Editing Alexander Shulgin (section)

==Early life and career ==
Shulgin was born on June 17, 1925,<ref name=":0"/> 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 (DE-134)|USS ''Pope'']] during [[World War&nbsp;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 experience]]s 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" />

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" />

[[File:Zectran 2009 hanna jon.JPG|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 [[mexacarbate|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 (journal)|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 [[UCSF School of Medicine|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. [[Drug Enforcement Administration|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 [[Controlled Substances Act|Schedule I]] license for an [[analytical chemistry|analytical]] laboratory, which allowed him to synthesize and possess any otherwise illicit drug.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Cody |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1029780854 |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 drug]]s.

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 KGaA|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 Shulgin|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>

[[File:Shulgin alexander 2009 hanna jon.jpg|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 [[phenethylamine]]s (family containing [[ecstasy (drug)|MDMA]], [[mescaline]], and the [[2C* family]]), and [[tryptamine]]s (family containing [[dimethyltryptamine|DMT]] 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 [[tryptamine]]s including [[5-MeO-DALT]] and [[5-MeO-MALT]].<ref name="MorrisSmith2010" />