Alexander Shulgin (person)

Alexander T. Shulgin

Known to his friends as Sasha, Shulgin is best know for his part in repopularizing the drug MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-Methylamphetamine) or Ecstasy, which was created in 1912 as an appetite suppressant by the German Drug Company Merck. While Sasha is often erroneously credited with inventing MDMA he has created literally hundreds of chemical compounds meant to be used recreationally and medically, many of which make LSD look like sweet tarts, many of these are covered in his books, PiHKal, published in 1991 and TiHKal, published in 1996.

Shulgin was born in 1925. He served time in the Navy then finished school at UC Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in biochemistry then went on to post-doctorate work in psychiatry and pharmacology at UC San Francisco after which he became a senior research chemist at Dow Chemical Co. When anti drug sentiment grew strong in the 60's Dow found itself uncomfortably holding several patents on psychedelic drugs created by Sasha, after tightening what he was allowed to work with Sasha left Dow in 1965 and built his own lab in a rural utopia east of Berkeley. and became, as he puts it, a "scientific consultant.".

Shulgin met Ann, a fellow psychedelic explorer with a penchant for Peyote at Berkeley in 1979. They were married in Shulgin's back yard in 1981. The man who married them, they say, was a DEA agent.

Shulgin still works with chemicals to this day, and is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the DEA. He has spent tens of thousands of dollars of his retirement funds in order to continue doing his research and faces possible destitution.

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There is a trust fund set up to help with Alexander Shulgin's legal battles this can be reached at: