Youth on a four day trip; LSD and other many splendored things

From the 1968 Wisconsin workweek of Health is sponsored by the State Medical Society of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin physicians service Bluefield. We bring you another in a series of programs designed for teenagers and taking as its theme. Youth on a four day trip today Dr. Joseph M. Ben for assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School discusses drug use and abuse information and misinformation in a lecture entitled LSD and other many splendored things. Now Dr. Ben Ferraro I was delighted to have been asked to address this group today because. I have a background of some 15 years of research in pharmacology and I think there are certain things about drugs which young people should be aware of. And I hope to give you some ideas about. Information concerning LSD. Are there any objections. To the use of LSD by young people

today. Well I think there are but I use it only as a gambit to tell you a funny story about a gentleman who was driving a touring car through Maine in the 1980s. He was lost and he wanted to go to Ipswich but he was lost and I didn't want to admit it. And he pulled up at an intersection and there were some farmers there called down easters there sitting on rocking chairs on the porch of a general store and they had pieces of straw in their mouth. And this fella pulled his car up but he said I'm going to Ipswich hoping that they would tell him which direction it was and this one farmer took the straw out of his mouth and said. We've no objections. Well I think myself that there are some objections. To the use of LSD by young people today and I'm going to try to develop this theme.

I try to remember when I was a teenager. And I like to feel that it wasn't so long ago. And something came into my mind about my teenage experience it had to do with junior high school and it happened while I was reading a newspaper the other evening. The word entrepreneur. I learned about the definition of this word in junior high school. You know if you want to know what a hole is a youngster will say well a hole is to dig. And if you want to know what an entrepreneur is well an entrepreneur is to make money. But the dictionary says that an entrepreneur is one who assumes the risks. And the management of a business. Now the Madison newspapers on Tuesday carried a story. In which three entrepreneurs were mentioned. The first and second of these were two 15 year old high school students who had purchased twenty eight LSD tablets at $4 apiece and were selling them at a

Westside high school. For $6 apiece. Now that's a 50 percent markup. And there was no indication as to whether they were cheaper by the dozen. The third student was a university student who disembarked from the plane. With twenty eight thousand dollars worth of tetrahydrocannabinol. The active ingredient of marijuana in his suitcase. Now what's the point here. Well these entrepreneurs seem to be doing great on management but were they aware of the risks. To themselves and to others. Were they aware and indeed did they give any thought to the idea already expressed implicitly in the Bible that some money is tainted money. Now concerning LSD. I think you're all aware of the fact that it is an

abbreviation for a chemical lysergic acid dye Ethyl Amite. But until recently it was also the abbreviation for an organization called. The league for spiritual discovery. This had been organized by Timothy Leary and according to a news article I read this summer. It is now disbanded. LSD is a semi synthetic drug which has as a starting material and synthesis. A naturally occurring alkaloid called lysergic acid. Now for those of you who know some elementary chemistry lysergic. Acid dye Ethyl am I is simply the dye Ethyl substituted Amite of lysergic acid. Lysergic Acid itself is a complex alkaloid which has not yet been synthesised in the chemical laboratory. In other words we have to have natural sources for lysergic acid. This alkaloid is found in

Ergot. Which is a fungus which parasitize is rye and other grains. And there are at least two valuable therapeutic drugs in use today which contain lysergic acid. One of them or got a mean is used in migraine headaches. Another one. Ergo no vein is used as a uterine stimulant for the mother following delivery of a baby. The discovery of l s d. Or rather the discovery of the mind altering effect of LSD. Is an example in science of serendipity. If you've not heard the term before it goes back to Hugh Walpole who wrote about the three princes of Serendib. Oriental potentate who used to wander through the roads of their kingdoms and were always coming across things they were not looking for. And the discovery of the effects of LSD on the mind. Was a happenstance.

