Hubert Youngblood
Banned
C.I.A. CONSIDERED BIG LSD PURCHASE
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AUG. 5, 1976
August 5, 1976, Page 9 The New York Times Archives
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4—The Central Intelligence Agency in 1953 discussed purchasing 10 kilograms of LSD, enough for 100 million doses and worth $240,000, for use in its drug experimentation with animals and human beings, according to newly released agency docurnents.
The documents were made available to reporters yesterday by John D. Marks at the Center for National Security Studies after he obtained them from the C.I.A. under the Freedom of Information Act.
The center is a private, nonprofit research organization.
The documents show that the purchase of the 10 kilos of LSD was recommended by agency officials, but do not establish, whether a purchase of that quantity was ever made.
One motive for the large purchase proposal was to preclude other countries from controlling the supply, the documents indicate. Some unspecified quantities of LSD were purchased from the drug's prime manufacturer, Sandoz Laboratories of Basel, Switzerland, according to the documents.
The 59 documents display a sketchy pattern of C.I.A. experiments in the 1950's and 1960”s on behavior modification, in human beings through the use of drugs, radiation and, other methods.
An Unanswered Question
One question raised, and left unanswered by the documents, is how many people received drugs without their knowledge.
The documents link drug experiments recently disclosed by the Army to a C.I.A.‐controlled interagency project that also informally involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Narcotics, the Food and Drug Administration, state and local agencies, hospitals, universities and privately controlled foundations.
Dr. Sidney Cohen, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, an expert on LSD experimentation, said yesterday that he knew of perhaps 25,000 doses of the drug having been administered to human beings since testing began by government and private agencies in the late 1940”s.
Dr. Cohen and another U.C.L.A. expert, Dr. Thomas Ungerleider, said that an average LSD dose was 100 micrograms, meaning there are 10,000 doses per gram.
Dr. Cohen, a former Government drug program officer, said that he was aware that LSD experiments had been conducted on inmates at the Vacaville, Calif., medical prison, but that he had been unaware, until told of the documents, that the C.I.A. had been involved in testing.
The documents also say that, testing was done on human; subjects at ̴“such institutions as the United States Drug Treatment Center in Frankfort,@@@Ky.”
The documents do not disclose what has happened to the C.I.A.”s vast store of LSD and other hallucinogens.
The documents say that no C.I.A. drug experiments have been conducted since 1967 without the full knowledge of the persons tested.
Among 139 drugs tested by the C.I.A. were sodium pentathol, sometimes called truth serum; cocaine, marijuana, coffee, alcohol, insulin and atropine, a widely used antidote to some nerve gas weapons.
The documents indicate that, the C.I.A. project, first codenamed “Bluebird,” then “Artichoke,” involved many citizens who were unaware of the agency's participation or that they were being given drugs.
In the last year, both the Army and the C.I.A. have disclosed that persons died in 1953’ as a result of drug experiments.
After unwittingly taking a dose of LSD in a glass of Cointreau, Frank R. Olson, a biological warfare researcher, leaped 10 stories to his death from a New York hotel window.
Man Died in Experiment
Harold Blauer, a professional tennis player, died after receiving a mescaline derivative as a result of an Army‐sponsored experiment at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
The documents released yesterday show that Allen W. Dulles, when he was head of the C.I.A., admonished agency officials for their “poor judgment” in the Olson and other cases. The C.I.A. recently paid the Olson family $1.25 million.
A report issued earlier by a panel headed by Vice President Rockefeller said that 152 C.I.A. files on behavior modification programs were destroyed in 1973.
The documents released yesterday disclose that the shredding of the files was ordered by Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence, shortly before his resignation.
C.I.A. fears that Russian, North Korean and other intelligence agencies were using mind‐altering drugs to elicit secrets from American agents and others in the late 1940's prompted the agency to begin its behavior modification studies program, according to the documents and earlier references in the Rockefeller report.
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AUG. 5, 1976
August 5, 1976, Page 9 The New York Times Archives
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4—The Central Intelligence Agency in 1953 discussed purchasing 10 kilograms of LSD, enough for 100 million doses and worth $240,000, for use in its drug experimentation with animals and human beings, according to newly released agency docurnents.
The documents were made available to reporters yesterday by John D. Marks at the Center for National Security Studies after he obtained them from the C.I.A. under the Freedom of Information Act.
The center is a private, nonprofit research organization.
The documents show that the purchase of the 10 kilos of LSD was recommended by agency officials, but do not establish, whether a purchase of that quantity was ever made.
One motive for the large purchase proposal was to preclude other countries from controlling the supply, the documents indicate. Some unspecified quantities of LSD were purchased from the drug's prime manufacturer, Sandoz Laboratories of Basel, Switzerland, according to the documents.
The 59 documents display a sketchy pattern of C.I.A. experiments in the 1950's and 1960”s on behavior modification, in human beings through the use of drugs, radiation and, other methods.
An Unanswered Question
One question raised, and left unanswered by the documents, is how many people received drugs without their knowledge.
The documents link drug experiments recently disclosed by the Army to a C.I.A.‐controlled interagency project that also informally involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Narcotics, the Food and Drug Administration, state and local agencies, hospitals, universities and privately controlled foundations.
Dr. Sidney Cohen, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, an expert on LSD experimentation, said yesterday that he knew of perhaps 25,000 doses of the drug having been administered to human beings since testing began by government and private agencies in the late 1940”s.
Dr. Cohen and another U.C.L.A. expert, Dr. Thomas Ungerleider, said that an average LSD dose was 100 micrograms, meaning there are 10,000 doses per gram.
Dr. Cohen, a former Government drug program officer, said that he was aware that LSD experiments had been conducted on inmates at the Vacaville, Calif., medical prison, but that he had been unaware, until told of the documents, that the C.I.A. had been involved in testing.
The documents also say that, testing was done on human; subjects at ̴“such institutions as the United States Drug Treatment Center in Frankfort,@@@Ky.”
The documents do not disclose what has happened to the C.I.A.”s vast store of LSD and other hallucinogens.
The documents say that no C.I.A. drug experiments have been conducted since 1967 without the full knowledge of the persons tested.
Among 139 drugs tested by the C.I.A. were sodium pentathol, sometimes called truth serum; cocaine, marijuana, coffee, alcohol, insulin and atropine, a widely used antidote to some nerve gas weapons.
The documents indicate that, the C.I.A. project, first codenamed “Bluebird,” then “Artichoke,” involved many citizens who were unaware of the agency's participation or that they were being given drugs.
In the last year, both the Army and the C.I.A. have disclosed that persons died in 1953’ as a result of drug experiments.
After unwittingly taking a dose of LSD in a glass of Cointreau, Frank R. Olson, a biological warfare researcher, leaped 10 stories to his death from a New York hotel window.
Man Died in Experiment
Harold Blauer, a professional tennis player, died after receiving a mescaline derivative as a result of an Army‐sponsored experiment at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
The documents released yesterday show that Allen W. Dulles, when he was head of the C.I.A., admonished agency officials for their “poor judgment” in the Olson and other cases. The C.I.A. recently paid the Olson family $1.25 million.
A report issued earlier by a panel headed by Vice President Rockefeller said that 152 C.I.A. files on behavior modification programs were destroyed in 1973.
The documents released yesterday disclose that the shredding of the files was ordered by Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence, shortly before his resignation.
C.I.A. fears that Russian, North Korean and other intelligence agencies were using mind‐altering drugs to elicit secrets from American agents and others in the late 1940's prompted the agency to begin its behavior modification studies program, according to the documents and earlier references in the Rockefeller report.