Editing Harvard Psilocybin Project (section)

==Controversy==
Other professors were concerned with Leary and Alpert's abuse of power over students. They pressured graduate students to participate in their research who they taught in a class required for the students' degrees. Additionally, Leary and Alpert gave psychedelics to undergraduate students despite the university only allowing graduate students to participate (a deal was passed with the administration to avoid this in 1961). The legitimacy of their research was questioned because Leary and Alpert also took psychedelics during the experiments, an accusation to which Leary replied that the researchers had to be in the same state of mind as the subject to understand his experience in the moment it happens. In 1961, two Harvard students ended up in the mental hospital after consuming psilocybin, and the Harvard administration started to dislike the project.<ref name="psychedelic scandal"/>

While Leary and Alpert were described as ridiculing the rules that were set by the school, they also said they did believe that nothing should deny someone the right to explore their inner self, or this would mean taking another step towards totalitarianism.<ref name="psychedelic scandal"/>

In addition, research participants were not selected according to [[random sampling]]. Many of these concerns were printed in ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' (edition 20 February 1962). Leary and Alpert immediately replied to the Crimson to attempt to rectify its negative tone. A few days later, Dana L. Farnsworth, director of Harvard University Health Services, also wrote to the Crimson to expose the risks related to the consumption of mescaline. Andrew Weil, a freshman who was not allowed in the research out of spite, wrote a “Hit Piece" on the research. Andrew Weil later apologized for his actions and betrayal of Leary, Albert, and the others involved. A dispute rose on campus, which led the [[Harvard Center for Research in Personality]] to organize a meeting on 14 March 1962 to solve the issue.<ref name="psychedelic scandal"/>

The meeting turned into a trial against Leary and Alpert, and was reported in the Crimson by a journalist who discreetly assisted the meeting. This article accelerated the crisis. Local newspapers followed and published information about the drug scandal on university grounds. A member of the [[Massachusetts Department of Public Health]] stated the experiments led by Leary and Alpert should be conducted by "sober" researchers, followed by the state Food and Drug Administration which declared its intention to open an investigation on the psilocybin experiments.<ref name="psychedelic scandal"/>

In April, the state authorities finally decided to authorize the psilocybin experiments under the conditions that a (sober) physician is present during the experiments. When an advisory committee demanded Alpert give away his psilocybin to legal authorities for safe-keeping, he insisted on keeping some for his personal use. This outraged the committee, which never met again afterwards. It is believed that Leary and Alpert used Harvard stationary to order more psilocybin from Sandoz to stock up before leaving for their [[Zihuatanejo Project]]. Alpert's reputation on campus quickly became tainted.<ref name="psychedelic scandal"/>

There was concern amongst some students that "private psilocybin parties" were taking place.<ref>{{cite web |first=Virginia |last=Prescott |url=https://maps.org/news/multimedia-library/531-tripping-out-at-harvard |title=Tripping out at Harvard |work=Maps.org |date=12 June 2008 }}</ref> On 27 May 1963, Alpert was fired for distributing psilocybin to an undergraduate student.<ref name="psychedelic scandal"/>

At the time only [[Mescaline]] and the [[Peyote]] cactus were illegal. It would be five years until [[psilocybin]] and [[LSD]] were made illegal. Both Leary and Alpert had been rising academic stars until their battles with Harvard and their advocacy of the use of psychedelics made them major figures in the nascent [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]].