Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller (2020) s03e02 Episode Script
LSD
1
He's got the whole
world in his hands ♪
He's got the whole
world in his hands ♪
He's got the
whole world in his ♪
Hands ♪♪
REPORTER (over TV):
Oregon voters legalize
psychedelic mushrooms.
Oregon becomes the
first entire state to do so.
MARIANA: For the
first time in a long time,
psychedelic drugs are
creeping into the mainstream.
REPORTER 2 (over TV): Some
psychiatrists and researchers
are giving psychedelic drugs a
second look as a possible way of
treating some mental illnesses.
STEVE (over TV):
Some tech workers are
experimenting with LSD.
The trend is called microdosing
REPORTER (over TV): Microdosing
REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Microdosing.
MARIANA: It's a
psychedelics renaissance.
STEVE (over TV): I had no
idea this was still out there,
that this was,
this was something
people were still doing.
MARIANA: New users,
new uses, and of course,
a host of new
celebrity endorsements.
JADA: I was introduced
ten years ago.
ADRIENNE: Mm-hmm.
JADA: To deal
with my depression.
ADRIENNE: Yeah.
JADA: And it knocked it out.
ELON: People should be
open to psych, psychedelics.
STING: I don't think
psychedelics are the,
the answer to the
world's problems,
but they could be a start.
MARIANA: Still, US law
classifies most psychedelics
as Schedule I drugs.
That means making, dealing,
or using is highly illegal.
So those seeking to cash in
are also the ones willing to
risk serious jail time.
I want to understand what this
psychedelic boom looks like from
the underground,
why it's happening now,
and why these drugs have
been vilified for so long.
Which is how I find myself here.
This is pretty out there.
Pretty much in the
middle of nowhere.
I know virtually
nothing about who I'm meeting.
And only one thing
about where I'm meeting him.
(phone line ringing)
They call it the
Mushroom Mansion.
X (over phone): Hello?
MARIANA: Hi, I think I'm here.
X (over phone): I'm
right here, in the garage.
MARIANA: How are you?
I'm Mariana.
So this is it, huh?
X: Yup.
MARIANA: We're going inside?
X: Yup.
And these are sterilizers.
MARIANA: Oh. What's in here?
X: Uh, this is
an incubation room.
MARIANA: Can I go in?
X: Yeah.
MARIANA: Wow.
This space is crazy.
There's a lot of bags here, huh?
X: Yeah. Probably close to 200.
MARIANA: And how long have
you been growing mushrooms for?
X: Uh, pretty consistently
for the past five years.
MARIANA: Give me
an idea, a sense of
how much money you make?
X: We can do a couple
hundred grand a month.
Yeah.
MARIANA: Wow,
that's a lot of money.
X: Like, consistently. Yeah.
MARIANA: Out of this
one house in the middle
of nowhere, practically.
X: Yeah. Yeah.
Y: Yeah.
MARIANA: Which part do you eat?
You can eat the whole part?
X: The whole thing.
MARIANA: The whole thing?
X: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And this
is pretty powerful?
Y: This one is quite visual.
Color, geometrics, fractals.
MARIANA: It's not just mushrooms
that are having a moment.
I've read that the
demand for other types
of mind-altering drugs
like peyote,
mescaline, ayahuasca,
and DMT is also increasing.
Little girl ♪♪
MARIANA: But I
also know that not
all mind-altering drugs
are created equal.
There's one that offers the
biggest highs and, allegedly,
some of the biggest profits.
It's what some consider to be
the holy grail of psychedelics.
My heart just won't behave ♪♪
MARIANA: So do you
know anything about LSD?
X: Yes, I've eaten
copious amounts of LSD.
MARIANA: And do you know
anything about the business side
of it, or the making side of it?
X: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Do you,
do you make LSD?
X: No, I do not.
If I get caught doing this,
it's not that bad.
But if you get
caught making LSD,
you can do life in prison.
MARIANA: Wow.
There's a reason
why even guys who sell
a massive amount of
drugs from a place called,
"The Mushroom Mansion,"
wouldn't think of selling LSD
and that reason is the 1960s.
KENNEDY: We face, therefore,
a moral crisis as a
country and a people.
(rapid gunfire)
MARIANA: Historians talk
about the '60s as a battle for
the soul of America.
Love still
hurts my tired eyes ♪
'Cause I refuse
to pass you by ♪♪
MARIANA: But it was also a
battle for the future of LSD.
Peace in the
garden of my mind ♪♪
MARIANA: Researchers had high
hopes that LSD might unlock
the mystery of mental illness.
The CIA thought it had potential
as a mind-control weapon against
Cold War enemies.
And out in San Francisco, LSD
was at the heart of a growing
counterculture movement that was
anti-war and anti-establishment.
TIMOTHY: Turn on,
tune in, drop out.
MARIANA: The controversy
landed LSD on the cover of
Life magazine in 1966.
The article read,
"The genie of LSD,
with all its tantalizing
possibilities for good and evil,
is out in the open."
But it wasn't out
in the open for long.
Ultimately, the
country's conservative
impulses won the day.
REPORTER: There is a
relationship between
taking dope and protesting.
MARIANA: Acid got stigmatized.
Hippies got marginalized.
And then in 1969, if the drug's
fate wasn't sealed already,
the Nightly News
introduced America to
LSD's most infamous users.
REPORTER (over TV):
Friday night, in Los Angeles,
a movie actress and four
of her friends were murdered.
The circumstances were lurid.
REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Police said they were
a pseudo-religious cult.
People who worked
on the ranch said
they were heavy users of drugs.
MARIANA: Charles Manson was a
proverbial nail in LSD's coffin.
MANSON: If I
started murdering people,
there'd be none of you left.
MARIANA: He was also
further justification for
Richard Nixon's war on drugs.
NIXON: America's public enemy
number one in the United States
is drug abuse.
MARIANA: It was a decade that
drove the drug and the chemists
making it deep underground.
More than half a century later,
that's where they remain.
♪
(phone line ringing)
He's not answering his phone.
So we're following this car.
He's a, a guy in there,
who knows we're following him,
who's going around downtown
Vancouver selling LSD tonight.
He's gonna purchase
some more from his supplier.
What we're trying, really trying
to do is get to his supplier.
I'm in Vancouver, where one of
my sources has connected me with
a street-level LSD dealer.
(phone line ringing)
MARIANA: Uh, so
we're still following you.
Are you meeting this
person at their house or?
MARIANA: Okay.
So when we get there,
where do you want us to be?
MARIANA: Shoot.
So I think it's here and
he's asked us not to be seen.
Just keep rolling.
Just keep rolling, guys.
Yeah, so it's
happening right there.
See he's coming out of the car?
He's just crossing the street.
He's going into
a house, I think.
(knocking)
WOMAN: Hey.
RAM DASS: How are you?
WOMAN: Good, how are you?
(siren blaring)
MARIANA: Is this an
ambulance siren, or police?
MARIANA: Do you
guys hear the cops?
WOMAN: You betcha.
MARIANA: Is he coming out?
He is. He's coming out.
Is he?
Okay, he's
walking towards us now.
Hi. So is that, is
that what you just bought?
MARIANA: Can I see it?
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
Yeah, it's a reference
to the Grateful Dead, right?
The dancing bear?
MARIANA: So, how
many doses are in this?
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
Sorry, we're just
making sure that there's no,
we were hearing cops before.
Got nervous when I heard it.
MARIANA: What would
happen if the, the police
found you with this stuff?
If you're driving
off now in your car and
the police stops you
and found this stuff?
MARIANA: You'd get time?
MARIANA: And so why do
you do it? Why risk it?
MARIANA: Right.
MARIANA: How much
did you buy it for?
RAM DASS: On it.
MARIANA: How much
can you sell it for?
How much money do you make?
MARIANA: That's good money.
Why did you agree to talk to us?
MARIANA: So you truly
believe that by selling LSD,
by selling acid,
you're helping people.
MARIANA: I've reported on
a lot of drugs in my career,
but I've never had a
cocaine or heroin dealer
talk about the
benefits of using.
The people I'm meeting in
this psychedelic trade seem to
be a different breed.
Dealers and believers.
There's somebody
supplying the person that
just sold you with the LSD?
MARIANA: A chemist?
MARIANA: A hippie.
MARIANA: I push
for more details,
but that's all he's got.
