an experience Drake Bennett of ''The New York Times Magazine'' referred to as "revelatory", and a "tantalizing hint of the mind's odd strength",<ref name="nyt"/> as "his collapse was caused entirely by the placebo effect".<ref name=PowerMedium>{{cite web | author=Power, Mike | date=January 29, 2014 | title=The Drug Revolution That No One Can Stop | work = Medium.com | url=https://medium.com/matter/the-drug-revolution-that-no-one-can-stop-19f753fb15e0#.w2w2dn3op | access-date=May 11, 2016 |archive-date=April 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429123434/https://medium.com/matter/the-drug-revolution-that-no-one-can-stop-19f753fb15e0#.w2w2dn3op |url-status=live | url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref>The article is illustrated with a picture of the wrong USS ''Pope''.{{citation needed|date = September 2024}}</ref>
After serving in the armed forces, Shulgin returned to California, and earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name="Betsy Reed">{{cite news |website=The Guardian |date= June 3, 2014|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/03/alexander-shulgin |title=Obituaries / Alexander T. (Sasha) Shulgin |author=Betsy Reed}}</ref> Through the late 1950s, Shulgin completed post-doctoral work in the fields of psychiatry and pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco. After working at Bio-Rad Laboratories as a research director for a brief period, he began work at Dow Chemical Company,<ref name="Betsy Reed"/> One of his early achievements at Dow was the invention of the first known biodegradable pesticide (mexacarbate).<ref name="Betsy Reed"/>
At this time he had a series of psychedelic experiences that helped to shape his further goals and research, the first of which was brought on by mescaline.<ref name="lat">{{cite news |first = Dennis |last = Romero |url = http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/shulgin_alexander/shulgin_alexander_interview1.shtml |title = Sasha Shulgin, Psychedelic Chemist |newspaper = Los Angeles Times |date = September 5, 1995 |access-date = July 8, 2006 |archive-date = March 26, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070326004128/http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/shulgin_alexander/shulgin_alexander_interview1.shtml |url-status = live }}</ref> "I first explored mescaline in the late '50s ... Three-hundred-fifty to 400 milligrams. I learned there was a great deal inside me."<ref name="lat" /> However, other sources state that Shulgin first tried mescaline in April 1960.<ref name="Erowid-Peyote-Timeline">{{cite web | title=Erowid Peyote Vault : Timeline | website=www.erowid.org | url=https://www.erowid.org/plants/peyote/peyote_timeline.php | quote=Dr. Alexander Shulgin first tries mescaline at 350 mg. 16, 17 [Details] Notebook 4, page 471 April 2, 1960. 350mg of mescaline administered orally at 9:15A.M. Subjects: A.T. Shulgin, Robert Thompson, Nina Shulgin Observers: Taylor + Veronica Wolf, Henry Brock. There is some confusion around this because he told an LA Times Reporter I first explored mescaline in the late '50s, Shulgin says. Three-hundred-fifty to 400 milligrams. I learned there was a great deal inside me, he replies. However PIHKAL indicates his first mescaline trip was in April 1960 at 400mg, but the hand written notes in Pharmacology Notes IV gives 350mg as the dose. However, a different notebook records a different mescaline trip on April 16, 1960 with just ATS and one observer (DP) where the dose taken was 400mg. We assume that his offhand remark to a reporter about the '50s was just a small memory error and the confusion between 350 and 400mg as his first dose is of no historical importance. [...] 16. Shulgin AT. Pharmacology Notes IV. Page 471. 17. Shulgin AT, Shulgin A. PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. Transform Press. 1991.}}</ref><ref name="PsychedelicTimes2025">{{cite web | title=Psychedelic Timeline | website=Psychedelic Times | date=2025 | url=https://psychedelictimes.com/psychedelic-timeline/ | quote=1960: April 16th Alexander Shulgin ingested 400mg of mescaline sulfate for the first time. The experience “unquestionably confirmed the entire direction of my life”. He would go on to create over 200 new psychedelic compounds.}}</ref>
Shulgin later reported personal revelations that "had been brought about by a fraction of a gram of a white solid, but that in no way whatsoever could it be argued that these memories had been contained within the white solid ... I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyze its availability."<ref name="nyt" />
thumb|upright|Zectran-containing pesticide manufactured by Dow; photo taken at the Farm on July 26, 2009.
