A Chapter in Psychedelic History: ‘Mixing’ of Sensory Experience with Science and Chemistry by Alexander Shulgin

The Alexander Shulgin Research Institute (ASRI), the organization that promotes the famous chemist’s legacy and scientific work, presented novel psychoactive compounds at MAPS’ Psychedelic Science 2023 last month in Denver .

ASRI co-founder and president, Dr. Nicholas Cozzi spoke with Benzinga about Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin’s contributions to the field and how it all started. (See part one of the conversation.)

“Shulgin was really the first to realize the value of MDMA, first discovering it as a psychotherapeutic agent, but also for understanding brain function,” Cozzi told Benzinga.

Working with his wife and therapist Anne, they tested the substances he created with a small group to begin to build consensus on their effects and whether they have any value.

As the founder of MAPS, Rick Doblin, began working to gain federal approval for MDMA, he recalled that both Anne and Shasha Shulgin were largely supportive of his work.

“There was a group that thought this was never going to work, but then there were others who wanted to develop it. I believe Sasha and Anne Shulgin belong to the second group, they want the research to be continued and done.”

Research in the 80s and 90s and the Beginning of Roland Griffiths

Cozzi says that in the ’80s, «psychedelic drugs were associated with notoriety or shame» and with the War on Drugs still looming, «you can’t really talk about them.»

In that context and trying to figure out how to study these substances, he entered the field through other psychoactive drugs such as opiates, anxiolytics or antidepressants. He joined the American Chemical Society, where pharmaceutical chemistry designs and synthesizes drugs to understand the relationship between chemical structures and their effects.

«It’s a systematic way to do it, you change the structure in certain ways, then test it and see how that chemical change has impacted the reaction you get, “ is done today with computer aided drug design and even AI. .

Interested in structure activity, or «take a completely inert molecule and then add some structure to it and suddenly it becomes active», Cozzi joined a scientific journal where he found a paper by Shulgin on the psychoactive tryptamine.

“And there are about a dozen articles, in an in-depth journal, describing some of the effects people have on substances they have self-administered. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is really what I want to do, and here’s one way to do it, upfront, and they’re publishing this’.”

Cozzi says Shulgin’s work is about blending sensory, psychedelic experiences with science and chemistry. «And so he became a role model for me.»

Shulgin directed him to Dave Nichols, who had an ongoing psychedelic research program at Purdue. Nichols, who became one of the Cozzis Drs. advisor, was close to Shulgin, and together they published what Cozzi recalls as the first paper on MDMA pharmacology (circa 1978) showing its potential as a therapeutic agent.

Cozzi holds a degree from UW-Madison, where he worked as a professor until his recent retirement. After college, Cozzi earned a Ph. and a postdoc. And after 10 or 12 years working in the lab and publishing, he started working with Shulgin long distance.

“He would send me compounds and I would test them, and we wrote some papers together. But at the time (the 1990s), that was still not what you wanted to talk about,” Cozzi said.

But what really opened up the field, Cozzi said, was Roland Griffiths’ 2006 publication in the journal Psychophysiology. The article was titled «Psilocybin can induce mystical experiences of significant personal significance and spiritual significance.»

“Because Roland is just an A-list scientist. I mean, very strict,” Cozzi said. “Whatever he publishes, you can trust it to be true, and in Johns Hopkins , a world-class historic institution. So this gives credibility to the work, and it allows other people who aren’t at Hopkins to come out and say, ‘Oh, we’re working on this too.’ People were more accepting.”

Part 3 on the field’s recognition of Shulgin’s work and upcoming ASRI plans.

Photo: Benzinga edited with photos by Zolnierek on Shutterstock and Charlie Llewellin on Wikipedia.