I'm not surprised.
Supply chains are often
compartmentalized like this.
That way, if
low-level dealers get caught,
they don't
endanger the key players.
But, to be honest,
I'm getting the sense
that this LSD supply chain
isn't like others
I've reported on.
So I decide I need to
do a bit more digging.
MAN: Really difficult
to get people to, to open up.
More so than any other
drug that I've ever researched,
the people that I've
spoken to are almost
evangelical about the drug.
MARIANA: I talk to journalists.
MAN: This drug is not really
motivated by money, necessarily.
MARK: I've heard that
there are very few chemists.
MARIANA: I talk to researchers.
MARK: It's a, it's
a hard thing to make.
The underground
manufactures and sells,
and often they sell it to
therapists who are making
this service available.
MARIANA: But if you
actually want to try LSD
anywhere in the world right now,
you are doing
something completely illegal?
MARK: Absolutely. Yes.
MARIANA: I talk to
other psychedelic dealers.
LUCY: With psychedelics
and within the community,
people that know won't talk and
the people that talk don't know.
MARIANA: I even head to
my first Grateful Dead show,
to try and make
some connections.
The parking lot feels
like spring break for
the psychedelics crowd.
Is it easy to find here?
BEN: It's very
easy to find here.
You could probably find
it within, like, two minutes.
Just stand out in
front of my booth.
Yeah.
It'll come, it'll come through.
MARIANA: You, you saw, I
just saw the police car going
back and forth here.
BEN: Yeah. Yeah.
MARIANA: So they know
that this is happening?
BEN: 100%. 100%.
MAN: I got
gummy bears edibles guys!
Get them all just for $10.
Get them while they're cold.
MARIANA: Eventually I
find my guy, who I'm told
is a major player.
He's wearing a
bacon and eggs mask and
his head is covered in beans.
♪
SPARKLES: So.
MARIANA: Do you
always put on gloves?
SPARKLES: Yeah, it's
pretty easy to get stung,
if you know what I mean.
So this is all liquid acid.
All these vials here,
this is all LSD.
MARIANA: And each one of
these little squares is a dose?
SPARKLES: It's a
hit of acid, yeah.
MARIANA: Yeah. And this one?
This one is free, right?
It doesn't have any.
SPARKLES: Yeah, that one
doesn't have any acid on it.
MARIANA: Does it
smell like anything?
SPARKLES: I mean, not really.
It's diluted with alcohol.
MARIANA: Yeah. It smells a
little bit like alcohol
SPARKLES: Yeah.
MARIANA: Right?
MARIANA: In a basement
that smells of Chinese food,
I meet Sparkles,
who claims to be one of
the West Coast's
biggest suppliers of LSD.
SPARKLES: I just like
spreading the love, you know?
Everybody's gotta
do this, this is crazy.
MARIANA: How do people find you?
SPARKLES: Just
through friends, you know?
MARIANA: And then, so
if you trust this person,
then how do you send it off?
SPARKLES: It's
pretty easy to disguise.
You can just put it in a card,
you can put it in a book.
It's a piece
of paper, literally.
This is probably
as good as it gets.
It's extremely pure.
MARIANA: This stuff here?
SPARKLES: Yeah.
MARIANA: And where
did you get this from?
SPARKLES: Um, I get
it from, it's just, you know,
it's an old friend who is
pretty involved in the industry.
MARIANA: Do you think
that person would talk to us?
SPARKLES: I don't
think they would.
MARIANA: I ask if he knows the
hippie chemist in the mountains.
SPARKLES: I don't
know him personally.
I know that there's
only really been one and
from as far as I understand,
he's been retired
for a few years now.
I think, you know,
he's getting older,
or he's got his life.
He's made his money.
He's happy to
kind of just relax.
MARIANA: And, so who,
there's somebody else making it?
SPARKLES: Well, currently
we're just still kind of
running through old stock.
You don't need very much, right?
So, like, a single gram
of LSD is 10,000 doses.
MARIANA: Wow, so it's
still this, this big batch of.
SPARKLES: Yeah, we're
still using the same batch.
For now, anyways.
MARIANA: That's right,
the drug is so potent that
the hippie chemist who
seems to be supplying all of
Vancouver's acid is supposedly
a retired hippie chemist,
who hasn't made a
new batch in years.
So why do you
think it's so secretive?
Apart from the
fact that it's illegal.
SPARKLES: Yeah.
Yeah, it's illegal.
But it's also just,
kind of, like an
old wizard's club, you know?
It's kind of like
the Acid Illuminati.
That way they
keep their secrets.
They don't really want a lot
of people knowing who they are.
MARIANA: The reverence he has
for these chemists surprises me.
Typically drug supply
chains lead back to ruthless
cartel bosses or gang leaders.
But Sparkles talks of
these chemists more like
misunderstood
healers or shamans.
Not everyone agrees.
DENNIS: I think it all
comes down to greed and profit.
MARIANA: Dennis Wichern was a
DEA agent for more than 30 years
and feels strongly
about the dangers of LSD.
DENNIS: You're putting
something in your body that
you don't know how it's made.
You don't know what the dose is.
Allegedly a dose of LSD
is contained in a microgram.
We're talking specs
off the tip of a pen.
So if it's too much,
that's gonna alter the effect.
And then you don't know
the quality control either.
And you know what?
You're playing Russian roulette.
MARIANA: In 2000, the DEA made
the biggest bust in LSD history.
REPORTER (over TV): DEA
agents believe the LSD lab is
one of the largest in the world
MARIANA: The lab of chemist
Leonard Pickard was hidden
inside a decommissioned
missile silo in Kansas.
On hand was enough LSD for
nearly 400 million hits of acid.
DENNIS: In effect, you took a,
a, a world class LSD chemist off
the table who could no
longer manufacture LSD.
MARIANA: But finding other
chemists hasn't been easy.
DENNIS: The LSD
supply chain, historically,
has been hard to
crack because it's been
a small group of people with the
scientific expertise to make it.
The LSD cooks and the users have
kind of like a cult following.
MARIANA: It's that
cult-like following that still
has me itching to
find a chemist myself.
So yeah, so this is where
she said we should meet her.
Okay, yeah. This is her.
Hi!
MICHELLE: Hi. How's it going?
MARIANA: How are you,
Michelle? Good.
MICHELLE: I'm good.
MARIANA: Thanks for meeting me.
Should we go for a
little ride, then?
MICHELLE: Yeah, absolutely.
MARIANA: Back in Los Angeles,
I turn to a journalist with
deep connections in
the psychedelics world,
Michelle Lhoog.
MICHELLE: Have you
ever done psychedelics?
MARIANA: I am
terrified of drugs, so.
MICHELLE: Oh, interesting.
MARIANA: That's, I'm really
afraid of losing control.
MICHELLE: Well,
it's interesting that
you say you're, like,
a little afraid of drugs,
because I think psychedelics
kind of change a lot
of the paradigm of what
people consider to be drugs.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MICHELLE: Especially now, that
these substances are recognized
as therapeutic,
and there's, like,
real research coming out.
MARIANA: Right.
MICHELLE: Honestly, trying to
find an LSD chemist is one of
the most difficult things
that you can try and do.
MARIANA: And why is that?
MICHELLE: Because I
think there are only, like,
about ten people who make LSD.
So, you know, it's a very,
you have to be, like,
a really good organic chemist
to be able to do this.
MARIANA: So it's a
mystery for you, even for you?
And you've been
doing this for years.
MICHELLE: Nobody knows.
I talk to dozens of
dealers and underground sources.
Nobody knows.
It literally is, I think,
one of the greatest mysteries
in the underground drug world.
MARIANA: But I know these
chemists are out there and
I'm going to do
my best to find one.
♪
MAN: Weeds are our common enemy.
Here at the
Dow Chemical Company,
revolutionary chemical
killers are being produced to
help rid us of
these costly pests.
MARIANA: In 1966, a Dow
chemist best known for creating
the first
biodegradable pesticide,
left the corporate
world to focus on his
private obsession; psychedelics.
His name was Alexander Shulgin.
Working quietly
in his backyard lab,
east of San Francisco, Shulgin
began synthesizing new drugs.
He tested them on himself first.
If promising, he gave doses to
his wife and a group of friends.