Shulgin's professional activities continued to lean in the direction of psychopharmacology, furthered by his personal experiences with psychedelics. But during this period he was unable to do much independent research. His opportunity for further research came in 1961 after his development of Zectran, the first biodegradable pesticide, a highly profitable product. In his book ''PiHKAL'', Shulgin limits his pesticide days at Dow Chemical to one sentence in 978 pages. Dow Chemical Company, in return for Zectran's valuable patent, gave Shulgin great freedom. During this time, he created and patented drugs when Dow asked, and published findings on other drugs in journals such as ''Nature'' and the ''Journal of Organic Chemistry''. One of these patents, approved in 1970, involved phenethylamines.<ref>[https://patents.google.com/patent/US3547999A/en 4 – alkyl – dialkoxy – alpha – methyl – phenethylamines and their pharmacologically-acceptable salts. https://patents.google.com/patent/US3547999A/en]</ref> Eventually, Dow Chemical requested that he no longer use their name on his publications.<ref name="nyt" />
In late 1966, Shulgin left Dow in order to pursue his own interests. He first spent two years studying neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, leaving to work on a consulting project. He set up a home-based lab on his property, known as "the Farm", and became a private consultant. He also taught classes in the local universities and at the San Francisco General Hospital. Through his friend Bob Sager, head of the U.S. DEA's Western Laboratories, Shulgin formed a relationship with the DEA and began holding pharmacology seminars for the agents, supplying the DEA with samples of various compounds, and occasionally serving as an expert witness in court. In 1988, he authored a then-definitive law enforcement reference book<ref>{{cite book | last = Shulgin | first = Alexander | title = Controlled Substances: Chemical & Legal Guide to Federal Drug Laws | publisher = Ronin Publishing | year = 1988 | isbn = 0-914171-50-X }}</ref> on controlled substances, and received several awards from the DEA.<ref name=nyt />
===Independent research=== In order to work with scheduled psychoactive chemicals, Shulgin obtained a DEA Schedule I license for an analytical laboratory, which allowed him to synthesize and possess any otherwise illicit drug.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Cody |title=Magic medicine : a trip through the intoxicating history and modern-day use of psychedelic plants & substances |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-59233-772-9 |location=Beverly, MA |pages=26 |oclc=1029780854}}</ref> Shulgin set up a chemical synthesis laboratory in a small building behind his house, which gave him a great deal of career autonomy. Shulgin used this freedom to synthesize and test the effects of potentially psychoactive drugs.
In 1976, Shulgin was introduced to MDMA by a student in the medicinal chemistry group he advised at San Francisco State University.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Brown|first1=Ethan|title=Professor X|url=http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/10.09/professorx.html?pg=3&topic=&topic_set= |magazine=Wired |access-date=January 4, 2015|date=September 1, 2002|archive-date=June 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150625015832/http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/10.09/professorx.html?pg=3&topic=&topic_set=|url-status=live}}</ref> MDMA had been synthesized in 1912 by Merck and patented in 1913 as an intermediate of another synthesis in order to block competitors, but was never explored in its own right. Shulgin went on to develop a new synthesis method, and in 1976, introduced the chemical to Leo Zeff, a psychologist from Oakland, California. Zeff used the substance in his practice in small doses as an aid to talk therapy. Zeff introduced the substance to hundreds of psychologists and lay therapists around the nation, including Ann (born Laura Ann Gotlieb), whom Alexander Shulgin met in 1979, and married in 1981.<ref name="nyt" /> It was her fourth marriage, and she had four children.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shulginresearch.org/home/about/ann_shulgin/ |title=Ann Shulgin |website=Shulginresearch.org |access-date=May 11, 2016 |archive-date=May 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514044955/http://www.shulginresearch.org/home/about/ann_shulgin/ |url-status=live }} Detailed biography of Ann Shulgin</ref>
thumb|left|275px|Shulgin at the home-based lab on his property, known as "the Farm", 2009