The chemist who was involved was not looking for this effect. It happened by accident. You may be unaware. That LSD in human history. First arrived on the scene in 1938 1938 when it was synthesised in the Swiss laboratories of the Sandoz company. This was simply a routine venture on synthesis of chemical analogues of lysergic acid. That was 1938. In 1943. Hofmann a chemist in the laboratory. Had the first LSD trip. And this was by accident. He was writing home on his bicycle one afternoon and began to experience bizarre sensations and was not at all well that evening and wondered a little bit what had happened and being a good scientist he reviewed his activities for the day and wondered in his mind whether the material boiling on this chemical part in the laboratory might not have contained something that

he had inhaled possibly or ingested. And he went back to the laboratory a few days later and tried to repeat the thing and sure enough when he got some of the stuff he developed hallucinations. Now since man's establishment of the mind altering effect of LSD in 1943 the drug has had a remarkable history. It first became a pharmacological curiosity. This is because it's amazingly potent. A hundred microgram dose is sufficient to produce effects on the mind. For those of you who know what the metric system is a microgram is a millionth of a gram. If you were to take. Another LSD. To make three thousand one hundred micrograms doses. Capable of affecting three thousand people. You would have an amount of LSD no larger than an ordinary aspirin tablet.

Three thousand such doses. It's therefore amazingly potent and for this reason it was of interest to the pharmacologists who study drug. But it is certainly not the most potent substance known. That honor is generally accorded to Bochy Lyneham toxin which is a poison derived from certain bacteria. Botulism botulinum toxin is called the most poisonous poison. Secondly LSD became a psychiatric curiosity. Psychiatry just wondered if they couldn't take advantage of the mind altering effects of this drug. To help young doctors in training experience what it's like to be out of your mind. And when I was in interned in Boston I remember at the Boston psychiatric institute that young residents and psychiatry were taking LSD to try to get some insight into what mental diseases. They no longer do that in Boston I suppose the reason is that psychiatrists are too valuable today.

It then became a quasi religious curiosity. Timothy Leary in his league for spiritual discovery. I understand again from newspaper articles that Timothy Leary has dropped out of public life. His message was tune in turn on drop out. One of his early psychedelic celebrations this is done for an audience in the theater was entitled Death of the mind. You've got to die in order to live. He provided his audience with a glossary. Turn on. Contact the energy within. But do it biochemically. Tune in. Become an active artist and express your revelations. Drop out. Cultivate detachment and don't get involved. Another celebration that he put on the stage was called the reincarnation of Christ. This was the LSD mess and

can you guess who played the leading role. It was leary. Now I've never met Timothy Leary myself I've seen. I've met people who know him. But I did have occasion to see on television one of his associates Richard Alpert and just before I left Buffalo Richard Alpert was invited to the University to talk to a student group who wanted to hear about his ideas concerning drugs in the mind. I could not attend the session because I had a committee meeting that afternoon but some members of my department the pharmacology department the medical school did attend and I saw them later that afternoon and they looked mesmerized and somewhat glassy eyed. And I asked what had happened and they said well the last thing he said. I said well what was it. Well Richard Alpert apparently talking to a group of 400 students told them the two young men on LSD who were on the third floor of a balcony and one of the men looked at the other one and said.

Do you know I'd like to jump off this balcony. And his friend said Well why don't you. And so the young man did and he hit the pavement and started to bleed from all of his artifices. And he died. But just before he died. He looked up at his friend on the balcony. And blew him a kiss and smiled. And Richard Alpert's comment was wasn't this beautiful. Hadn't this man found his fruition. Well this apparently chilled everybody who was listening to the extent that they weren't really too sure as to what he was talking about. Because after all. We're all human beings. Most of us don't know why we're here or where we're going. But for some reason we seem to value the very concept of like. Well for such a young drug born in 1038 LSD