ALEXANDER: What I'm searching
for are materials that could
open up ways of understanding
how the mind works.
MARIANA: Over the
years he discovered more
than 200 new psychedelics.
Many of which he thought
had great potential for
the treatment of depression,
phobias, and PTSD.
But by the late 1980s,
there was a renewed crackdown
on illegal drugs.
REAGAN: I will
announce tomorrow a series of
new proposals for
a drug free America.
MARIANA: Shulgin,
like other chemists,
began to fear
that the Feds might be
spying on him and his research.
So he decided to share
his secrets, eventually,
self-publishing two books
of his compounds and findings.
ALEXANDER:
25 milligrams, no effect.
40, no effect.
81 milligrams, smooth shift
into a light intoxication.
MARIANA: Two years later,
the DEA raided his lab,
calling his writings a cookbook
for how to make illegal drugs.
REAGAN: Just say no.
(cheering)
(singing in native language).
MARIANA: Definitely
a very isolated place.
We're in the middle
of this sort of valley.
Got this mountain with boulders.
There's a lot of
trailers up on the mountain
and on the side of the road.
(phone line ringing)
Hey. How are you?
I'm not sure we're
in the right place.
We're coming down
this sort of mountain.
PRODUCER (over phone): I'm
going to send you a pin to
the location that he sent me.
We, we've been
talking to proxies.
MARIANA: Is that a security?
Is he just not
comfortable talking to you?
PRODUCER (over phone): I think
it's a security measure, yeah.
MARIANA: Yeah.
PRODUCER (over phone):
So I'll send you a pin
and the pin is to a gate.
You get out at the gate and
then you take your first left
onto a dirt pass, and
he'll be there waiting for you.
MARIANA: Okay,
great, thanks. Bye.
I've hit brick wall
after brick wall in my search
for an LSD chemist.
But I think I may
have found another way in.
I see another abandoned trailer.
Is it this way, you guys think?
I mean, that's what
the pin's telling me.
In my research, I've learned
that one of the key ingredients
in LSD is a difficult to
find precursor chemical called
ergotamine tartrate.
It's highly regulated and
closely watched by the DEA.
I'm told that one kilo
on the black market can go
for hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
But without it,
there can be no LSD.
MICHELLE (over phone): These
chemists don't talk to anybody.
Everybody else in the pipeline
has no idea who this chemist is
where they're
getting their source.
Almost like a cult.
MARIANA: In the past,
much of the underground supply
came from Europe or Asia.
But Michelle told me that
she's learned of a chemist
that's making it right
here in the United States.
I'm eager to hear what
an insider might know.
Plus, there's nothing I
like better than heading into
the woods to meet a
stranger in a mask.
♪
MARIANA: How are you?
JOE: Joe.
MARIANA: Hi, Joe.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks for meeting with us.
I'll take a seat here.
Nice place. Really isolated.
Um
How did it all start for you?
(sighs)
JOE: Pardon me.
MARIANA: No worries.
We can take as many
breaks as you want.
That's not a comfortable way
JOE: It's not a
comfortable question, either.
I went to a birthday party
of some of my friends and
met some other
people that were there.
And I didn't know that
those were the people that
were trying to hire me.
And then later on they
approached me for the job.
They wanted to see who
I was and how I acted.
MARIANA: So tell me a
little bit about what you did,
I guess we can start there.
JOE: Um, so there's a lot of
things that go into making LSD
and one of the things that I do
is synthesize the precursors.
MARIANA: Ergotamine?
JOE: Right.
Something that hasn't been
done in the States recently.
Instead of buying
it off the dark web,
from Ukraine, or
something like that.
MARIANA: Right.
What we heard is that there's
not a lot of people actually
making it outside of
pharmaceutical companies
because it is so difficult.
JOE: That's correct.
MARIANA: And how are
you capable of doing that?
JOE: I mean, whatever someone
makes in a pharmaceutical lab,
with the right equipment,
I can make also.
MARIANA: I've found
my way to a chemist who
makes ergotamine tartrate,
the hardest to
source ingredient in LSD.
You have a chemistry degree?
JOE: Sure.
You know, chemistry is not
something you just wanna wake-up
and smoke a joint and do
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: And what I
do maybe takes, like,
two and a half weeks.
MARIANA: Oh, for a
batch of ergotamine?
JOE: Right.
To do it, you need to make
a large amount at one time.
MARIANA: We asked if we could
go to your lab, several times.
JOE: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And what did you say?
JOE: That's a definite no.
MARIANA: And why is that?
JOE: It would be
dangerous for you,
it would be dangerous
for everyone I work for.
Yeah, it's not,
that's not smart.
And that's not how we do things.
We definitely wouldn't do that.
MARIANA: I know you don't
wanna talk about the lab much,
but can you give me a sense?
Does it look like
a professional lab?
That's like a lab-lab?
JOE: It looks like a house.
And there's like a,
a kitchen that looks
like it's a normal kitchen.
And someone goes in
there and washes dishes,
that aren't really dishes.
Someone goes and mows the yard.
And, uh, we only come over
there once, or twice a year.
MARIANA: Really?
JOE: Yeah.
MARIANA: So they actually
have people go there and
do jobs that aren't necessary,
only to pretend
like it's a, you know.
JOE: 100%, to make it look
like someone's lives there.
No one lives there.
MARIANA: Oh.
So what, once a week
somebody goes and mows the lawn?
JOE: Mows the lawn, yeah,
waves to the neighbors.
Stuff like that.
MARIANA: So it doesn't,
doesn't smell like anything?
JOE: We make sure
it doesn't smell.
There's many filters.
Air controlled environments.
Yup. Vacuum sealed rooms.
Very common.
MARIANA: And do the
neighbors ever look at you or?
JOE: Yeah, you wave
to them and you smile,
like you're the friends
going over to a party.
You might bring
a bottle of wine,
or something
that you never drink.
MARIANA: Hmm.
JOE: You wanna
make sure everything
look like it's normal.
Sometimes I'll bring
up flowers, or something.
Or sometimes I'll act
like I'm doing something that
normal person would do.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: And I don't
wear my lab coat.
MARIANA: And so,
twice a year, more or less,
you and other people, an
LSD chemist, go into this house.
JOE: Sure. Other people,
their job might take
longer or less time than mine.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: Usually we work
separate from each other.
I've been there when two or
three people are working at
the same time and that's okay.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: But we don't hang out.
We don't chill and
talk about our, our work.
We're not friends.
MARIANA: So it's
compartmentalized?
JOE: Of course.
I separate myself completely.
MARIANA: But there is a person
at the top, I'm assuming?
JOE: You would assume, yeah.
MARIANA: You would assume, okay.
One of the things that we've
heard is that people that are
making LSD, that there are
some chemists out there that
are making millions of dollars.
JOE: That's correct.
MARIANA: Are you
making millions of?
JOE: I'm not
gonna tell you that.
MARIANA: Do you even know
the chemist that makes the LSD?
JOE: No.
MARIANA: And if
you did, do you think
he'd talk to us, basically?
JOE: Absolutely not.
MARIANA: But you are.
JOE: Sure.
Those people, to say
that they're camera shy
would be an understatement.
Like a hermit.
Beyond a hermit.
I really doubt it.
MARIANA: The irony, of course,
is that even as the makers of
the drug remain a mystery,
the users I've spoken with are
only too eager to taut the
drug's power in helping them
work through trauma, like PTSD.
MATT: Oh, damn.
So, I enlisted in the military
when I was 19 years old.
Here I am in 2006 going
to Iraq for the first time.
MARIANA: Oh, that's you.
MATT: Yeah, this
is me right here.
Yeah, I was, I was probably
20, 21 there, actually.
Iraq was such a hot combat zone
that I didn't really know what
I was getting into.
I volunteered for a job which
involved scanning the roads for,
for bombs, for roadside bombs.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MATT: For IEDs.
I drove this, this
vehicle called The Husky.
It was a, it was a metal
detector and the vehicle behind
it would drive up and it
had a giant robotic arm,
which would inspect
the area right there.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MATT: So we dealt with
a lot of live explosives.
MARIANA: IEDs, at this point,
were the number one
killer of soldiers
MATT: Yeah.
MARIANA: American
soldiers in Iraq.
MATT: Oh yeah.
We found, like, 1,600
roadside bombs in a year.
MARIANA: Wow.
