Famed Psychedelic Drug Chemist Alexander Shulgin Dies at 88

Alexander Shulgin, a famed psychedelic chemist responsible for the rediscovery and popularization of MDMA, died of liver cancer on Tuesday at his home in Northern California. He was 88 years old.

Shulgin was known as the "Godfather of ecstasy," for his role in creating the drug and testing in on himself to experience its effects. He began his studies at Harvard University, where he earned a degree in organic chemistry. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to the U.S. to get his PhD in biochemistry at the University of California.

Early in his career, on top of working, Shulgin was conducting his own research on psychoactive compounds, and by the 1960s he had created and tested over 100 of his own concoctions. These experiments ultimately led to his "rediscovery" of MDMA, also known as ecstasy. "Rediscovery" is most likely the proper term because the drug was synthesized and patented by Merck in 1912, but was never used by humans.

So after Shulgin encountered a compound closely related to ecstasy, he began conducting human trials with the drug on himself. He also invited his friends to partake in some experiments to try out his numerous creations. His laboratory was actually protected by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency after he was granted a license to produce Schedule I substances. But despite all of his pioneering experiments and discovery of ecstasy, Shulgin was not happy that his discoveries were commercialized.

What resulted was a global drug culture and the eventual mass production of ecstasy, which produced impure doses of the drug, leading to many deaths. Shulgin did not intend for his creations to be abused; he was just a chemist exploring an aspect of the field that interested him. All of his work was lawfully conducted, creating nearly 200 psychedelic compounds over the course of 40 years while recording his work/results in scientific and personal journals.

His first tests and experiments were with the drug mescaline - a hallucinogenic found in peyote cacti - and he recorded a very insightful experience after taking it.

"Everything I had recognized came from the depths of my memory and my psyche. I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit," he said in a journal entry via The Guardian. "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."