has certainly gained notoriety. It is now a sociological curiosity. Look Magazine July 966 death of a hooked heiress aged 19 well-to-do family turned on for two years with marijuana amphetamine LSD and heroin and was dead of heroin overdoses at age 19. Science magazine some years ago an article about LSD effects in the elephant. The elephant died. The comedian at the nightclub tells about the hippie who sprinkles LSD on the postage stamp. And when he licks the stamp he gets there before the letter does. A. Psychedelic posters. Support your travel agent. Take a trip. Fly now pay later. For

goodies visit the psychedelic attest. Now. I'm sure you're aware that youngsters today particularly the real small ones I have a six year old at home who's just come out of kindergarten. They show a certain precociousness possibly because of unsticking unification and the changes in the curriculum. My youngest daughter aged six. Learned set theory in kindergarten. Although she didn't know it by that name. The latest story I heard about a little one was the girl who was asked by the teacher. To guess what the class would be studying today. This is a little kindergarten and the girl said you're going to tell us about DSL. That's LSD spelled backwards. But that was the best thing she could do with communicating your thoughts her thoughts. She was aware that there was something called LSD that was in the air. Sociologically. The teacher might have taken the occasion to

warn the child about the dangers of taking sugar cubes that you find in the refrigerator. One of the ways in which LSD is taken is to put a drop of a solution on a sugar cube and then take the sugar cube. That's because the amount involved is so small that if it were in a pure chemical form you couldn't see it. Well you may have read some what 18 months ago perhaps two years ago about the five year old in New York City who found a sugar cube in her refrigerator. Her mother's refrigerator. And she took it. What she didn't know was that her uncle had bought the sugar cube and that it contained LSD. And this girl developed convulsions and almost died in the hospital. Fortunately she did. Well in the news media. LSD mishaps and deaths became somewhat commonplace after a while. I have in my files a very small article no bigger than 2 inches.

Single column from The New York Times of February one thousand sixty seven. Berkeley coed age 19 a freshman majoring in comparative literature plunged to her death through a close window of her apartment. She was on an LSD trip. Now this business of jumping out of windows. I am very sure that only a small minority of people on LSD jump out of windows. However this came up for debate when Timothy Leary on a stage discussed this matter with Dr Donna Lauria of New York who is very interested in this whole area of drugs. And Leary chided Loria for over emphasizing this matter of jumping out of windows on LSD. Well that is the debate at least that aspect of the debate ended. When Leary commented. Perhaps tongue in cheek. That anyone on LSD. Who ventures above the ground floor is just plain crazy.

Now what do we know about LSD. We know really very little. I'm referring to our knowledge about the mechanism by which this chemical. Affects that amazing organ in the brain. It's a little like what Winston Churchill said concerning his brandy habit. He was accosted one day in a large dining hall. Panel very high ceiling by a lady. Who in effect scolded him for his brandy habit. She said to him Mr. Churchill if all the brandy you had in your life were to be in this hall. It would probably go half way up to the ceiling and the church you looked around and he said Tut tut. So little done and so much to do. And this this is the problem with LSD. Remember it was

born in one thousand thirty eight and we're really just beginning just beginning to get to know about it. Now I will not describe the good trip on LSD the so-called pleasurable trip. And I will not describe the bad trip. You no doubt read about this in Life magazine Look magazine Mademoiselle glamour time with the Saturday Review. I have in my files an article from the Saturday Review of June 1st 1963 by a Dr. Harry Asher. The title of the article was they split my personality. And it was about LSD. I shall however try to convey to you some of my outlooks concerning current information and misinformation about this drug. I believe that I was misquoted recently in the newspapers after a talk on drugs which I gave last week at the Dane County Coliseum.

I do not recall saying Don't believe everything you see hear or read. I don't think I said that. What I did say was. That I thought that newspapers. Television programs magazines. Books. Should probably contain a warning which might read something like this. Everything you see. Hear or read. Is not necessarily true. And I think this is the problem with drug information and misinformation. And in a way I wish I could talk to educators who deal with children. To get them away from the idea that because something is in black and white in a book. That the child must believe that it's true. One of the nicest things about the college that I went to a New York. City College.

Was that as students we had the feeling that we could question anything. And there was a joke told about the teachers college that was next door. And I did go to teacher's apology later where if the teacher came in and said Good morning. The class would write it down in a notebook. But at City College if the teacher came in and said good morning the class would get up and say why. And I think an opening mind an opening of the mind in terms of of what what is the printed word mean is something the teacher should probably engender in students. This business of everything in print not being necessarily true. Places a great burden on the person reading this thing. To evaluate the source of the information which he is receiving. Now I've heard many people tell me. That there is no longer any research being done on LSD because the government under the Food and Drug

Administration has pulled all of the LSD back and is preventing research. This is simply not true. Research is ongoing. There are legal forces for LSD. It is available for competent investigators. Dr. STANLEY y'all as director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Indicated recently that in 1968. Some three million four hundred thousand dollars is being spent by the United States on grants to investigators for hallucinogenic drug research. For example. The latest volume of Clinical Pharmacology in Therapeutics which is one of the magazines that I subscribe to. October 1968. It just came and there's an article estimation of lysergic acid Di Ethel Amite in plasma plasma is the fluid part of the blood. What they did was to

inject human volunteers with LSD and to correlate the blood levels of LSD with the performances of these people on simple arithmetic problems. Blood was sampled up to eight hours after the drug was given and the blood levels correlated inversely with the scores on the tests. That is to say the higher the blood levels the less was the score on the test. Now let's look at the problem here. I told you that LSD was fantastically potent. These individuals received one hundred forty microgram a very small amount of. The blood concentrations were measured not in micrograms but in nanogram. I don't know of anyone in the room knows what a nanogram is a nanogram is a billionth of a grand.

And every ounce has 30 grand. Well how much is a billionth of a grain. Well let me tell you what a billionth is. If you were fortunate enough to be in the United States Treasury where one dollar bills are turned out and you manage to get a thousand of them and you push them on the table as hard as you can you would have a pile of bills seven inches high. That's a thousand. If you had a million such bills. You would have a pile about five hundred seventy feet high. Higher than the Washington Monument. That's a million. If you had a billion such bills you would have a pile of bills. A hundred miles high. And one billionth. Is equivalent to one $1 bill. From a pile of tightly stacked bills going up a hundred miles. That's what a billion is. So we're dealing with very small amounts of drugs. And how do scientists

detect these. Well they use very sophisticated techniques which have been developed in chemistry laboratories and in this particular case they used a Flora metric technique where a light is brought into the sample. The material Flores's and emits light of a different wavelength and this is measured on an instrument. Now you may be surprised to learn. That the limitation of our understanding of how LS D affects the mind is based on our inability to comprehend the way in which the mind. And its home the brain actually functions. Even with sophisticated techniques such as those available today in neurophysiology. Such as the electroencephalogram you put electrodes on the skull and you measure brain waves. Such as the

cathode ray a cell a scope with special sensing devices which allows an investigator to detect the voltage changes electrically in a single cell. In a single cell. Sophisticated techniques in neurochemistry. Micro techniques which allow a chemist to detect the change in the biochemical component of a single cell. All of these sophisticated techniques. Have not yet brought us. To enough of an understanding of the normal physiology and biochemistry of the brain. And this of course. Limits our understanding of how drugs affect the brain. Research is proceeding and progress occurs. But it occurs very very slowly. Game is Conan. Of Harvard has said that

science is that effort which reduces empiricism in our knowledge of the world. By projecting theories and hypotheses. Capable of experimental verification. Now what do these terms mean. Well the term empirical. Is the old history of science. Trial and error. Try this try that see if something works. It's a tremendous waste of time. If you can do it in a better way. And what is the better way. Well the better way is to collect your knowledge. And build up a conceptual framework which is internally consistent. And then make a hypothesis. And then test it experimentally. And it is this approach which competent scientific investigators are moving toward today. To try to get an internally coherent theory of how the mind works so that hopefully we can begin to understand