MATT: Yes.
MARIANA: And your job was
to go out and look for IEDs?
MATT: Oh yeah.
And I would rather
take the explosion
than let my, my fellow,
my fellow comrades take it.
MARIANA: One day, Matt
was tasked with clearing what
the Army calls, "Black routes."
MATT: We were going in,
like, uncharted lands,
and we didn't know
what was buried in there.
We were the ones that
would made black routes green.
We would make them
safe again for people.
That day, I remember
going through villages,
and most of the time
people would wave at you and
be so happy that you were there.
And we happened to go
through a village and, you know,
absolutely nobody was there.
And immediately that
fear is in your stomach.
(explosion)
MARIANA: Ooh.
MATT: Yeah.
I didn't happen to
find the, the, the bomb in time.
It went off and
destroyed my vehicle.
It cut my communications
off from my team and
I was just kind
of sitting there.
(radio static)
MARIANA: The force
of the blast knocked
Matt unconscious
for several minutes.
MATT: I had to jump from the top
of that vehicle to the concrete.
MARIANA: And were you injured?
Were you, what were you
feeling at this moment?
MATT: Nothing.
Just pure adrenaline.
I'm getting shot at.
MARIANA: And you were
being shot at the same time?
MATT: Oh yeah, yeah.
After I got blown up, yeah.
(rapid gunfire)
I remember just running,
and running, and running.
At the time, being so
young and stuff, I, I, I,
I told them my back
hurt and I told them I was,
I was in pain, and, uh,
I kinda didn't, I
didn't take care of it.
I didn't take it seriously.
I just kind of let it ride and
I had actually
injured myself pretty bad.
MARIANA: Matt had a
damaged spine and nerves,
injuries that would be
compounded by years of physical
and mental stress in war-zones.
He served two tours in Iraq
and another in Afghanistan,
before returning
home to Minnesota.
MATT: So the lowest point after,
after I got out of the military,
landed a really good job and,
and things kind of,
kind of fell through
with that, and, uh, I didn't
feel too good about myself.
I had all this time and I
started to just dwindle away.
And pretty soon I was in bed
just not even, not even leaving.
And just, just laying there.
MARIANA: That's
been particularly
hard on his two sons.
MATT: I don't have a very
good relationship with them,
because of the PTSD.
It's just, it's so inconsistent.
You're just not there.
You're not, you're not
there when you should be.
And like, I don't,
you can't help it,
you wanna be, but you just
sit there and you can't do it.
You just physically
can't with your mind.
And you just, it's like
you're protecting yourself,
but you have these
children that needs you.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MATT: It's really hard.
You know, I had, I
had thoughts of, like, it's,
it's time to go.
You can, nobody, you know,
nobody cares about you.
Just go ahead and kill yourself.
MARIANA: Matt says he tried
every FDA approved drug for PTSD
but felt like
nothing was working.
MATT: So in those days
when you take the, the
medicine from, from the VA,
you just essentially
become a sitting zombie.
There's no life,
you're just a vegetable.
I told a buddy what
was going on and he,
he kind of talked to me,
and he said, "I have this acid."
And I was like, I
was like, "An acid?"
He's like, "Yeah, you've
never taken acid before?"
What I figured, I
had nothing to lose.
I had this little piece of
paper and I kind of laughed and,
you know, "What would it do?"
And I, I put it in my mouth.
♪
THERAPIST: Okay, Matt.
Well, it's that
time for the medicine.
And as you know, that
we here at Akasa Journeys
don't provide the medicine,
we just sit for you.
You checked it out,
you know your sources.
MATT: Yeah, my medicine's safe.
THERAPIST: Very good.
♪
MARIANA: After years of
struggling with PTSD and
on the brink of suicide,
Iraq veteran, Matt,
says he turned the
corner after a first time at
home dose of LSD.
MATT: I remember I got out
of bed and I took a shower,
and I put clothes on
and I came out of the room,
and interacted with everybody.
And I played with my kids.
We had the best night ever.
The thing in my mind
was gone, there was no fear.
MARIANA: So, that one time
alone changed you completely?
MATT: Yeah, where I don't
want to kill myself anymore.
And everybody needs to
see this and experience it.
MARIANA: And that is
what led Matt to seek out
a new form of underground
treatment for trauma.
One that uses talk therapy
and guided tripping sessions
under the influence of
illegally sourced LSD.
MATT: I'm, I'm pretty nervous.
I'm ready to almost
grab this blanket and
prepare myself for blastoff.
THERAPIST: Okay.
MARIANA: It takes nearly an hour
before Matt even begins to feel
the LSD in his system.
He's nervous about where
the trip might take him.
THERAPIST: Yeah, you just
wanna let that stuff flow.
You know, when you had
that accident and got blown up,
and then you were
left alone for a while.
You know, that's a
very tough experience.
You know, it's an unfolding.
You know, 'cause psychedelics
open a door to a stairway.
And it may
be difficult, you know,
and that's part of the process.
MATT: I don't know.
You're, like, you're
playing heads or tails,
if it's going to be a
good time, or a bad time.
If you're going to have to
deal with something traumatic.
MARK: If you look at
something like PTSD,
it's a tape loop
(rapid gunfire)
That horrible experience
replays itself again and
again and again.
And it's triggered.
It's triggered uncontrollably.
MARIANA: Earlier
in my investigation,
I talked to researchers in
Vancouver who helped shed light
on why psychedelics can
be so effective in therapy.
MARK: Traditional treatments can
go there and find the tape loop,
but they trigger the
tape loop and there's
a huge fear response.
Psychedelics allow access
to the unconscious mind.
You can actually go there
and find the tape loop without
the big fear response.
You can go into
the tape loop and
essentially release its energy.
MARIANA: But the
optimism around psychedelics
doesn't exist in a vacuum.
ERIC (over TV): The people
who called police said the man,
who was apparently high on LSD,
was acting erratically and
actually attacked another man.
(yelling)
MARIANA: Retired DEA agent
Dennis Wichern is quick to
point out there's no shortage
of tragic incidents in either
case files or the evening news.
DENNIS: On the
law enforcement side,
you see the pain and
misery by a family member
when their, their child's
taken it and had
some effect, you know,
like death or
effect that's lifelong.
One decision is
forever life changing.
MARIANA: In truth,
there are no known
overdose deaths from pure LSD.
But that's not to
say there's no risk,
either from impairment
under the influence,
or from pre-existing conditions.
So before knowing
anything about LSD,
what were your thoughts?
MATT: I mean, drugs,
in general, were, were horrible.
That's what, that's
what my community believes.
MARIANA: They
don't approve of it?
MATT: No, no they don't.
We're labeled as
drug addicts and,
generally bad people
because of the choices we make.
MARIANA: Have you explained
to them what it's done to you?
MATT: They don't want to,
people don't wanna listen to it.
But this truly
improved mental health.
I take no medication
now and I just finished
my first semester
of college, full-time.
And I got 3.85 GPA, so.
MARIANA: Nice, congrats.
MATT: This is, yeah, thanks.
This is, this is
doing great things.
MARIANA: What are you studying?
MATT: I'm studying psychology.
MARIANA: Matt
still has bad days,
but he credits LSD with helping
to get his life back on track.
And he's not alone.
It's these stories of
transformation that inspire me
to keep looking for one of
these ever elusive chemists.
Through some mix of
persistence and luck,
it finally happens in a broken
down school bus in Wyoming.
♪
MARIANA: So, how did
you become a chemist?
CASEY: You know, I took LSD.
Changed my life.
Set me free.
Unleashed my mind.
MARIANA: After months of
searching for a chemist,
I finally found one in Wyoming.
Casey Hardison is
known in certain circles
as a drug wizard.
We have spoken to so many people
about their first acid trip and
I think you're the
first person that even
gets emotional when
you talk about this.
Why?
CASEY: I experienced freedom.
I experienced complete,
absolute peace.
Complete relief from
all of my cares, concerns,
and anxieties, and hang-ups,
and I had just had an immensely
profound spiritual awakening.
MARIANA: So, you
know how to make every
drug out there, right?
CASEY: No. But I could,
could follow any protocol.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
CASEY: There's no protocol
out there that I couldn't,
you know, get the equipment,
set up the reaction
and complete the process.
LSD needs a lot more precision.
And you also need to
know what you're doing.
