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7. Rick J. Strassman, "Adverse Reactions to Psychedelic Drugs. A Review of the Litera- ture," Journal ofNervous and Mental Disease 172 (1984): 577-95. 8. Later revelations of CIA involvement in dosing unsuspecting citizens and Army recruits with LSD and other psychedelics added shame and embarrassment to this already painful assortment of feelings. See Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD, the CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond (New York: Grove Press, 1986); and Jay Stevens, Storming Heaven: LSDand the American Dream (New York: Grove Press, 1998), for thorough reviews of this remarkable chapter in American domestic national security operations. 9. Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer, "Cognitive, Social, and Physiological Determi- nants of Emotional State," Psychological Review 69 (1962): 379-99. 10. In addition to spawning so many names, psychedelics have inspired quite a following. I know of no other drugs, except perhaps marijuana, with as many organizations dedicated to educating about them, and promoting their use. There are dozens of psychedelic orga- nizations with thousands of dues-paying members. They publish magazines, newsletters, journals, and Web sites. They organize and sponsor conferences and publish and distrib- ute books. The late Dr. Freedman from UCLA, an early LSD researcher and a driving force behind my study, coined the term cultogen, referring to this zeal with which advo- cates and enemies of their use rushed in with simple, one-sided descriptions of their effects. Opiate, cocaine, or solvent users don't organize in such an effective manner. What is so unique about psychedelics that they provoke such evangelical responses? 11. Drugs from other chemical families also may be psychedelic, but only within a narrow dose range. For example, compounds in the nightshade family of plants, such as jimson- weed, cause hallucinations and altered thinking processes. However, they do so in the context of a confused, delirious state, with dangerous disturbances of cardiac function and temperature control. Oftentimes one remembers little, and serious toxicity, including death, may result from taking "a little too much." On the other hand, there are no cases of psychedelic drugs being directly fatal. Drugs like ketamine ("K" or "special K") and phencyclidine (PCP or "angel dust") also produce psychedelic effects. However, they first saw use as general anesthetic agents and cause unconsciousness at higher doses. The "classical" psychedelic drugs such as LSD or mescaline don't cause general anesthesia. In addition, ketamine, PCP, and nightshade-based drugs exert their psychoactive ef- fects through pharmacological mechanisms different from those of LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. For our purposes I will limit my discussion of "psychedelics" to those with similar structures and pharmacological properties. For a review of any and all substances with psychedelic properties, see Peter Stafford, Psychedelics Encyclopedia (Berkeley, CA: Ronin Press, 1992). 12. Methyl groups, which consist of a carbon and three hydrogens, are themselves the sim- plest possible addition to an organic molecule. 13. 5-MeO-DMT is the active ingredient in the secretion from the venom glands of the Sonoran desert toad, Bufo alvarius. The drug is not obtained by licking these toads, as inaccurate media reports would have it. Rather, intrepid users catch a toad and painlessly "milk" the venom onto a glass slide. They release the toad, dry the secretions, and smoke them in a pipe. See Wade Davis and Andrew T. Weil, "Identity ofa New World Psychoactive Toad," Ancient Mesoamerican (1988): 51-59. 348 + NOTES