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Lester Grinspoon James B. Bakalar ADVANCE ACCLAIM FOR "A broad spectrum antibiotic for Western society's timidity about psychedelic drugs. An exceptionally well-balanced scientific discussion of every aspect— from mysticism to pharmacology to social implica tions. . . . It is a courageous book which simultane ously succeeds both for popular and for scientific audiences." —CARL SAGAN "I don't recall ever seeing a single book treat in so scholarly yet lucid a fashion all the historical, social, and scientific aspects of drugs with accuracy, bal ance, and thoughtful reflection. Regardless of whether one agrees with the authors about their recommendations for social and legal policy, their thoughtful treatment of the subject more than jus tifies their right to recommend changes in public policies." —SOLOMON H. SNYDER, M.D. Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine B A S I C B O O K S , INC., P U B L I S H E R S N E W YORK Front jacket flap Back jacket flap $15,95 (continued from front flap) Thus, in a lively, enlightening, yet thorough ly responsible way Grinspoon and Bakalar succeed in bringing real information and balanced understanding to a field where for many years only passions and polemics have held sway. Lester Grinspoon R James B. Bakalar E D N A X E L A This useful and fascinating book by two of N P. A the world's leading experts on drug use and S U S abuse is the first to provide the general reader O: with a comprehensive and authoritative sur OT H vey of what is known about the nature and P the quality of all known psychedelic sub LESTER GRINSPOON, M.D., is a psychoanalyst stances. Oddly, say the authors, although on the staff of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Associate Professor of psychedelics have been used for thousands Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He •f years, both medically and religiously, and is the author of, among other works, Mari have been the subject of more than twenty huana Reconsidered (1971) and (with J. R. years of clinical and experimental investiga Ewalt and R. I. Shader) of Schizophrenia: tion, astonishingly little attention has been Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy (1972). paid to the real scientific and intellectual His most recent book, also written with James issues raised by these complex and interest B. Bakalar, is Cocaine: A Drug and Its Social ing substances. Evolution (Basic Books, 1976). It is these issues that are addressed by the authors—whose previous work, most notably R E Cocaine (Basic Books, 1976), has established D N them as rare voices of sanity on the vexed A X E questions of what constitutes abuse of and L A what the possible proper use of drugs. In P. N clear and sprightly prose Grinspoon and A S U Bakalar review the chemistry of psychedel S O: ics, their psychoneurological effects, and the T O history of man's experience with them from PH preindustrial times down to the present. JAMES B. BAKALAR is a member of the Massa Finally and most originally, the authors call chusetts Bar and a Lecturer in Law in the on the actual testimony of those who have Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard used psychedelics to assess the potential and Medical School. He is co-author, with Lester Grinspoon, of the second edition of Mari the possible enormous value of these drugs, huana Reconsidered (1977) and Cocaine: A properly controlled, for the study of human Drug and Its Social Evolution (Basic Books, consciousness. 1976). (continued on back flap) 0979 JACKET DESIGN BY WILLIAM DAVIS PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS RECONSIDERED Lester Grinspoon & James B. Bakalar Basic Books, Inc., Publishers New York This publication was supported in part by NIH Grant LM 03118 from the National Library of Medicine Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Grinspoon, Lester, 1928— Psychedelic drugs reconsidered. Bibliography: p. 313 Includes index. 