The US pharmacologist and biochemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, best known for his work in introducing the world the world to to ecstasy.
Shulgin was a prominent advocate for the use of psychedelic drugs in psychology, and throughout 40 years of research he has been personally responsible for much of the progress in psychopharmacology.
By his own count, Shulgin has developed and tested more than 200 different psychedelic compounds, which had effects across the full spectrum of emotions and perceptions, including stimulants, depressants, aphrodisiacs, and ’empathogens.
However, it was his rediscovery and promotion of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, or what is now known as ecstasy or MDMA.
He performed his research in plain sight of the law, but managed to keep one step ahead of US authorities by testing compounds before they had become widespread and before they were made illegal.
He was interested in expanding the human condition through the use of psychedelic drugs, commenting after an experience of mescaline that:
“[Personal revelations] 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.”
He may not have intended to help create the subculture of drugs that has supported millions of people raving over the past three decades, but by bringing ecstasy to the attention of the masses he became a folk hero.
Announcing his death on Facebook, Shulgin’s wife and collaborator, Ann Shulgin, said:
“Sasha died today, at exactly 5 o’clock in the afternoon. He was surrounded by family and caretakers and Buddhist meditation music, and his going was graceful, with almost no struggle at all.”
