LSD at CSH

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LSD at CSH

From Wikipedia: “In 1953 [Harold A.] Abramson proposed an $85,000 study to the CIA on the effects of LSD on unwitting hospital patients. This was the same year that the MKULTRA program was established. Funding for the project was funneled through the Macy Foundation. Abramson was notably the attending physician in connection with the notorious (and allegedly LSD-induced) supposed suicide of Frank Olson, a doctor who was being given LSD as part of the CIA's psychedelics research. Starting in 1954, Abramson published a series of articles on the effects of LSD on Siamese fighting fish.”
This research is of interest to us because some of it was conducted at CSH, with participation by close friends of mine, Bob Edgar and the Alex Haggis, graduate students with me at the University of Rochester. According to Bob, both he and Alex were subjects for Abramson’s research, and Bob was familiar with the research on Siamese fighting fish. The events are of interest to me not only as a friend of Bob and Alex but also as a long-time resident of Eugene, Oregon, and emeritus professor at the University of Oregon. One of Eugene’s best-known citizens was the author Ken Kesey, who was turned on to LSD as a subject in the MKULTRA program at Stanford University (and later led a merry band of pranksters dedicated to turning on and tuning out).
Abramson’s research for the CIA at Cold Spring Harbor should be chronicled as an important episode in the Lab’s history. Is the archivist on to it? Although Haggis is dead, Bob Edgar, former teacher of the CSH Phage Course, is kicking out in Santa Cruz and would probably be willing to help.
Abramson’s connection with CSH is sufficiently well known that the archivist should be able to find additional material. For instance: “In 1955, Time Magazine reported: ‘In Manhattan, Psychiatrist Harold A. Abramson of the Cold Spring Harbor Biological Laboratory has developed a technique of serving dinner to a group of subjects, topping off the meal with a liqueur glass containing 40 micrograms of LSD.’”
The Wikipedia Histry of LSD has useful information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_LSD