how drugs affect the mind. Unfortunately we just don't have an adequate theory. And if we had an adequate theory we made progress. But we still don't have one. There is the possibility. That. The effect of LSD on the brain. Study particularly in lower animal forms. May give us some insight. Into how the mind works. And it's for this reason that I think that research on LSD must continue. Now LSD has been called a hallow synergy. What is a hallow synergy. I had an Indian student at the clinic some months ago. He was of the Winnebago tribe. And he asked me doctor what what is a hallucination.

He was a member of the Native American Church which uses PE OT. Which contains mescaline. As a sacrament. And when I describe the difference to him between an illusion and a delusion or a hallucination he volunteered the information that. He just didn't think that he ever had hallucinations on pay OT. Presumably the reason for this was. That the amount of pay OT that he was taking. Was not enough. Because mescaline the active ingredient of peyote. Has certainly been demonstrated in humans to be capable of producing hallucinations. Well let me distinguish for you between the term illusion and delusion. And the illusion is a misinterpretation of some sensory stimulus that comes into the body. For example. My little 6 year old Some years ago used to want to have the door open to a room.

With a light left on in the hall. And occasionally she called us in and say there's a ghost on the wall. Well the ghost was no more than the shadow of the bed post. On the wall. And she was misinterpreting something. Which I saw as a shadow. She thought it was a ghost. So she was experiencing an illusion. On the other hand a hallucination. Is another matter. The person who is hallucinating and who sees on a uniformly illuminated white wall. A red dragon with green eyes breathing purple smoke. Something which no one else who looks at that wall can see. That person is experiencing a hallucination. This is something which has developed in his mind for which there is no object in evidence in the environment.

And these had Lucilla's has Helu synergetic drugs. Can produce illusions. And hallucinations as well. Now what are some of the problems associated with the use and abuse of LSD. And please be aware of the fact that there must be many LSD users who have not met these problems. Or perhaps I might say who have not yet met these problems. One problem is this. That an individual. Who takes LSD for the first time. Or on numerous occasions. And has good trips. This individual has no guarantee whatsoever. That a subsequent trip may not be a bad trip. I had a student when I first came to the university. Who came in to see me about an upper respiratory infection and I discussed some of his medical history and we chatted and

he indicated that he had had two doses of LSD. The first one was a good trip. The second one was such a bad trip that he never wanted to see LSD again and he begged me to please check his chromosomes. And we'll get into that later. Another problem associated with LSD is the appearance of an acute psycho toxic reaction with loss of judgment. And in some few individuals with suicide attempt at home aside and on record at least one case of successful home assign. Individuals in these situations. Consider themselves invincible. I. Will walk into a stream of traffic. Going at 60 miles an hour. And simply put their hands up and say to the car stop. They feel invincible. And they don't live very long.

In Rochester New York. A young man on LSD. Was prevented. From jumping off the 13th floor of a building in the middle of winter. Because he thought. He was a snowflake. And what better thing could a snowflake do than to float down to the ground in the company of others. Snowflakes. Some individuals develop panic reactions with overwhelming anxiety fear of going insane and a general sense of helplessness. Some individuals develop prolonged psychosis which require extended hospitalization. Some individuals have developed chronic anxiety and depression. Which has not been amenable to therapy in the hands of psychiatry is. Of great importance. Is this are the recent observations that

even after one single dose of LSD. Some individual. Up to two years later. Have developed recurrences. Of hallucinations and feelings of depersonalization. Even though they never had another don't. I had a student. Just this week who came in. Because. For the past few days. He had been hallucinating. And he described the ordeal audio and visual pollution hallucinations he saw his brother. He saw his girlfriend in his room. He described what they were wearing. The brother was in California at the time. They spoke to him and he he told me what they told him. This was a young lad who seemed very lucid. And when I asked him about which drugs he'd been taking he said Well I've been on pot and hashish this summer but I haven't anything recently.