After judicious self-experiments, Shulgin enlisted a small group of friends with whom he regularly tested his creations, starting in 1960. They developed a systematic way of ranking the effects of the various drugs, known as the Shulgin Rating Scale, with a vocabulary to describe the visual, auditory and physical sensations. He personally tested hundreds of drugs, mainly analogues of various phenethylamines (family containing MDMA, mescaline, and the 2C* family), and tryptamines (family containing DMT, LSD and psilocin). There are a seemingly infinite number of slight chemical variations, which can produce variations in effect—some pleasant and some unpleasant, depending on the person, substance, and situation—all of which are meticulously recorded in Shulgin's laboratory notebooks. Shulgin published many of these objective and subjective reports in his books and papers.<ref name="nyt" /> About 2C-B he said in 2003: "It is, in my opinion, one of the most graceful, erotic, sensual, introspective compounds I have ever invented. For most people, it is a short-lived and comfortable psychedelic, with neither toxic side-effects nor next-day hang-over."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ask Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin Online – 2C-B |url=https://www.cognitiveliberty.org/ccle1/shulgin/adsarchive/2cb.htm |access-date=July 4, 2022 |website=www.cognitiveliberty.org}}</ref>
In 1994, two years after the publication of ''PIHKAL'', the DEA raided his lab. The agency requested that Shulgin surrender his license for violating its terms, and he was fined $25,000 for possession of anonymous samples sent to him for quality testing. In the 15 years preceding the publication of ''PIHKAL'', two announced and scheduled reviews failed to find any irregularities.<ref name="Erowid2004">{{cite web | title = DEA Raid of Shulgin's Laboratory | publisher = Erowid | date = January 8, 2004 | url = http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/shulgin_alexander/shulgin_alexander_raid.shtml | access-date = July 8, 2006 | archive-date = March 26, 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070326003950/http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/shulgin_alexander/shulgin_alexander_raid.shtml | url-status = live }}</ref> Richard Meyer, spokesman for DEA's San Francisco Field Division, has stated that, "It is our opinion that those books are pretty much cookbooks on how to make illegal drugs. Agents tell me that in clandestine labs that they have raided, they have found copies of those books."<ref name="nyt" />
Prior to his 2010 health issues, Shulgin had been working on a series of ''N''-allylated tryptamines including 5-MeO-DALT and 5-MeO-MALT.<ref name="Morris2010" />
==Personal life, health, and death== Shulgin was married to Nina Gordon until her death from a stroke in 1977.<ref name="Vastag2014">{{cite news | last=Vastag | first=Brian | title=Chemist Alexander Shulgin, popularizer of the drug Ecstasy, dies at 88 | newspaper=Washington Post | date=3 June 2014 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/chemist-alexander-shulgin-popularizer-of-the-drug-ecstasy-dies-at-88/2014/06/03/19fd9580-eb34-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html | access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref><ref name="Hanna2014">{{cite web | last=Hanna | first=Jon | title=Alexander Theodore Shulgin (1925–2014) | website=openDemocracy | date=9 June 2014 | url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/alexander-theodore-shulgin-19252014/ | access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref> He then married author Ann Gotlieb in 1981.<ref name = Weber>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/us/alexander-shulgin-psychedelia-researcher-dies-at-88.html|title = Alexander Shulgin, Psychedelia Researcher, Dies at 88|last = Weber|first = Bruce|date = June 8, 2014|accessdate = February 17, 2022|work = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}</ref><ref name="Hanna2014" /> He spent most of his later life at the Farm in Lafayette, California.
On April 8, 2008, at the age of 82, he underwent surgery to replace a defective aortic valve.<ref>{{cite journal|title=MAPS News: June 2008 – First legal dose of LSD administered! |url=http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1610 |date=June 19, 2008 |journal=MAPS News |author =Brown, David Jay |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302181622/http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1610 |archive-date=March 2, 2012 }}</ref> On November 16, 2010, he suffered a stroke, from which he largely recovered.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sasha Shulgin |work=Psychedelic Research |date=November 18, 2010 |url=http://psychedelicresearch.org/?p=125 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222021100/http://psychedelicresearch.org/?p=125 |archive-date=February 22, 2015 }}</ref> Also at the close of 2010, a skin-grafting surgery saved his left foot from being amputated. Around this time, Shulgin began showing early signs of dementia, mostly severe loss of short-term memory. With progression of the dementia since 2010, his wife, Ann Shulgin, had been trying to sell part of their property to raise more money to cover care costs.
