I respectfully disagree. What Shulgin did simply represented rational science and protocols for self experimentation. He established some of the best possible harm reduction methodologies, and communicated his knowledge to the world through PIKHAL and TIKHAL. Through those books he's saved countless lives and minds as people used and shared his guidelines.
He was a subtle rebel, who played by the rules and they kept changing the rules until they could shackle his research.
The context of the war on drugs and the vastly restrictive IP laws created the current culture of drug development and research. That culture is dominated by the pseudo capitalism and monopolistic death grip Big Pharma has on drugs in general, and their development and manufacture in particular.
People absolutely should be allowed to self experiment, and knowledge should be freely available. Shulgin and his wife showed virtually no I'll effects after a life of responsible drug use - he lived to a vigorous 89, and his wife is still kicking around at 90! I wish their brand of drug use had taken deep root in American culture such that substance use was appreciated and respected and approached with the caution it deserves. If high school children were given drug use education, and pharmacies were a legal source of all drugs without the asinine scheduling prohibitions, so many tragedies could have been avoided.
Even most doctors don't prescribe drugs as responsibly and carefully as they should, and people are ignorant and ill prepared for anything that happens. They could use Shulgin's approach, carefully increasing dosage and providing patients with a common verbal framework with which to describe their experience.
Anyway, sorry to rant. Shulgin is a hero to me - a gentle rebel who made his PhD count for something he believed in.
I agree that ultimately, people should be allowed to self experiment. But looking at his situation from a pragmatic perspective in the 70's and 80's, would it not have been wiser to be just a bit more careful with his advocacy? Publishing a book that details how to craft hundreds of untested psychedelic drugs is not quite what I would call subtle.
I'd say that Shulgin and the people who worked with him on his mental adventures all had strong egos and had been tested by previous experiences with psychedelics. So there is some selection bias about whether the general populace could enact PIKHAL and TIKHAL.
He was a subtle rebel, who played by the rules and they kept changing the rules until they could shackle his research.
The context of the war on drugs and the vastly restrictive IP laws created the current culture of drug development and research. That culture is dominated by the pseudo capitalism and monopolistic death grip Big Pharma has on drugs in general, and their development and manufacture in particular.
People absolutely should be allowed to self experiment, and knowledge should be freely available. Shulgin and his wife showed virtually no I'll effects after a life of responsible drug use - he lived to a vigorous 89, and his wife is still kicking around at 90! I wish their brand of drug use had taken deep root in American culture such that substance use was appreciated and respected and approached with the caution it deserves. If high school children were given drug use education, and pharmacies were a legal source of all drugs without the asinine scheduling prohibitions, so many tragedies could have been avoided.
Even most doctors don't prescribe drugs as responsibly and carefully as they should, and people are ignorant and ill prepared for anything that happens. They could use Shulgin's approach, carefully increasing dosage and providing patients with a common verbal framework with which to describe their experience.
Anyway, sorry to rant. Shulgin is a hero to me - a gentle rebel who made his PhD count for something he believed in.