And. My worry is that perhaps the marijuana that he had unknown to him. Had been laced with LSD. And indeed detective McFarlane here showed me some samples the other day two packages of marijuana which had been manicured looked exactly alike. Only one of them chemically. Contained LSD. Another problem with LSD is a sociological phenomenon and that is the drop out from school and from society. Now I'm not very secure here when I tell you this because I'm not a sociologist. And I've had sociologist argue the point with me. I have no idea what the statistics are. But it is my understanding that many individuals. Well I shouldn't even say money that some individuals on LSD had in fact dropped out. But. What about some of the

problems that are closer to my research interest which is pharmacology. Well these problems are problems in pharmaco genetics and in developmental or fetal pharmacology. Don't let me snow you pharmacogenetics has to do with effects of drugs on chromosomes and developmental or fetal pharmacology. Has to do with the Toronto genic effects of drugs. Deformities in the fetus during a pregnancy. This is what happened with the little mind you may remember. Now the evidence of chromosomal damage and of Toronto genic affects. Babies born deformed. Is conflicting. This is always true in this phase of science where the action is. There are always conflicting reports. And scientists are usually very good friends. Pursue a course to try to find

out why there are conflicting reports. I'll give you my appraisal of the evidence and this is based on my reading of the original papers. Most of which appeared in science. Which is the weekly publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I keep a file of all of these articles from science. And I either send for reprints or make photo duplicate of other articles. Chromosomes. LSD was reported in 1067. To have detrimental effects on chromosomes of white blood cells in the human being. This work was originally reported by mime and Cohen a geneticist at Buffalo and I had the privilege of sitting down often to discuss the work with him. It was done in two ways. White blood cells were put in test tubes and LSD was added and chromosomal abnormalities were observed. Blood was taken from individuals

who had had LSD. Their white cells were isolated and again chromosomal abnormalities were involved. There were three other papers up to April 1968 which said that LSD can't produce any human beings. Chromosomal abnormalities in somatic or body cell such as white blood cells. However between October 1967 and June 968. There were three papers in which reporters or scientists could not find any significant effect. On chromosomes of LSD taken previously. They didn't do test tube studies they took blood from people who had been on LSD. Now you may ask well why the differences. Well I read the papers and I think myself that the differences could be ascribed to slight differences in technique. And I had occasion to discuss this with a geneticist here on the University of Wisconsin

campus. Because one of the papers. Which indicated that there were no changes. Was based on studies of five children. And only five Mehta faces. If you go back to your biology your member might ptosis with Metta phase. Breaking up of a cell only 5 Mehta phases were studied in each of these children. Not correction only 10 Mehta phases were studied. Well this geneticist told me that this is sheer nonsense. You can't make anything at all if you only study 10 Mehta phases. In fact all of the papers in which the results prove positive studied between 100 and 200 Mehta faces. This is a time consuming thing and really very difficult to do. In any event there is a discrepancy and scientists will have to work this out. However there recently appeared some work undress saw follow the fruit fly. And there were two papers. One said that LSD can produce changes in

chromosomes into Sokolow. And the other paper said that they were unable to detect this. But perhaps the most important paper to appear yet was the paper that appeared in June one thousand sixty eight. On mice. In which effects on the sperm chromosomes of the male mice. Were detected following exposure to LSD. This raises the possibility which is not yet been explored. That exposure to LSD may conceivably injure the germ plasm and produce fetal abnormalities in subsequent generations. Now I'm not saying that LSD does this. I'm simply saying that the experiment in mice suggests that this may in fact be possible. What about the Toronto genic effects on babies. These are effects in which babies are born with deformities of their limbs their spinal cords and their brains.