On April 17, 2014, Ann Shulgin reported on Facebook that her husband had developed liver cancer, and in a May 31 update on Facebook she said that, although appearing frail, he seemed to be experiencing his last moments in peace and without pain.<ref>{{cite web |author=Pescovitz, David |url=http://boingboing.net/2014/06/01/psychedelic-hero-alexander-shu.html |title=Psychedelic hero Alexander Shulgin nearing death / Boing Boing |publisher=Boingboing.net |date=June 1, 2014 |access-date=November 17, 2015 |archive-date=November 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117222821/http://boingboing.net/2014/06/01/psychedelic-hero-alexander-shu.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Shulgin died at his home on June 2, 2014, at the age of 88.<ref name = Calamur>{{cite web |author=Calamur, Krishnadev |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/03/318458639/alexander-shulgin-the-godfather-of-ecstasy-dies-at-88 |title=Alexander Shulgin, The 'Godfather Of Ecstasy,' Dies At 88 : The Two-Way |publisher=NPR |date=June 3, 2014 |access-date=November 17, 2015 |archive-date=May 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502122638/http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/03/318458639/alexander-shulgin-the-godfather-of-ecstasy-dies-at-88 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Shulgin is said to have had more than 4,000 psychedelic experiences during his life.<ref name="Risen2022">{{cite web | last=Risen | first=Clay | title=Ann Shulgin, 91, Who Explored Psychedelics With Her Husband, Dies | website=The New York Times | date=19 July 2022 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/science/ann-shulgin-dead.html | access-date=11 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="Kent2022" /> His favorite psychedelic drug is said to have been LSD,<ref name="Kent2022" /> while his favorite psychedelic of his own creations was 2C-B.<ref name="Morris2010">{{cite web | author = Hamilton Morris | title = The Last Interview With Alexander Shulgin: Which, Technically, Was Not an Interview at All | date = 2 May 2010 | publisher = Vice Media | website = vice.com | url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201018023408/http://www.vice.com/en/article/avjewz/the-last-interview-with-alexander-shulgin-423-v17n5 | archive-url = https://isomerdesign.com/bitnest/external/Vice/v17n5_us17 | archive-date = 27 March 2025 | quote = Ask Shulgin what his favorite psychedelic is and he will say “2CB”5 without hesitation. Ask him how many times he has taken it and he’ll say “a few.” This is a guy who has had approximately 10,000 psychedelic experiences. No drug, not even his cherished 2C-B, tastes better than the untasted.}}</ref><ref name="Biello2008">{{cite web | last=Biello | first=David | title=Self-Experimenters: Psychedelic Chemist Explores the Surreality of Inner Space, One Drug at a Time | website=Scientific American | date=20 March 2008 | url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/self-experimenter-chemist-explores-new-psychedelics/ | access-date=11 February 2026 | quote=His personal favorite, which he describes as "extraordinarily comfortable and quite erotic," is known simply as 2C-B for its chemical makeup.}}</ref><ref name="Kent2014" /><ref name="Kent2022" /> When asked what his favorite psychoactive drug in general was, he responded "probably a nice, moderately expensive Zinfandel [(red wine)]".<ref name="Vastag2014" /> Shulgin personally disliked cannabis and ketamine, as he didn't like feeling disoriented and as he valued drugs that provided learning experiences, which he felt that these substances didn't provide him.<ref name="Kent2022">{{cite web | last=Kent | first=James | title=Remembering Psychedelic Chemist Alexander Shulgin | website=Psychedelic Spotlight | date=17 June 2022 | url=https://psychedelicspotlight.com/remembering-psychedelic-chemist-alexander-shulgin/ | access-date=11 February 2026 | quote=Although Shulgin never met a psychoactive plant he wouldn’t explore, he was not fond of smoking marijuana. “He didn’t really get along with pot,” says Ann, who shared a similar dislike of the experience. “He just thought, you know, what’s the point of sitting around being stoned all the time. He didn’t think there was much to be learned from the experience.” He had a similar feeling about the dissociative hallucinogen Ketamine. “He really didn’t like being that disoriented,” says Ann. “He was always looking to learn something from the experience. He was looking for a teacher to show him something.” Shulgin’s favorite drug was LSD, [...] When I ask Ann what Sasha’s favorite of his own chemicals is she knows immediately. “It would have to be 2C-B. He was always very proud of that one. He called it the Great Teacher. Although I preferred 2C-B-Fly a bit more.” But there are so many to choose from. DiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, 5-MeO-DALT, Methylone, 2C-T-7, and this list goes on. Ann can’t say for sure how many trips they shared together, she just smiles and says, “We stopped counting at around two-thousand.” This is a mind-boggling number considering the total may actually be closer to four-thousand.}}</ref>