You need to know how
to run a laboratory.
MARIANA: You were
in the UK working?
You had a lab in England?
CASEY: Yeah. Yeah.
Matter of fact, I even
said the words to a friend,
"I think I'm
flying under the radar."
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
CASEY: I had no idea that they
were out in a field way across
from me in a horse box,
listening, watching, observing.
MARIANA: And then
what happened that day?
CASEY: I worked in
a lab for a while.
Then I went up to a
bar called The Sanctuary,
and they came in, one of the
detectives leaned over and said,
"I'm here to arrest
you for being concerned in
the manufacturing
of controlled drugs."
And I just said,
"How do you wanna do it?"
You know, I was high, actually,
I was on LSD at the time,
"As peacefully as possible."
I'm like, "That works for me."
MARIANA: At the height of
your production as a chemist,
how much were you making?
CASEY: A little under 200 grams.
Not a lot, you know.
Enough. But not,
not, not, not massive.
Not like kilos, some
other people are doing.
MARIANA: And why not?
CASEY: Limited
ergotamine supplies.
MARIANA: So were you doing it
for the money, or the ideals?
CASEY: Dude, I was doing it
for the alchemical adventure.
MARIANA: Was there a part of you
that was doing it for the money?
CASEY: You know,
if I worked hard I
could make 50,000 a month.
Didn't have to work
that hard. You know.
MARIANA: That's a lot of money.
CASEY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Was your stuff good?
CASEY: My stuff was delicious.
You know, smelled
like grape popsicles,
strangely enough.
They say it's odorless,
tasteless, colorless.
Well it is, and it's a crystal.
But as an oil it
smells like grape popsicles.
MARIANA: So we've been trying
to find an LSD chemist to talk
to us for months and no one
is willing to talk to us.
Why do you think that is?
CASEY: Life sentences.
Federal mandatory minimums.
MARIANA: And why
are you talking to us?
CASEY: 'Cause
I'm not practicing.
I'm not, uh, I'm not concerned.
I've already served my time,
done my sentence and I'm,
you know, shamelessly,
proud of my accomplishments.
The war on drugs is a war on
people and we can't possibly
win a war on people.
It cost us all that
gangster criminal trafficking.
Clogs the prison system.
It's not working.
The idea that you are going
to extinguish people's desire
to alter their
mental functioning is, um,
that's the craziest idea ever.
MARIANA: I mean, do
you think you could put
us in touch with a chemist?
CASEY: When considering
such a question,
it brings to mind what
I lost in being arrested.
I knew my purpose.
I knew who I was,
what I was up to,
and the law took that away.
And I'm not sure I
wanna risk that for them.
That was my greatest joy.
And now I can't do the
thing I want to do most.
I truly believe in
the transformation that
psychedelics can, can catalyze.
And these chemists know that
they're making a molecule that
causes that transformation.
They believe they're
making a difference and
I don't wanna
take that from them.
I don't want them to lose that.
I lost it.
I (bleep) want it back.
I want the freedom to alter my
mental function as I see fit and
to make molecules to
help others to do the same.
That's all I want.
MARIANA: I've met
plenty of drug dealers
who've done hard time in prison.
But I've never seen one weep
as he describes being robbed of
what he calls his purpose.
Perhaps I shouldn't
be surprised.
After all, indigenous
communities have used
psychedelics in spiritual
and therapeutic ceremonies
for thousands of years.
Some say it's time for
the rest of us to catch up.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.
He's got the whole
world in his hands ♪
He's got the whole
world in his hands ♪
He's got the
whole world in his ♪
Hands ♪♪
REPORTER (over TV):
Oregon voters legalize
psychedelic mushrooms.
Oregon becomes the
first entire state to do so.
MARIANA: For the
first time in a long time,
psychedelic drugs are
creeping into the mainstream.
REPORTER 2 (over TV): Some
psychiatrists and researchers
are giving psychedelic drugs a
second look as a possible way of
treating some mental illnesses.
STEVE (over TV):
Some tech workers are
experimenting with LSD.
The trend is called microdosing
REPORTER (over TV): Microdosing
REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Microdosing.
MARIANA: It's a
psychedelics renaissance.
STEVE (over TV): I had no
idea this was still out there,
that this was,
this was something
people were still doing.
MARIANA: New users,
new uses, and of course,
a host of new
celebrity endorsements.
JADA: I was introduced
ten years ago.
ADRIENNE: Mm-hmm.
JADA: To deal
with my depression.
ADRIENNE: Yeah.
JADA: And it knocked it out.
ELON: People should be
open to psych, psychedelics.
STING: I don't think
psychedelics are the,
the answer to the
world's problems,
but they could be a start.
MARIANA: Still, US law
classifies most psychedelics
as Schedule I drugs.
That means making, dealing,
or using is highly illegal.
So those seeking to cash in
are also the ones willing to
risk serious jail time.
I want to understand what this
psychedelic boom looks like from
the underground,
why it's happening now,
and why these drugs have
been vilified for so long.
Which is how I find myself here.
This is pretty out there.
Pretty much in the
middle of nowhere.
I know virtually
nothing about who I'm meeting.
And only one thing
about where I'm meeting him.
(phone line ringing)
They call it the
Mushroom Mansion.
X (over phone): Hello?
MARIANA: Hi, I think I'm here.
X (over phone): I'm
right here, in the garage.
MARIANA: How are you?
I'm Mariana.
So this is it, huh?
X: Yup.
MARIANA: We're going inside?
X: Yup.
And these are sterilizers.
MARIANA: Oh. What's in here?
X: Uh, this is
an incubation room.
MARIANA: Can I go in?
X: Yeah.
MARIANA: Wow.
This space is crazy.
There's a lot of bags here, huh?
X: Yeah. Probably close to 200.
MARIANA: And how long have
you been growing mushrooms for?
X: Uh, pretty consistently
for the past five years.
MARIANA: Give me
an idea, a sense of
how much money you make?
X: We can do a couple
hundred grand a month.
Yeah.
MARIANA: Wow,
that's a lot of money.
X: Like, consistently. Yeah.
MARIANA: Out of this
one house in the middle
of nowhere, practically.
X: Yeah. Yeah.
Y: Yeah.
MARIANA: Which part do you eat?
You can eat the whole part?
X: The whole thing.
MARIANA: The whole thing?
X: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And this
is pretty powerful?
Y: This one is quite visual.
Color, geometrics, fractals.
MARIANA: It's not just mushrooms
that are having a moment.
I've read that the
demand for other types
of mind-altering drugs
like peyote,
mescaline, ayahuasca,
and DMT is also increasing.
Little girl ♪♪
MARIANA: But I
also know that not
all mind-altering drugs
are created equal.
There's one that offers the
biggest highs and, allegedly,
some of the biggest profits.
It's what some consider to be
the holy grail of psychedelics.
My heart just won't behave ♪♪
MARIANA: So do you
know anything about LSD?
X: Yes, I've eaten
copious amounts of LSD.
MARIANA: And do you know
anything about the business side
of it, or the making side of it?
X: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Do you,
do you make LSD?
X: No, I do not.
If I get caught doing this,
it's not that bad.
But if you get
caught making LSD,
you can do life in prison.
MARIANA: Wow.
There's a reason
why even guys who sell
a massive amount of
drugs from a place called,
"The Mushroom Mansion,"
wouldn't think of selling LSD
and that reason is the 1960s.
KENNEDY: We face, therefore,
a moral crisis as a
country and a people.
(rapid gunfire)
MARIANA: Historians talk
about the '60s as a battle for
the soul of America.
Love still
hurts my tired eyes ♪
'Cause I refuse
to pass you by ♪♪
MARIANA: But it was also a
battle for the future of LSD.
Peace in the
garden of my mind ♪♪
MARIANA: Researchers had high
hopes that LSD might unlock
the mystery of mental illness.
The CIA thought it had potential
as a mind-control weapon against
Cold War enemies.
And out in San Francisco, LSD
was at the heart of a growing
counterculture movement that was
anti-war and anti-establishment.
TIMOTHY: Turn on,
tune in, drop out.
MARIANA: The controversy
landed LSD on the cover of
Life magazine in 1966.
The article read,
"The genie of LSD,
with all its tantalizing
possibilities for good and evil,
is out in the open."
But it wasn't out
in the open for long.
