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[deutsey]

4. This is a little off topic, but the book Acid Dreams

(by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain) makes a pretty convincing argument that the CIA was behind the rise of LSD in the '60s and '70s.

From the introduction:

While under the influence of the psychedelic, (poet Allen Ginsburg) began to ponder the disclosures that had
recently surfaced in the news media concerning the ClA's use of LSD as a mind
control weapon. The possibility that an espionage organization might have promoted
the widespread use of LSD was disturbing to Ginsberg, who had been an outspoken
advocate of psychedelics during the 1960s. He grabbed a pen and started jotting
down some high-altitude thoughts. "Am I, Allen Ginsberg, the product of one of the
ClA's lamentable, ill-advised, or triumphantly successful experiments in mind
control?" Had the CIA, "by conscious plan or inadvertent Pandora's Box, let loose the
whole LSD Fad on the U.S. & the World?"

The authors conducted extensive research on newly declassified CIA documents related to MK-ULTRA (the covert CIA mind control program) and used what they uncovered to write their "social history" of LSD and the Sixties (also from the Intro):

As it turns out, nearly every drug that appeared on the black market during the
1960s--marijuana, cocaine, heroin, PCP, amyinitrate, mushrooms, DMT, barbiturates, laughing gas, speed, and many others--had previously been scrutinized, tested, and in some cases refined by CIA and army scientists. But of all
the techniques explored by the Agency in its multimillion-dollar twenty-five-year
quest to conquer the human mind, none received as much attention or was
embraced with such enthusiasm as LSD-25. For a time CIA personnel were
completely infatuated with the hallucinogen. Those who first tested LSD in the early
1950s were convinced that it would revolutionize the cloak-and-dagger trade.

As we studied the documents more closely, certain shapes and patterns came alive
to us. We began to get a sense of the internal dynamics of the ClA's secret LSD
program and how it evolved over the years. The story that emerged was far more
complex and rich in detail than the disconnected smattering of information that had
surfaced in various press reports and government probes. We were able to
understand what the spies were looking for when they first got into LSD, what
happened during the initial phase of experimentation, how their attitude changed as
they tested the drug on themselves and their associates, and how it was ultimately
used in covert operations.

It's a fascinating book on many levels. I highly recommend it, especially for a larger context of the CIA's involvement in drugs.