the largest substance abuse problem the world has ever faced: the Chinese opium epidemic. At the turn of the century,millions of Chinese were addicted to opium, which was freely traded across borders at the time. China’s attempts to unilaterally address the problem failed, and it was not until the first international agreements were reached that a solution became possible. The story of the Chinese opium problem and the international reaction it engendered represents the seminal chapter in global efforts to control substance abuse. The use of opium for medicinal and recreational use is documented in antiquity. The Sumerians referred to it as ‘Gil Hul’ or ‘joy plant’ as early as 3000 B.C., 1 and its use is documented in the Near and Middle East across the centuries. The exact date that opium was introduced to China is unknown, but there seems to have been some domestic production as early as the 11th century A.D.2 Before the 19th century, though, China imported most of its opium, and until the final centuries of the last millennium, the drug remained too expensive for popular use.
In contrast a nearby empire had, by the 16th century, expanded production to the point that a lucrative export trade began to develop – India. https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2008/WDR2008_100years_drug_control_origins.pdf
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While LSD is decidedly a modern hallucinogenic drug, there is evidence that the chemical has existed and had an effect on mankind for many centuries. LSD stands for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Lysergic acid is a naturally occurring substance and can also be synthesized. It occurs naturally in ergot and is a chemical produced by a specific type of fungus that grows on grains like rye and wheat. When infected some of the kernels of the grain turn black as the fungus takes them over....
In 1762 there were several documented deaths that were attributed to ergot poisoning from contaminated grain. A farm laborer’s wife and six children died after suffering terrible symptoms such as blackened and rotting limbs. In 1951 in Pont-Saint-Esprit, France there was another such episode in which either ergot or LSD was implicated. In this small village, dozens of people suffered violent delusions requiring restraints and hospitalization. Five people died....According to an article from BBC News, a document from a CIA agent implied that the village may have suffered from a public test of LSD that was produced in Sandoz Chemical, a few hundred kilometers away....
In 1938 Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman synthesized the chemical lysergic acid diethylanine while working for Sandoz Chemical. He was looking for a stimulant for blood circulation. On the 25th experiment in the series he came up with LSD-25. It turned out not to be the circulatory stimulant he wanted and so he set the formula aside for the next five years. In 1943 he accidentally exposed himself to this drug....In a later interview Hoffman reported that the US Army Chemical Warfare division came to see him after knowledge of this drug spread through papers published in “thousands of medical journals,” according to Hoffman....
Finally the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly developed a way to synthesize it and a method of growing ergot in tanks was established. These advances allowed lysergic acid to be produced commercially. According to Time Magazine the CIA conducted experiments on unwitting Americans on both the West Coast and the East Coast. The drug was added to some people’s drinks while agents observed the outcome. The tests ran from 1953 through 1964 when the project was shut down. https://www.narconon.org/drug-information/lsd-history.html
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https://books.google.com/books?id=-GJOt0bM2-YC&pg=RA1-PA53&lpg=RA1-PA53&dq=elaborate+spin+on+cia+secrecy&source=bl&ots=0m9pJTZewY&sig=ACfU3U3--h1Wqu7TYBdz4jRHlI00f4lrgw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0q6yX4LHqAhWE9Z4KHfZ5DsMQ6AEwAHoECCYQAQ#v=onepage&q=elaborate%20spin%20on%20cia%20secrecy&f=false
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