Ultimately, the
country's conservative
impulses won the day.
REPORTER: There is a
relationship between
taking dope and protesting.
MARIANA: Acid got stigmatized.
Hippies got marginalized.
And then in 1969, if the drug's
fate wasn't sealed already,
the Nightly News
introduced America to
LSD's most infamous users.
REPORTER (over TV):
Friday night, in Los Angeles,
a movie actress and four
of her friends were murdered.
The circumstances were lurid.
REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Police said they were
a pseudo-religious cult.
People who worked
on the ranch said
they were heavy users of drugs.
MARIANA: Charles Manson was a
proverbial nail in LSD's coffin.
MANSON: If I
started murdering people,
there'd be none of you left.
MARIANA: He was also
further justification for
Richard Nixon's war on drugs.
NIXON: America's public enemy
number one in the United States
is drug abuse.
MARIANA: It was a decade that
drove the drug and the chemists
making it deep underground.
More than half a century later,
that's where they remain.
♪
(phone line ringing)
He's not answering his phone.
So we're following this car.
He's a, a guy in there,
who knows we're following him,
who's going around downtown
Vancouver selling LSD tonight.
He's gonna purchase
some more from his supplier.
What we're trying, really trying
to do is get to his supplier.
I'm in Vancouver, where one of
my sources has connected me with
a street-level LSD dealer.
(phone line ringing)
MARIANA: Uh, so
we're still following you.
Are you meeting this
person at their house or?
MARIANA: Okay.
So when we get there,
where do you want us to be?
MARIANA: Shoot.
So I think it's here and
he's asked us not to be seen.
Just keep rolling.
Just keep rolling, guys.
Yeah, so it's
happening right there.
See he's coming out of the car?
He's just crossing the street.
He's going into
a house, I think.
(knocking)
WOMAN: Hey.
RAM DASS: How are you?
WOMAN: Good, how are you?
(siren blaring)
MARIANA: Is this an
ambulance siren, or police?
MARIANA: Do you
guys hear the cops?
WOMAN: You betcha.
MARIANA: Is he coming out?
He is. He's coming out.
Is he?
Okay, he's
walking towards us now.
Hi. So is that, is
that what you just bought?
MARIANA: Can I see it?
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
Yeah, it's a reference
to the Grateful Dead, right?
The dancing bear?
MARIANA: So, how
many doses are in this?
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
Sorry, we're just
making sure that there's no,
we were hearing cops before.
Got nervous when I heard it.
MARIANA: What would
happen if the, the police
found you with this stuff?
If you're driving
off now in your car and
the police stops you
and found this stuff?
MARIANA: You'd get time?
MARIANA: And so why do
you do it? Why risk it?
MARIANA: Right.
MARIANA: How much
did you buy it for?
RAM DASS: On it.
MARIANA: How much
can you sell it for?
How much money do you make?
MARIANA: That's good money.
Why did you agree to talk to us?
MARIANA: So you truly
believe that by selling LSD,
by selling acid,
you're helping people.
MARIANA: I've reported on
a lot of drugs in my career,
but I've never had a
cocaine or heroin dealer
talk about the
benefits of using.
The people I'm meeting in
this psychedelic trade seem to
be a different breed.
Dealers and believers.
There's somebody
supplying the person that
just sold you with the LSD?
MARIANA: A chemist?
MARIANA: A hippie.
MARIANA: I push
for more details,
but that's all he's got.
I'm not surprised.
Supply chains are often
compartmentalized like this.
That way, if
low-level dealers get caught,
they don't
endanger the key players.
But, to be honest,
I'm getting the sense
that this LSD supply chain
isn't like others
I've reported on.
So I decide I need to
do a bit more digging.
MAN: Really difficult
to get people to, to open up.
More so than any other
drug that I've ever researched,
the people that I've
spoken to are almost
evangelical about the drug.
MARIANA: I talk to journalists.
MAN: This drug is not really
motivated by money, necessarily.
MARK: I've heard that
there are very few chemists.
MARIANA: I talk to researchers.
MARK: It's a, it's
a hard thing to make.
The underground
manufactures and sells,
and often they sell it to
therapists who are making
this service available.
MARIANA: But if you
actually want to try LSD
anywhere in the world right now,
you are doing
something completely illegal?
MARK: Absolutely. Yes.
MARIANA: I talk to
other psychedelic dealers.
LUCY: With psychedelics
and within the community,
people that know won't talk and
the people that talk don't know.
MARIANA: I even head to
my first Grateful Dead show,
to try and make
some connections.
The parking lot feels
like spring break for
the psychedelics crowd.
Is it easy to find here?
BEN: It's very
easy to find here.
You could probably find
it within, like, two minutes.
Just stand out in
front of my booth.
Yeah.
It'll come, it'll come through.
MARIANA: You, you saw, I
just saw the police car going
back and forth here.
BEN: Yeah. Yeah.
MARIANA: So they know
that this is happening?
BEN: 100%. 100%.
MAN: I got
gummy bears edibles guys!
Get them all just for $10.
Get them while they're cold.
MARIANA: Eventually I
find my guy, who I'm told
is a major player.
He's wearing a
bacon and eggs mask and
his head is covered in beans.
♪
SPARKLES: So.
MARIANA: Do you
always put on gloves?
SPARKLES: Yeah, it's
pretty easy to get stung,
if you know what I mean.
So this is all liquid acid.
All these vials here,
this is all LSD.
MARIANA: And each one of
these little squares is a dose?
SPARKLES: It's a
hit of acid, yeah.
MARIANA: Yeah. And this one?
This one is free, right?
It doesn't have any.
SPARKLES: Yeah, that one
doesn't have any acid on it.
MARIANA: Does it
smell like anything?
SPARKLES: I mean, not really.
It's diluted with alcohol.
MARIANA: Yeah. It smells a
little bit like alcohol
SPARKLES: Yeah.
MARIANA: Right?
MARIANA: In a basement
that smells of Chinese food,
I meet Sparkles,
who claims to be one of
the West Coast's
biggest suppliers of LSD.
SPARKLES: I just like
spreading the love, you know?
Everybody's gotta
do this, this is crazy.
MARIANA: How do people find you?
SPARKLES: Just
through friends, you know?
MARIANA: And then, so
if you trust this person,
then how do you send it off?
SPARKLES: It's
pretty easy to disguise.
You can just put it in a card,
you can put it in a book.
It's a piece
of paper, literally.
This is probably
as good as it gets.
It's extremely pure.
MARIANA: This stuff here?
SPARKLES: Yeah.
MARIANA: And where
did you get this from?
SPARKLES: Um, I get
it from, it's just, you know,
it's an old friend who is
pretty involved in the industry.
MARIANA: Do you think
that person would talk to us?
SPARKLES: I don't
think they would.
MARIANA: I ask if he knows the
hippie chemist in the mountains.
SPARKLES: I don't
know him personally.
I know that there's
only really been one and
from as far as I understand,
he's been retired
for a few years now.
I think, you know,
he's getting older,
or he's got his life.
He's made his money.
He's happy to
kind of just relax.
MARIANA: And, so who,
there's somebody else making it?
SPARKLES: Well, currently
we're just still kind of
running through old stock.
You don't need very much, right?
So, like, a single gram
of LSD is 10,000 doses.
MARIANA: Wow, so it's
still this, this big batch of.
SPARKLES: Yeah, we're
still using the same batch.
For now, anyways.
MARIANA: That's right,
the drug is so potent that
the hippie chemist who
seems to be supplying all of
Vancouver's acid is supposedly
a retired hippie chemist,
who hasn't made a
new batch in years.
So why do you
think it's so secretive?
Apart from the
fact that it's illegal.
SPARKLES: Yeah.
Yeah, it's illegal.
But it's also just,
kind of, like an
old wizard's club, you know?
It's kind of like
the Acid Illuminati.
That way they
keep their secrets.
They don't really want a lot
of people knowing who they are.
MARIANA: The reverence he has
for these chemists surprises me.
Typically drug supply
chains lead back to ruthless
cartel bosses or gang leaders.
But Sparkles talks of
these chemists more like
misunderstood
healers or shamans.
Not everyone agrees.
DENNIS: I think it all
comes down to greed and profit.
MARIANA: Dennis Wichern was a
DEA agent for more than 30 years
and feels strongly
about the dangers of LSD.
