The most important laboratory for psychedelic research isn’t located in a startup funded with tens of millions of dollars. It fits in an 18m² shed on the property where Ann and Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin lived for 36 years in Lafayette, California (USA).
The house was a place where a dozen friends – the “research group” – engaged in self-experimentation with more than 200 psychedelic compounds created by Sasha. Among them was methylenedioxymethamphetamine ( MDMA, or ecstasy ), synthesized in 1912 and revived as an aid to psychotherapy by the Shulgins in the 1970s.