== Legacy == In a 2014 review of the synthesis of designer drugs, the effects of Shulgin's work were described as "by far the most far-reaching" effects associated with the cultural climate of interest at the time in hallucinogenic compounds generally and mescaline in particular, with which various artists and writers had experimented. Shulgin said that mescaline made him aware of a world submerged in human spirit, whose "availability" was "catalyzed" by such chemicals; the consequences of his insights were called "devastating" by the reviewers. In the same review, an example of his insights was given by his description of MDMA as "his low-calorie Martini".<ref name="pmid24823967">{{cite journal | vauthors = Appendino G, Minassi A, Taglialatela-Scafati O | title = Recreational drug discovery: natural products as lead structures for the synthesis of smart drugs | journal = Natural Product Reports | volume = 31 | issue = 7 | pages = 880–904 | date = July 2014 | pmid = 24823967 | doi = 10.1039/c4np00010b | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262304038 | access-date = September 3, 2019 | archive-date = September 28, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200928144853/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262304038_Recreational_drug_discovery_Natural_products_as_lead_structures_for_the_synthesis_of_smart_drugs | url-status = live }}</ref>
== Societies == Shulgin was a member of Mensa International and frequently attended Mensa events in California.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Shulgin |first1=Alexander |author-mask=with |first2=Ann |last2=Shulgin |title=PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story |location=Berkeley |publisher=Transform Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-9630096-0-5 }}</ref>
Alexander was a Bohemian Club member.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2002/09/professorx/ |title=Professor X |date=September 1, 2002 |magazine=Wired}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Chemist Alexander Shulgin, Popularizer of the Drug Ecstasy, Dies at 88 |url=https://maps.org/news/media/5099-chemist-alexander-shulgin-popularizer-of-the-drug-ecstasy-dies-at-88 |website=MAPS |date=June 3, 2014 |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref name="Morris2010" /> The Bohemian club is located in California where Alexander lived. Alexander refers to "The Owl Club" in chapter 11 of ''PiHKAL'':
{{Blockquote|One evening in the late 1950s, I was invited to a musical soiree at an old comfortable home in the Berkeley Hills. I brought my viola with me... The only person I can remember from that evening was a handsome, proper gentleman with a small grey moustache and the residues of an English accent. During coffee, after the music was over, he struck up a conversation.
He asked me if I had ever heard of The Owl Club in San Francisco? I had not, so he began painting a picture of a rather fascinating group, with many interests in all sorts of art, drama and music. He mentioned that there was need for a viola player, and would I be interested in sitting in for a couple of evenings? ... The Club proved to be a group of gentlemen from a broad array of political and professional backgrounds, leaning somewhat toward the political right and the well-to-do. ... At my first evening at the Club... Andrew was appointed my Pater Familias ..."|''PiHKAL'', First Printing, Eleventh Edition, Chapter 11, pp. 60–65<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Shulgin |first1=Alexander |author-mask=with |first2=Ann |last2=Shulgin |title=PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story |location=Berkeley |publisher=Transform Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-9630096-0-5 }}</ref>|}}
== Bibliography == {{Main|Bibliography of Alexander Shulgin}}