DENNIS: You're putting
something in your body that
you don't know how it's made.
You don't know what the dose is.
Allegedly a dose of LSD
is contained in a microgram.
We're talking specs
off the tip of a pen.
So if it's too much,
that's gonna alter the effect.
And then you don't know
the quality control either.
And you know what?
You're playing Russian roulette.
MARIANA: In 2000, the DEA made
the biggest bust in LSD history.
REPORTER (over TV): DEA
agents believe the LSD lab is
one of the largest in the world
MARIANA: The lab of chemist
Leonard Pickard was hidden
inside a decommissioned
missile silo in Kansas.
On hand was enough LSD for
nearly 400 million hits of acid.
DENNIS: In effect, you took a,
a, a world class LSD chemist off
the table who could no
longer manufacture LSD.
MARIANA: But finding other
chemists hasn't been easy.
DENNIS: The LSD
supply chain, historically,
has been hard to
crack because it's been
a small group of people with the
scientific expertise to make it.
The LSD cooks and the users have
kind of like a cult following.
MARIANA: It's that
cult-like following that still
has me itching to
find a chemist myself.
So yeah, so this is where
she said we should meet her.
Okay, yeah. This is her.
Hi!
MICHELLE: Hi. How's it going?
MARIANA: How are you,
Michelle? Good.
MICHELLE: I'm good.
MARIANA: Thanks for meeting me.
Should we go for a
little ride, then?
MICHELLE: Yeah, absolutely.
MARIANA: Back in Los Angeles,
I turn to a journalist with
deep connections in
the psychedelics world,
Michelle Lhoog.
MICHELLE: Have you
ever done psychedelics?
MARIANA: I am
terrified of drugs, so.
MICHELLE: Oh, interesting.
MARIANA: That's, I'm really
afraid of losing control.
MICHELLE: Well,
it's interesting that
you say you're, like,
a little afraid of drugs,
because I think psychedelics
kind of change a lot
of the paradigm of what
people consider to be drugs.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MICHELLE: Especially now, that
these substances are recognized
as therapeutic,
and there's, like,
real research coming out.
MARIANA: Right.
MICHELLE: Honestly, trying to
find an LSD chemist is one of
the most difficult things
that you can try and do.
MARIANA: And why is that?
MICHELLE: Because I
think there are only, like,
about ten people who make LSD.
So, you know, it's a very,
you have to be, like,
a really good organic chemist
to be able to do this.
MARIANA: So it's a
mystery for you, even for you?
And you've been
doing this for years.
MICHELLE: Nobody knows.
I talk to dozens of
dealers and underground sources.
Nobody knows.
It literally is, I think,
one of the greatest mysteries
in the underground drug world.
MARIANA: But I know these
chemists are out there and
I'm going to do
my best to find one.
♪
MAN: Weeds are our common enemy.
Here at the
Dow Chemical Company,
revolutionary chemical
killers are being produced to
help rid us of
these costly pests.
MARIANA: In 1966, a Dow
chemist best known for creating
the first
biodegradable pesticide,
left the corporate
world to focus on his
private obsession; psychedelics.
His name was Alexander Shulgin.
Working quietly
in his backyard lab,
east of San Francisco, Shulgin
began synthesizing new drugs.
He tested them on himself first.
If promising, he gave doses to
his wife and a group of friends.
ALEXANDER: What I'm searching
for are materials that could
open up ways of understanding
how the mind works.
MARIANA: Over the
years he discovered more
than 200 new psychedelics.
Many of which he thought
had great potential for
the treatment of depression,
phobias, and PTSD.
But by the late 1980s,
there was a renewed crackdown
on illegal drugs.
REAGAN: I will
announce tomorrow a series of
new proposals for
a drug free America.
MARIANA: Shulgin,
like other chemists,
began to fear
that the Feds might be
spying on him and his research.
So he decided to share
his secrets, eventually,
self-publishing two books
of his compounds and findings.
ALEXANDER:
25 milligrams, no effect.
40, no effect.
81 milligrams, smooth shift
into a light intoxication.
MARIANA: Two years later,
the DEA raided his lab,
calling his writings a cookbook
for how to make illegal drugs.
REAGAN: Just say no.
(cheering)
(singing in native language).
MARIANA: Definitely
a very isolated place.
We're in the middle
of this sort of valley.
Got this mountain with boulders.
There's a lot of
trailers up on the mountain
and on the side of the road.
(phone line ringing)
Hey. How are you?
I'm not sure we're
in the right place.
We're coming down
this sort of mountain.
PRODUCER (over phone): I'm
going to send you a pin to
the location that he sent me.
We, we've been
talking to proxies.
MARIANA: Is that a security?
Is he just not
comfortable talking to you?
PRODUCER (over phone): I think
it's a security measure, yeah.
MARIANA: Yeah.
PRODUCER (over phone):
So I'll send you a pin
and the pin is to a gate.
You get out at the gate and
then you take your first left
onto a dirt pass, and
he'll be there waiting for you.
MARIANA: Okay,
great, thanks. Bye.
I've hit brick wall
after brick wall in my search
for an LSD chemist.
But I think I may
have found another way in.
I see another abandoned trailer.
Is it this way, you guys think?
I mean, that's what
the pin's telling me.
In my research, I've learned
that one of the key ingredients
in LSD is a difficult to
find precursor chemical called
ergotamine tartrate.
It's highly regulated and
closely watched by the DEA.
I'm told that one kilo
on the black market can go
for hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
But without it,
there can be no LSD.
MICHELLE (over phone): These
chemists don't talk to anybody.
Everybody else in the pipeline
has no idea who this chemist is
where they're
getting their source.
Almost like a cult.
MARIANA: In the past,
much of the underground supply
came from Europe or Asia.
But Michelle told me that
she's learned of a chemist
that's making it right
here in the United States.
I'm eager to hear what
an insider might know.
Plus, there's nothing I
like better than heading into
the woods to meet a
stranger in a mask.
♪
MARIANA: How are you?
JOE: Joe.
MARIANA: Hi, Joe.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks for meeting with us.
I'll take a seat here.
Nice place. Really isolated.
Um
How did it all start for you?
(sighs)
JOE: Pardon me.
MARIANA: No worries.
We can take as many
breaks as you want.
That's not a comfortable way
JOE: It's not a
comfortable question, either.
I went to a birthday party
of some of my friends and
met some other
people that were there.
And I didn't know that
those were the people that
were trying to hire me.
And then later on they
approached me for the job.
They wanted to see who
I was and how I acted.
MARIANA: So tell me a
little bit about what you did,
I guess we can start there.
JOE: Um, so there's a lot of
things that go into making LSD
and one of the things that I do
is synthesize the precursors.
MARIANA: Ergotamine?
JOE: Right.
Something that hasn't been
done in the States recently.
Instead of buying
it off the dark web,
from Ukraine, or
something like that.
MARIANA: Right.
What we heard is that there's
not a lot of people actually
making it outside of
pharmaceutical companies
because it is so difficult.
JOE: That's correct.
MARIANA: And how are
you capable of doing that?
JOE: I mean, whatever someone
makes in a pharmaceutical lab,
with the right equipment,
I can make also.
MARIANA: I've found
my way to a chemist who
makes ergotamine tartrate,
the hardest to
source ingredient in LSD.
You have a chemistry degree?
JOE: Sure.
You know, chemistry is not
something you just wanna wake-up
and smoke a joint and do
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: And what I
do maybe takes, like,
two and a half weeks.
MARIANA: Oh, for a
batch of ergotamine?
JOE: Right.
To do it, you need to make
a large amount at one time.
MARIANA: We asked if we could
go to your lab, several times.
JOE: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And what did you say?
JOE: That's a definite no.
MARIANA: And why is that?
JOE: It would be
dangerous for you,
it would be dangerous
for everyone I work for.
Yeah, it's not,
that's not smart.
And that's not how we do things.
We definitely wouldn't do that.
MARIANA: I know you don't
wanna talk about the lab much,
but can you give me a sense?
Does it look like
a professional lab?
That's like a lab-lab?
JOE: It looks like a house.
And there's like a,
a kitchen that looks
like it's a normal kitchen.
And someone goes in
there and washes dishes,
that aren't really dishes.
Someone goes and mows the yard.
