LSD Chemist William Leonard Pickard to be Released From Prison

[foroz]

I see the beginnings of another esoteric book there carl

[xdragon]

I believe that accident was never an accident.
He only claimed it to be afterwards.

I don't know how high the odds are, but this is currently my belief as well. Still, the how and why would still remain unknown. The why could be to have a valid excuse for a human bioassay. At the expense of his portray as a very meticulous chemist. Though even the bests do mistakes from time to time.
But how could Albert Hofmann have known? Per chance? Intuition? The universe twisting its paths? Hopefully rather not the later, I couldn't cope with such nonsense Too late to ask him, maybe some of his close friends know.

[FOXO3expression+]

I think it's possible that Hoffman could have ingested no amount of LSD at all. I've read multiple accounts of people who describe the final steps of LSD synthesis/preparation as causing an "accidental ingestion", presumably through inhalation or skin contact with airborne particles. Shulgin had the same experience the first time he synthesized Aleph. But what if it's actually something stranger than sloppy lab safety procedures?
I like that book that Carl recommended a lot, and in the Altered States chapter Mr. DeKorne talks about the silver cross and the tibetan cup, and how, "It is possible for inanimate physical objects to possess an energy akin to consciousness, or which can at least be perceived and manipulated by consciousness". Crystalline LSD, I would consider a physical object of some spiritual potency. What if you can catch a contact high right off the soul(s) that float around the crystal?

Also: wonder how Clyde Apperson is doing? He was due to be out in 2030 anyways, and I think Pickard was the one with the rap sheet?

[partycat]

I was hoping it had real life stories of him actually making lsd. 

On the Hoffman spilling on himself.  I watched a documantary where they interviewed David Nicohls and he talks about how Hoffman was prone to religious expeirences.  Also talks about how he doesnt believe in that being an accident.  Think was called Sunshine makers? 

[loft]

I was hoping it had real life stories of him actually making lsd. 

On the Hoffman spilling on himself.  I watched a documantary where they interviewed David Nicohls and he talks about how Hoffman was prone to religious expeirences.  Also talks about how he doesnt believe in that being an accident.  Think was called Sunshine makers?

I loved that documentary!

[carl]

"It is possible for inanimate physical objects to possess an energy akin to consciousness, or which can at least be perceived and manipulated by consciousness". Crystalline LSD, I would consider a physical object of some spiritual potency. What if you can catch a contact high right off the soul(s) that float around the crystal?

Thats what I was thinking too!
Must be something supernatural(according to our understanding of nature for now) then! 

[TangerineDream]

A little off-topic but not completely:

I have to admit, I used to get very strange effects when nearing the end of, and harvesting, cubensis grows.

I would just chalk it up to absorption through hands, then started wearing gloves. Same thing.
Started thinking it was because the high concentrations of CO2 were messing with me, but even in a large room with plenty of circulation, same effects.

It would feel very much like I was coming up on psilocybin, but still different in a way. Several occurences that would lead me to believe something or someone was trying to catch my attention; lots of things seeming connected, noticing patterns in things (not visually, but I can't remember the term used).

Strangest of all is that these effects persisted long past the last dose, like years after my last dose; and always when around the living fruitbodies.

[carl]

I used to get very strange effects when nearing the end of, and harvesting, cubensis grows.

You're not the only one, brother
I know this phenomenon, but strangely, also from picking SKKK's as they are called here in the wild, Psilocybe semilanceata(SpitzKegeliger KahlKopf), one of the most potent and most abundant wild growing psilocybine mushrooms here in europe
Apparently they are very closely related to P. mexicana, except that they don't form truffles and aren't as easily cultivated.
But yeah, I know this feeling very well.
And I love it
Say "thank you" the next time whenever you feel it

Have you read DeKornes book? Please take a looks at it and don't try to be biased.
I read that at first and was still in my late teens.
I thought it to be very esoteric and didn't took it too serious... but whenever I re-read it, it become more solid in its meaning.
Now I value this book as a very serious guide

In my opinion, there is a real and serious connection, and this is a real important one.
A. Hofmann surely felt something like this in my opinion too, and this is why we can thank him for the discovery of LSD

[FOXO3expression+]

The first times I can remember feeling really high without having taken any drugs actually happened while I was reading books a bit like DeKorne's- for me it was Dale Pendell's "Pharmako/Poeia" trilogy, and John C Lilly's autobiography "The Scientist".