===Books=== * ''Controlled Substances: Chemical & Legal Guide to Federal Drug Laws''. Berkeley, Calif.: Ronin Publishing (1988). {{ISBN|091417150X}}. * ''PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story'', with Ann Shulgin. Berkeley, Calif.: Transform Press (1991). {{ISBN|0963009605}}. * ''TiHKAL: The Continuation'', with Ann Shulgin. Berkeley, Calif.: Transform Press (1997). {{ISBN|0963009699}}. * ''The Simple Plant Isoquinolines '', with Wendy Perry. Berkeley, Calif.: Transform Press (2002). {{ISBN|0963009621}}. * ''The Shulgin Index, vol. 1: Psychedelic Phenethylamines and Related Compounds'', with Tania Manning and Paul Daley. Berkeley, Calif.: Transform Press (2011). {{ISBN|978-0963009630}}. [https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mbdb/mbdb_info3.shtml] ** [https://archive.today/20210810120118/https://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/law/law_article12.shtml Appendix B: Web Addresses for State Statutes on Phenethylamine Psychedelics.] * {{cite book |title=The Nature of Drugs |author=Alexander Shulgin |date=2021 |isbn=9780999547212 |publisher=Transform Press |location=Berkeley, California}}
===Laboratory notebooks=== * [https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/shulgin_labbooks/ Shulgin Notebooks and Lab Books]
==Documentaries== Documentaries about Alexander Shulgin include the following:
* ''Dirty Pictures'' (2010) by Étienne Sauret<ref name="Sauret2010">{{cite AV media | people = Étienne Sauret (director), Alexander Shulgin (subject), Ann Shulgin (subject), David E. Nichols (subject), William E. Fantegrossi (subject), Roland Griffiths (subject), Solomon H. Snyder (subject), others | date = 13 March 2010 | title = Dirty Pictures | url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100211144511/https://dirtypicturesthefilm.com/ | location = United States | type = Motion picture (documentary) | language = English | publisher = Turn of the Century Pictures, Breaking Glass Pictures | time = 38:04–40:23, 45:42–47:46, 1:15:30–1:16:54, 1:23:13–1:24:06 | archive-url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZLkAMDO5dI | archive-date = 26 February 2024}}</ref> * ''SiHKAL: Shulgins I Have Known and Loved'' (2010; ''Hamilton's Pharmacopeia web series''; Vice Media) by Hamilton Morris<ref name="Morris2010-S0E4">{{cite episode | credits = Hamilton Morris | date = 22 December 2010 | title = SiHKAL: Shulgins I Have Known and Loved: The Man Who Birthed Ecstasy in a Test-Tube | series = Hamilton's Pharmacopeia [web series] | number = S0E4 | publisher = Vice Media | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYlAuf-3t0g | transcript = [Web article] | transcript-url = https://www.vice.com/en/article/sihkal-shulgins-i-have-known-and-loved/}}</ref> * ''The Love Drug'' (2016; ''I Am Rebel'', S01E03; National Geographic) by Hamilton Morris<ref name="Morris2016">{{cite episode | credits = Hamilton Morris (writer), Alexander Shulgin (subject), Ann Shulgin (guest), Jason Wallach (guest), David E. Nichols (guest), Rick Doblin (guest), Raffi Kahatchadorourian (guest), Wendy Tucker (guest), David Meyer (guest), Paul Daley (guest), Julie Holland (guest), others | date = 19 June 2016 | title = The Love Drug | url = https://www.natgeotv.com/za/shows/natgeo/i-am-rebel | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20251123034229/https://www.natgeotv.com/za/shows/natgeo/i-am-rebel#episodes-t1 | archive-date = 23 November 2025 | series = I Am Rebel | season = 1 | number = 3 | language = English | publisher = National Geographic | access-date = 27 December 2025 | url-status = bot: unknown }}</ref> * ''Better Living Through Chemistry'' (2021) by Connie Littlefield<ref name="Littlefield2021">{{cite AV media | people=Connie Littlefield (director, writer), Siobhan Flanagan, Alexander Shulgin (subject), Ann Shulgin (subject), Paul F. Daley (subject), Myron Stolaroff (subject), Jean Stolaroff (subject), Wendy Perry Tucker (subject), Tania Manning (subject), Greg Manning (subject), Keeper Trout (subject), Earth and Fire Erowid, others | date=2021 | title=Better Living Through Chemistry | url=https://betterlivingthroughchemistry.org/ | archive-url=https://tubitv.com/movies/100015889/better-living-through-chemistry | archive-date=21 September 2021 | type=Motion picture | language=English | location= | publisher=Better Living Through Film, Incorporated}}</ref>
== See also == * Alexander Shulgin Research Institute * Antonio Escohotado * Peyton Jacob III * Daniel Trachsel * List of psychedelic chemists * ''Pachycereus pringlei'' § Constituents and biological effects * Mindstate Design Labs
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * [https://www.shulginresearch.net/ Alexander Shulgin Research Institute] (ASRI) * ''[https://doorofperception.com/2013/07/the-shulgins-dirty-pictures/ "Dirty Pictures"].'' Documentary. 2010. * [https://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/shulgin_alexander/shulgin_alexander.shtml Erowid's Alexander Shulgin Vault] * [https://www.transformpress.com Transform Press – publisher of Alexander Shulgin's books]
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