1. Hallucinogenic drugs. I. Bakalar, James B., 1943— joint author. II. Title. BF209.H34G74 615´.7883 79-7336 ISBN: 0-465-06450-7 Copyright © 1979 by Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar Printed in the United States of America Designed by Vincent Torre 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To our families The rejection of any source of evidence is always treason to that ultimate rationalism which urges forward science and philosophy alike. —Alfred North Whitehead Contents Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 3 Chapter 1 The Major Psychedelic Drugs: Sources and Effects 5 Chapter 2 Psychedelic Plants in Preindustrial Society 37 Chapter 3 Psychedelic Drugs in the Twentieth Century 56 Chapter 4 The Nature of Psychedelic Experience 89 Chapter 5 Adverse Effects and Their Treatment 157 Chapter 6 Therapeutic Uses 192 Chapter 7 Psychedelic Drugs and the Human Mind 238 Chapter 8 The Future of Psychedelic Drug Use and Research 291 Appendix The Legal Status of Psychedelic Drugs 309 Bibliography 313 Index 335 ix Preface Although this book is addressed mainly to the non-specialist, the botanical and chemical information in chapter 1 may be too detailed and technical to inter est some readers. We recommend that, after reading the introductory pages, such a non-specialist may skim the rest but refer back to it for the descriptions of specific drugs as they are mentioned farther on in the text. We are indebted to a number of people for advice and help. Hanscarl Leuner, Kenneth E. Godfrey, George S. Glass, and Malcolm B. Bowers, Jr., gave permission to cite private communications. Doris Menzer-Benaron, James A. Lyons, and Norman E. Zinberg read all or part of the manuscript and offered encouragement and suggestions. William von Eggers Doering and Richard E. Schultes reviewed the material on chemical structure and bot any, respectively. Kathleen Cummings, Nancy Palmer, and Betsy Grinspoon provided invaluable help in preparing the manuscript and proofreading. Thanks are also due to Elizabeth E. C. Case, Alvin S. Hochberg, R. Robert Po- peo, James T. Hilliard, and Miles F. Shore. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Walter Houston Clark. The opinions and errors, of course, are all our own. xi Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint excerpts from the following sources: Aldous Huxley by Sybille Bedford. Copyright © by Sybille Bedford. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. The Beyond Within by Sidney Cohen, M.D. Copyright © 1964, 1967 by Sidney Cohen. Reprint ed by permission of Atheneum Publishers. In England published as Drugs of Hallucination by Sidney Cohen. Copyright © by Sidney Cohen. Reprinted by permission of Martin, Seeker & War burg Ltd. The Center of the Cyclone: An Autobiography of Inner Space by John C. Lilly, M.D. Copyright © 1972 by John C. Lilly, M.D. Used by permission of the Julian Press, a division of Crown Pub lishers, Inc. The Drug Beat by Allen Geller and Maxwell Boas. Copyright © 1969, with the permission of Contemporary Books, Inc., Chicago (U.S. rights) and the permission of the authors and the au thors' agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022 (world rights). The Drug Experience edited by David Ebin. Copyright © by David Ebin. The Electric Kool-Aid Add Test by Tom Wolfe. Copyright © 1968 by Tom Wolfe. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. "Hallucinogens: A Novelist's Personal Experience" (Playboy, November 1963) as amended by the author. Reprinted by permission of International Creative Management. Copyright © 1963, 1979 by Alan Harrington. "Halluzinogene in der Psychotherapie," by Hanscarl Leuner in Pharmakopsychiatrie Neuro- Psychopharmakologie, 4 (1971), pp. 331-51. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart. The Healing Journey: New Approaches to Consciousness by Claudio Naranjo. Copyright © by Claudio Naranjo. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, Inc. High Priest by Timothy Leary. Copyright © by Timothy Leary. "Implications of LSD and Experimental Mysticism" by Walter N. Pahnke and William A. Rich ards. Reprinted with permission of the Journal of Religion and Health, 3 West 29th St., New York, N.Y. 10001, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1966. "Indications and counter-indications for LSD treatment" by Thorkill Vanggard in Acta Psychia tria Scandinavica, 40 (1964), pp. 427-37. Copyright © Thorkill Vanggard. Reprinted by permis sion of Munksgaard International Publishers Ltd. Infinite Turbulence by Henri Michaux. Copyright © by Henri Michaux. Reprinted by permission of Calder and Boyars Ltd. "LSD - Assisted Psychotherapy and Dynamics of Creativity: A Case Report" by W. A. Richards and M. Berendes in the Journal of Altered States of Consciousness, Vol. 3 (2), 1977-78. Reprint ed by permission of Baywood Publishing Company and the authors. xiii