American chemist Alexander Shulgin personally tested hundreds of drugs, meticulously recording their effects in his lab notebooks. He is also credited with introducing MDMA to psychologists in the late 1970s.

Alexander Shulgin

This article is about the scientist. For the musician, see Alexander Shulgin (musician).

Alexander Theodore Shulgin (June 17, 1925 – June 2, 2014) was an American medicinal chemist, biochemist, organic chemist, pharmacologist, psychopharmacologist, and author. He is credited with introducing MDMA (“ecstasy”, “mandy” or “molly”) to psychologists in the late 1970s for psychopharmaceutical use and for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds for their psychedelic and entactogenic potential.

In 1991 and 1997, he and his wife Ann Shulgin compiled the books PIHKAL and TIHKAL (standing for Phenethylamines and Tryptamines I Have Known And Loved), from notebooks which extensively described their work … Continue Reading (7 minute read)