‘Godfather of ecstasy’ Shulgin dies, aged 88

Alexander Shulgin, who over the course of 40 years of scientific research created some 200 psychedelic compounds, earning the nickname "Godfather of ecstasy", has died at the age of 88.

Shulgin died at his home in Northern California, “surrounded by family and caretakers and Buddhist meditation music,” according to his wife and research partner, Ann.

Though best known for popularising the once-obscure drug now known to the world as MDMA, or ecstasy, some 60 years after it was first patented, Shulgin is credited with creating some 200 other psychoactive compounds. “I’ve always been interested in the machinery of the mental process,” he said in 2005.

Shulgin studied organic chemistry at Harvard before dropping out to join the US navy during World War Two. Following his service, he earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and went to work as a chemist for the Dow Chemical Company, where he took a strong interest in psychopharmacology after taking mescaline and having what he called a profound experience.

Shulgin famously first tested many of his drugs on himself, his wife and his friends.

He first began studying MDMA in 1976 after a graduate student brought the drug to his attention, and he became first to document its effect on humans, long before it became popular in nightclubs.

— Reuters