[NeonCortex]

I also am very skeptical to the idea that Hofmann accidentally absorbed LSD through his skin. However, it seems to me that chemistry laboratories were quite different back in the early 40's. It might be an erronous notion of mine, but weren't labs a lot more open back then? Apparatus standing on desks openly with few laminar flow hoods? If you think of today's labs where pretty much everything is carried out in a flow hood and safety is a general priority, you still need to tell staff and students to not drink coffe/tea or consume anything in the lab, and they still do it. I don't know what Hofmann's lab looked like back then, but is it a far fetched idea that the risk of accidentally dosing yourself was a bit higher back then? I can imagine a milligram or two ending up on a hand and then entering the body through your coffee mug, scratching your moustasche or similar.

[Swoner]

It also could’ve been because of mouth pipetting

[loft]

Looks fairly open to me 

[vanillaice]

From dosing tabs with crystal it is very easy for a little draft to pick a piece of xtal up and land on you doesn't take much to trip to be honest and like you're guys are saying I don't think lab safety was even existent back then :,) especially him with no gloves no masks or anything I remember some xtal landing on me with some would say interesting results nothing like the bear 2000ug experience but enough to be more careful the next time

[callejularbo]

I also doubt it was an accident.
Was it not known that ergot fungi was psychoactive at this time?
Albert was chemically modifying ergotamine so he had good reason to assume that some of the compounds he made could very well be psychoactive.

My theory is that the tasted them one by one just like shulgin, and got lucky with LSD. The claim it was an accidental exposure was probably an excuse to avoid being deemed unprofessional by his peers.

[redred]

Pickard is a black hole.

[carl]

Pickard is a black hole.

My impression as well.
Looked like a fed honeypot from the start, if I would've been there I could tell immediately.

[Lipbalm]

From dosing tabs with crystal it is very easy for a little draft to pick a piece of xtal up and land on you doesn't take much to trip to be honest

Dr Nichols graduate students have said they have dipped their entire hands in LSD with no affects. The reports of dermal permeability seem to be all over the place. Maybe it is the difference between base and salt? I dunno, but I hear everyone in the drug community speak with the assumption, along with reports, that LSD is absorbed through skin and then I read LSD researchers and manufacturers say it isn't. My gut is they are both telling the truth somehow.

[hamsterbob]

I saw a report one of a dude spill 6000 trips of liquid on his hand no effects an the other of this dumb dude chasing his mate around his house with flakes on his finger after a spillage an he didnt get high.

[Jughasvili]

Just read up on Pickard and also Nicholas Sands, and was struck by their totally different punishments for essentially the same crime. Pickard gets a double life sentence (out in 20 yrs but only bc of the pandemic) for LSD manufacturing, while Sands gets 14 yrs and is out in 3! And it was his third or fourth time getting caught and had fled on bail to another country! Anyone have ideas why Sands got such a comparative slap on the wrist?

[jacolives]

Take this for a grain of salt, but in EVERY OTHER case that I have been around regarding the federal court system the ONLY WAY you can even be ELIGIBLE for a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines is through telling on other people.  Fleeing from US courts doesn’t really have any bearing on the case you are fleeing from though in some circumstances it could be a new charge.  This is all in reference to the FEDERAL court system.  If he was prosecutes by the state it would depend entirely on that states laws.  California for example does have parole, early release programs etc.  A look at his one time partner Tim Scully could be informative.  He was apparently resentenced and then released.  This can happen for snitches, or it could happen due to changes in sentencing guidelines being retroactively applied after the person in question takes the feds to court.

I don’t know their individual cases, didn’t know them or personally, and really that whole west coast crowd is far from my circle so I couldn’t speculate beyond any of that.  But of the dozens of people I’ve known personally that got indicted, the ones that got downward departures ALL told.  The rest did 85% of their time inside, then were released to a federal halfway house for 6 months then put on federal parole/probation.