LSD is a powerful illegal psychedelic drug with the potential for serious mental and physical harm. That didn’t stop the CIA from testing it on unsuspecting people, some of whom developed long-term psychological problems. This is a troubling episode of American history that underscores the need for accountability in government, particularly in agencies that operate in secrecy.

What Is LSD?

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a derivative of a fungus that grows on grains like wheat and rye. A Swiss medical researcher accidentally discovered it in 1938 and experienced its effects during a bicycle ride ride home—literally and metaphorically the first “trip” on the drug. In the 1950s, the CIA bought the laboratory’s entire stock of LSD and brought it to the U.S. for human experimentation.

What Does LSD Do?

Depending on the dosage, users experience profound visual and auditory hallucinations, a euphoric “rush,” and a distorted sense of time. A bad trip, though, can induce fear, anxiety, confusion, nausea, tremors, paranoia, panic attacks, and unhinged behavior that can lead them to hurt themselves or others. Weeks or months after stopping the drug, users can still experience flashbacks and persistent hallucinations. These can be particularly destabilizing for people who already have mental conditions.

What Was the CIA’s Objective?

American POWs in the Korean War reported that Russian, Chinese, and North Korean agents drugged them during interrogations to try to force information out of them. The CIA was concerned that communists would be able to drug U.S. agents, force them to defect and spill classified information, and reprogram them as “robots” to carry out espionage and sabotage against the U.S. And of course not only did the CIA want to stop them, but very much wanted to be able to do the same thing. They even considered plans to drug foreign leaders, like Fidel Castro.

MK-Ultra

MK-Ultra was a covert CIA program that ran from 1953-1973. More than 80 institutions in the U.S. and abroad participated in the research, including hospitals, prisons, universities, and drug companies. Declassified documents reveal that chemical, biological, and radiological methods of mind control were part of the program. Researchers tried to manipulate subjects’ mental states and behavior using hypnosis, sleep deprivation, electroshock therapy, isolation, mental, physical, and sexual abuse, and administering LSD and other illicit drugs. Many of the CIA agents who directed and monitored the experiments were not qualified as scientific researchers.

Research Subjects

In earlier phases of the program, U.S. soldiers, CIA agents, and other government employees volunteered to participate, though not knowing all the implications of what would happen to them; in other phases, subjects were drugged without their knowledge or consent. Psychiatric patients, criminals, drug addicts, members of the U.S. military and other branches of government, civilians of all social status levels, and even mentally disabled children were used as unsuspecting research subjects. Some of the famous

Research Methods

Researchers wanted to know how the drugs would affect someone who didn’t know they had been drugged. Some of the experiments were performed on people in public places, like restaurants, bars, and beaches, offices, or hospitals who were then clandestinely observed by government agents. Other experiments studied what would happen to people who were kept drugged, minimally fed, and in social isolation for months at a time. Some of the more extreme experiments were conducted at CIA “black sites” in Europe and Asia to sidestep American laws and accountability.

Operation Midnight Climax

Operation Midnight Climax was a part of the program that was a particularly egregious abuse of ethics and decency. The CIA set up brothels where clients were unwittingly drugged before spending time with prostitutes. The sex workers had been trained to ask questions after intercourse to try to get subjects to reveal secrets. Sometimes the victims were also given subliminal messages to try to get them to commit crimes.

Effects On Participants

Some of the participants experienced lasting psychiatric damage. A CIA agent in Washington unknowingly drank coffee his boss had laced with LSD as part of the experiment. The agent had a psychotic episode in which he ran from the building down the street seeing monsters in every car.

In a Canadian hospital carrying out CIA experiments, patients with anxiety disorders and postpartum depression were put into drug-induced comas for months while a tape of noise and simple statements played continuously. Some of them became incontinent, had amnesia, lost the ability to speak, and mistook researchers for their parents.

CIA Coercion

Members of the military were threatened with courts martial if they revealed information about the program. Addicts who enjoyed the experience were promised extended LSD trips and access to heroin and other drugs if they cooperated.

A U.S. Army biochemist named Frank Olsen quit his position as a division chief of special operations because of concern over the ethics of MK-Ultra. A few days later he was given LSD without his knowledge and fell to his death from a 13th-story window. The death was alleged to be a suicide, but the body was exhumed in 1994 and ruled by medical examiners to be a homicide, showing evidence of a blow to the head that took place before the body fell from the window. His family and many researchers believe he was killed to prevent him from blowing the whistle on the program.

How the Program Was Exposed

In 1973 during the Watergate affair, Richard Helms, the CIA Director, ordered the destruction of all agency documents on MK-Ultra. Fortunately, about 20,000 records had been incorrectly stored and survived the purge. These came to light in 1977 through investigations by the New York Times and the congressional Church Committee into possible illegal activities by the U.S. intelligence agencies. The CIA’s activities were determined to be a violation of the Nuremberg Code that had little scientific purpose to justify them.

The Aftermath

Policy Changes

After the horrific details of MK-Ultra came to light, presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan all issued executive orders prohibiting the government from experimenting on humans without their informed consent.

Mistrust in Government

The revelations about the CIA’s activities, along with the Watergate scandal and reports of atrocities in Vietnam contributed to a general mistrust of government that became a strong cultural current starting in the 1960s.

Drug-Influenced Counter-Culture

Some of the college students who volunteered for the CIA’s LSD experiments went on to influence the development of the 1960’s counter-culture. Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), and Robert Hunter (a songwriter associated with the Grateful Dead) were all documented research subjects. Allegedly, notorious criminals like Ted Kaczynski and Charles Manson may have also been research subjects in these experiments.

This Affects Us

Today, many Americans prefer not to think about what organizations like the CIA do. They might not mind too much if foreign terrorists are held without trial by US government agents for a long time or tortured to extract information that could save American lives.

But what happens when ordinary innocent American citizens are the ones who are sacrificed? The MK-Ultra scandal should be a wake-up call that, without an free investigatory press and a robust balance of power between the branches of government, we could all too easily find ourselves on the wrong end of an out-of-control “big government.”

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