LSD taken by the mother during pregnancy. Well there were three papers in July in October 1967 done on animals. But the most important paper was in the Saturday Evening Post. Which described a female who had taken LSD and who gave birth to a deformed baby. This article created havoc. Because. People probably didn't read the whole article. All they said was look what happened. Well as a matter of fact you can't ascribe a fetal deformity in one female. To her having taken LSD during a pregnancy. I mean it could have been a coincidence. However the work in animals suggests that it may be a possibility. There are papers on rats mice and hamsters. In which when the mother during pregnancy is given LSD.

Up to 50 70 percent. Of the embryos are abnormal. With changes in the spinal cord the brain and limbs and so on. There was one paper. Which said that this effect could not be produced in that laboratory. But if you read the paper again there were differences in technique. From the original papers. Well some recent evidence which is simply. Anecdotal suggests in a series in California. That LSD mothers LSD taking mothers. May possibly give birth to deformed children. I mean they've had some problems out in California with the use of this substance and there have been deformed babies born of mothers taking LSD in a percentage that makes one wonder if it isn't really a true thing. But again we have to wait. To find

out. I myself and I'm impressed by the animal experiments and on a theoretical basis therefore I would not be surprised if it actually turns out that LSD given at some critical time during the first trimester in the human. Might possibly in some individual produce fetal deformities. Now are there potential therapeutic uses for LSD. I mean could it be a valuable drug in the hands of the medical profession. Well the answer is not yet clear. Research is going on. It's been tried in chronic alcoholism. It's been tried in certain selected psychosis. It's been tried in terminal cancer patients. It's been tried in individuals who have certain sexual behavioral abnormalities. The. Results to date are very difficult to evaluate. For this reason. When dealing with human beings you're

not dealing with guinea pig. You can't treat a human being like a guinea pig. And it is really going to take quite some time before the medical profession establishes any positive beneficial therapeutic use for LSD. If such a use exists. For instance when given to some patients with terminal cancer. They seen some of them to become less anxious about their situation. On the other hand some of them say that they don't want to take the drug again. It's effects on alcoholism. There was a book published recently by some Canadian investigators. The verdict. This is their own work. This is their own work. Their verdict. LSD is not useful in the treatment of alcoholism. In the United States. Alcoholic patients treated with LSD were followed for three months and one year. One hundred sixty patients.

They were given LSD in this period of time and followed. And the investigators said there are no changes in these patients which we can attribute to the drug. On the other hand there is one study from a veterans hospital. Sixty nine patients alcoholics. The data indicate that there were fewer arrests and fewer evidences of d t's in individuals who were given LSD. I think the answer to the potential therapeutic use of LSD is that we have to watch and we have to wait. Now I have not yet come to the other many splendored things. What are these. Well how Lucena gins as drugs. Are not new in human history. I can give you a wonderful book to read by a German pharmacologist in pre Hitler Times called Fantastica. This book now available in English translation. Gives you all the

information you want about many splendored things. PE OT mushroom poisons. And Anita Muskerry. This is a mushroom which produces something which produces hallucinations and in the people out in Russia who have been known to use this they get into such a frenzy that they collect their own urine and drink it again. To maintain the effect of the drug. I was in Brazil hello Senates genic drug. I had a medical student in Brazil some years ago in the jungles and when he came back to Buffalo he indicated that he had been invited to participate in an eye Oscar ceremony. It's a sort of a vine and they scrape the roots and they get a better tea. And he said that he had decided to limit his observations to just watching. On the other hand. Just yesterday I had a student who came in for some other problems returned from Peru.

Who apparently had taken an IOI school in Peru and he told me that its effects resemble LSD more than it resembled marijuana. And he corroborated. The vomiting which was described by this German pharmacologist in the 1980s. Well I could go on with the old many splendored things what are the new ones. S t p is a new one. This is a synthetic substance related to mescaline. Morning glory seeds. Another new one related to LSD nutmeg. Another new one. As my powders containing Bella Donna alkaloids. They're all old and new and the reason that they're new is that young people apparently some young people have been buying as much door powders in drugstores. And have placed a couple of tablespoons in a malted milk.

