Alexander Shulgin, the creator and pharmacological pioneer, heralded for synthesising psychoactive substances, such as MDMA, has passed away.
According to his wife, and research partner Ann Shulgin, the 88 year old author, pharmacologist and medicinal chemist died early yesterday (June 3rd), while being surrounded by “family and caretakers and Buddhist meditation music”
Born in California, Alexander Shulgin is credited for the creation and synthesising of over 200 psychoactive drugs compounds used for psychedelic evaluation. One of these drugs included MDMA, which is believed to be invented by a German pharmaceutical company, Merck, in 1912. Shulgin famously rediscovered the drug and was at the forefront of bringing the drug to the attention of the wider world. Without Alexander Shulgin the culture of dance and electronic music would be a very different one today.
Visionquest member Shaun Reeves paid tribute to Shulgin a couple of years ago “Shulgin’s life’s work had a deeper spiritual objective: to give us the keys to open doors of perception. It just so happens that he made a lot of keys.“
