Shulgin on Catalyst Thu 25, ABC 8pm

There is going to be an article with Dr Shulgin in it next Thursday on Catalyst on the ABC at 8pm. Covering therapeutic uses of LSD and Ecstasy.

Tape it or watch it... should be interesting.

I'll set a reminder in my phone to tape this - no chance I'll remember any other way...

lol pleonastic, so true, i know my memory is fucked, but i had fun in the process

hehe... Not for me. Despite my bad memory, mention something with Shulgin in it and I'll remember it, whether it's next week or next year!!

......scratches mark on the desk....6 more to go


I don't feel the great man has received nearly as much (positive) media attention for someone who's played such a major part in colouring the world. He and his wife have also been long associated with lobbying groups aiming to decriminalize MDMA for psychotherapeutic uses.

And sometime last year they won....well sort of. If you can find it (good luck) it's well worth listening to the Ecstasy Conference Tapes from 2001 at the Lindesmith Institute for Drug Law Reform.

Notable speakers included:

Ann and Sasha Shulgin
Dr George Ricaurte (question time is just dandy )
Dr John Mendelson
Dr Charles Grob
Jessica Malberg
Rick Dobson Phd (from MAPS)
Dr David Nichols

There are also personal accounts by Marcel ot' Atoron and Susan Stevens which will leave all but the hardest in tears. Susan Stevens story is very sad, involving their use use of MDMA during the final stages of her young husband's life. Suffering from kidney cancer at 22, this touching story speaks of beautiful moments of peace when he felt no pain allowing them both to let go and feel each others love. Very deep

Marcel ot'Atoron's story is a harrowing account of how MDMA unleashed past memories, landing her in an Asylum within a few hours of taking her first tablet. Later in her treatment MDMA was used therapeutically to untangle what the drug originally re-evoked. She eventually went on to work with Jose Carlos Bouso in Spain using MDMA to treat PTSD. Work from this clinic has also leant great support to therapeutic claims.


Just what this conference accomplished is hardly appreciated by most people. The outcome definitely resulted in reclassification of MDMA for therapeutic research, possibly one of the main reasons Shulgin is now looked upon by mainstream media as not being "the most evil man in the world" but instead has demonstrated that there is a place for psychotherapeutic tools such as LSD and MDMA in psychiatry and PTSD counseling.

Sounds like Dawson's Creek is gonna be missed this week

I agree phase_dancer - Ann & Alex both deserve far more recognition than they have received for their efforts.

Cheers Gnome Raver!

I think I might just have to watch this one. And amen to what apollo said.

Cheers Gnome Raver.

-plaz out-

Just a reminder to everyone that this is on tonight.

Gee thank goodness I posted this here.. otherwise I think I actually might have forgotten myself %)

This is a must for all Bluelighter's to watch!

The preview looked good and catalyst do seem to present controversial science without the current affair or 60 minutes type of moralistic overtones.
I hope they do not let me down this time.

Knowing that my conservative 53 yr old mother watches this program and that it is on following the 7:30 report, I feel the audience it reaches will be the sorts of people who would never have seen MDMA presented to them in a positive light.

For them MDMA is ecstasy or worse "rave-pills" or any other similar term with all the attached prejudice - tonight they should find out what it really is - and what it certainly was long before they even had "raves".

The NIDA --> DEA --> NIDA --> DEA thing was amusing... And the suggestion that they're hiding research was quite an accusation!

Two thumbs up for the ABC.

Was it hiding research or preventing further research? Either way I agree - go ABC!

Pretty disappointing IMO.
They should have based a whole show on it, rather than just a 10 minute segment.

^^ They should have, but there wasn't much they could do past what they did, other than reinforce their argument...

Cynakill: A psychiatric nurse (I think that was her position?) said she thought NDIA & the DEA were hiding research.

Thanks for the heads up, interesting for sure.

Disappointing?

Are u crazy - this is Catalyst - a scientific version of a Current Affair that does 10 minute segments on interesting topics.
Be grateful we got it at all.

It was probably the single most 100% positive, 100% factually correct MAINSTREAM MDMA news story i have seen.

Shulgin looked a bit fragile for his 78 but clearly mentally was a sharp as a tack.

The female pyschiatrist that wrote the book was outstanding. The information she was allowed to convey and that fact that it is all true, was exceptional.

MDMA was presented as having massive, far-reaching benefits to pyschiatry as it undoubtedly does.

The silence of the DEA and NIDA only reinforces its case.


Of course they could have done a whole show on it - they could have explained Shulgin's PiHKAL and TiHKAL achievements in greater depth.
But at the end of a day its a mainstream Australian show, kind of like RPA for scientists.
What we got for what this show is was brilliant and I am extremely grateful to them for doing it.


On a lighter note - "So, are you having a PLUS 3 night tonight?"

I'm sorry that is gold.

It was very good indeed.

Shulgin did look fairly frail, (and crosseyed). But as Biscuit said, still very sharp, considering the amount of various chemicals that guy has had.

Although one thing i know for sure is that MDMA is never going to become a legal therapeutic tool ever again.
Shame...

fuck i missed it, thought it was on at 8:30

Biscuit - It wasn't 100% factually correct (for a start... Shulgin's is a 4 level rating, and it's not specifically related to hallucinating - it was also inferred that Shulgin invented MDMA), but it was extremely positive and I'm thrilled that it was on. I was also hoping they were going to interview (and bitch-slap) Ricaurte.

And of course, we all want MDMA legalised for it's therapeutic significance, don't we

crosseyed woolly Sasha looking like i'd love to look at his age...a look into Sasha's lab!!!...cacti...honest reporting - albeit with a few blatant errors as to the facts, but who cares....

was i hallucinating??? 2 thumbs and two big toes up.