For the kicks. And they've ended up in the hospital with Bella Donna intoxication. Well just think what Madison Avenue could do in its advertising agencies if they could tackle these many splendored things. But they may not get a chance. A recent animal experiments. The ones I know of are on rats have indicated that if you implant electrodes into certain parts of the brain of the rat. And you enable the rat to have access to a button which they can press it will which sends electrical discharge into this part of the brain. That these rats will continually press these buttons. Are. Sending electrical impulses to this pleasure center. And they'll continue to do this and forget about female rats and even about food. So the answer probably is going to be instead of taking drugs. We're going to

plug it in. We're going to turn on and we're going to jazz it up. I'll have to stop preaching about drugs. And I have to return to school to learn about electronics. Now may I close by telling you of the publication in November of 1967. Of a book called The Hallam synergy. This book is coauthored by doctors Hoffer and Ozment. Dr. Oz you may not be aware is the Gettleman who in 1957. Coined the term psychedelic. Mind manifesting. And if you read the preface of this book you will see in quotes. The use of hell a sinner gins has been described as one of the major advances of this century. Now I don't know who said this but I think. It was all those Huxley.

Who thought that drugs like Halla Senate IANS. Had a great potential for curing the world's ills. This book was reviewed recently in the October issue of the American scientist. This is a journal published by the Society of the Sigma side which is a group of scientists in all fields of endeavor engineering meteorology chemistry physics and I'd like to read you what the reviewer said about this book. These spectacular claims of half for an argument will draw considerable attention to this book. Sadly it must be emphasized that the relation of the howlers surgeons to mental illness. And to the chemistry of the brain are still areas of great ignorance. The uninhibited speculations of the authors. Too often presented as

established fact. Cannot make it different. There was a joke told. It was an ethnic joke and I'm going to retell it using a different ethnic group for the punchline. There were some cannibals in Africa. And they had an open market. And this one lady went there to buy brains. And she went to the gentleman and she said well how much of those French brains over there. And he said there are dollar ninety five pounds. And how much of those English brains over there. They're two dollars and five cents a pound and how much of that was American brains over there. There are $6 to 95 cents a pound what. Six dollars and ninety five cents a pound for brains. How do you get off charging that for brains. Well lady if you know how many heads we had to get to get a pound of American brains you don't understand. Now when I was a medical student our anatomy professor

admonish just one day was something which I hope you'll take back with you. We were studying the brain and we had sheep brains cut up for study in the laboratory and we used to keep them wrapped up in cloth in the sink. So they wouldn't dry up. We could come in any time night or day and study the brain. One morning at 8 o'clock when we came to the class there was two inches of water on the floor and there were brains all over the place. Someone had been in the previous evening probably fell asleep while he was studying rewrap his brain lightly and threw it in the sink and unwrapped it plugged the drain and then everything happened. Professor Armstrong. Came in as he did with his glasses like this. And he looked at us sort of slowly. And he said gentleman. As you're very well aware. Brains are hard to come by. Well it took a little time for that to sink in. My admonition to you is you have a brain.

Treasure your brain protected. It's the only one you have. I hope that I have. What I prepared today has been of some interest to you and I'd be very happy to answer questions. Of thanks. Listening to Doc you do a salute and then karate. Assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School as he discussed drug use and abuse information and misinformation in a lecture and titled LSD and other many splendored thing was this was another in a series of programs drawn from the 1968 Wisconsin work week of Health a project originally designed for teenagers and held in medicine under the sponsorship of the State Medical Society was Gunson and the Wisconsin physicians service Blue Shield. These programs are made available by W H A the University of Wisconsin. This is the national

educational radio network.