And, uh, we only come over
there once, or twice a year.
MARIANA: Really?
JOE: Yeah.
MARIANA: So they actually
have people go there and
do jobs that aren't necessary,
only to pretend
like it's a, you know.
JOE: 100%, to make it look
like someone's lives there.
No one lives there.
MARIANA: Oh.
So what, once a week
somebody goes and mows the lawn?
JOE: Mows the lawn, yeah,
waves to the neighbors.
Stuff like that.
MARIANA: So it doesn't,
doesn't smell like anything?
JOE: We make sure
it doesn't smell.
There's many filters.
Air controlled environments.
Yup. Vacuum sealed rooms.
Very common.
MARIANA: And do the
neighbors ever look at you or?
JOE: Yeah, you wave
to them and you smile,
like you're the friends
going over to a party.
You might bring
a bottle of wine,
or something
that you never drink.
MARIANA: Hmm.
JOE: You wanna
make sure everything
look like it's normal.
Sometimes I'll bring
up flowers, or something.
Or sometimes I'll act
like I'm doing something that
normal person would do.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: And I don't
wear my lab coat.
MARIANA: And so,
twice a year, more or less,
you and other people, an
LSD chemist, go into this house.
JOE: Sure. Other people,
their job might take
longer or less time than mine.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: Usually we work
separate from each other.
I've been there when two or
three people are working at
the same time and that's okay.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JOE: But we don't hang out.
We don't chill and
talk about our, our work.
We're not friends.
MARIANA: So it's
compartmentalized?
JOE: Of course.
I separate myself completely.
MARIANA: But there is a person
at the top, I'm assuming?
JOE: You would assume, yeah.
MARIANA: You would assume, okay.
One of the things that we've
heard is that people that are
making LSD, that there are
some chemists out there that
are making millions of dollars.
JOE: That's correct.
MARIANA: Are you
making millions of?
JOE: I'm not
gonna tell you that.
MARIANA: Do you even know
the chemist that makes the LSD?
JOE: No.
MARIANA: And if
you did, do you think
he'd talk to us, basically?
JOE: Absolutely not.
MARIANA: But you are.
JOE: Sure.
Those people, to say
that they're camera shy
would be an understatement.
Like a hermit.
Beyond a hermit.
I really doubt it.
MARIANA: The irony, of course,
is that even as the makers of
the drug remain a mystery,
the users I've spoken with are
only too eager to taut the
drug's power in helping them
work through trauma, like PTSD.
MATT: Oh, damn.
So, I enlisted in the military
when I was 19 years old.
Here I am in 2006 going
to Iraq for the first time.
MARIANA: Oh, that's you.
MATT: Yeah, this
is me right here.
Yeah, I was, I was probably
20, 21 there, actually.
Iraq was such a hot combat zone
that I didn't really know what
I was getting into.
I volunteered for a job which
involved scanning the roads for,
for bombs, for roadside bombs.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MATT: For IEDs.
I drove this, this
vehicle called The Husky.
It was a, it was a metal
detector and the vehicle behind
it would drive up and it
had a giant robotic arm,
which would inspect
the area right there.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MATT: So we dealt with
a lot of live explosives.
MARIANA: IEDs, at this point,
were the number one
killer of soldiers
MATT: Yeah.
MARIANA: American
soldiers in Iraq.
MATT: Oh yeah.
We found, like, 1,600
roadside bombs in a year.
MARIANA: Wow.
MATT: Yes.
MARIANA: And your job was
to go out and look for IEDs?
MATT: Oh yeah.
And I would rather
take the explosion
than let my, my fellow,
my fellow comrades take it.
MARIANA: One day, Matt
was tasked with clearing what
the Army calls, "Black routes."
MATT: We were going in,
like, uncharted lands,
and we didn't know
what was buried in there.
We were the ones that
would made black routes green.
We would make them
safe again for people.
That day, I remember
going through villages,
and most of the time
people would wave at you and
be so happy that you were there.
And we happened to go
through a village and, you know,
absolutely nobody was there.
And immediately that
fear is in your stomach.
(explosion)
MARIANA: Ooh.
MATT: Yeah.
I didn't happen to
find the, the, the bomb in time.
It went off and
destroyed my vehicle.
It cut my communications
off from my team and
I was just kind
of sitting there.
(radio static)
MARIANA: The force
of the blast knocked
Matt unconscious
for several minutes.
MATT: I had to jump from the top
of that vehicle to the concrete.
MARIANA: And were you injured?
Were you, what were you
feeling at this moment?
MATT: Nothing.
Just pure adrenaline.
I'm getting shot at.
MARIANA: And you were
being shot at the same time?
MATT: Oh yeah, yeah.
After I got blown up, yeah.
(rapid gunfire)
I remember just running,
and running, and running.
At the time, being so
young and stuff, I, I, I,
I told them my back
hurt and I told them I was,
I was in pain, and, uh,
I kinda didn't, I
didn't take care of it.
I didn't take it seriously.
I just kind of let it ride and
I had actually
injured myself pretty bad.
MARIANA: Matt had a
damaged spine and nerves,
injuries that would be
compounded by years of physical
and mental stress in war-zones.
He served two tours in Iraq
and another in Afghanistan,
before returning
home to Minnesota.
MATT: So the lowest point after,
after I got out of the military,
landed a really good job and,
and things kind of,
kind of fell through
with that, and, uh, I didn't
feel too good about myself.
I had all this time and I
started to just dwindle away.
And pretty soon I was in bed
just not even, not even leaving.
And just, just laying there.
MARIANA: That's
been particularly
hard on his two sons.
MATT: I don't have a very
good relationship with them,
because of the PTSD.
It's just, it's so inconsistent.
You're just not there.
You're not, you're not
there when you should be.
And like, I don't,
you can't help it,
you wanna be, but you just
sit there and you can't do it.
You just physically
can't with your mind.
And you just, it's like
you're protecting yourself,
but you have these
children that needs you.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MATT: It's really hard.
You know, I had, I
had thoughts of, like, it's,
it's time to go.
You can, nobody, you know,
nobody cares about you.
Just go ahead and kill yourself.
MARIANA: Matt says he tried
every FDA approved drug for PTSD
but felt like
nothing was working.
MATT: So in those days
when you take the, the
medicine from, from the VA,
you just essentially
become a sitting zombie.
There's no life,
you're just a vegetable.
I told a buddy what
was going on and he,
he kind of talked to me,
and he said, "I have this acid."
And I was like, I
was like, "An acid?"
He's like, "Yeah, you've
never taken acid before?"
What I figured, I
had nothing to lose.
I had this little piece of
paper and I kind of laughed and,
you know, "What would it do?"
And I, I put it in my mouth.
♪
THERAPIST: Okay, Matt.
Well, it's that
time for the medicine.
And as you know, that
we here at Akasa Journeys
don't provide the medicine,
we just sit for you.
You checked it out,
you know your sources.
MATT: Yeah, my medicine's safe.
THERAPIST: Very good.
♪
MARIANA: After years of
struggling with PTSD and
on the brink of suicide,
Iraq veteran, Matt,
says he turned the
corner after a first time at
home dose of LSD.
MATT: I remember I got out
of bed and I took a shower,
and I put clothes on
and I came out of the room,
and interacted with everybody.
And I played with my kids.
We had the best night ever.
The thing in my mind
was gone, there was no fear.
MARIANA: So, that one time
alone changed you completely?
MATT: Yeah, where I don't
want to kill myself anymore.
And everybody needs to
see this and experience it.
MARIANA: And that is
what led Matt to seek out
a new form of underground
treatment for trauma.
One that uses talk therapy
and guided tripping sessions
under the influence of
illegally sourced LSD.
MATT: I'm, I'm pretty nervous.
I'm ready to almost
grab this blanket and
prepare myself for blastoff.
THERAPIST: Okay.
MARIANA: It takes nearly an hour
before Matt even begins to feel
the LSD in his system.
He's nervous about where
the trip might take him.
THERAPIST: Yeah, you just
wanna let that stuff flow.
You know, when you had
that accident and got blown up,
and then you were
left alone for a while.
You know, that's a
very tough experience.
You know, it's an unfolding.
You know, 'cause psychedelics
open a door to a stairway.
And it may
be difficult, you know,
and that's part of the process.
MATT: I don't know.
You're, like, you're
playing heads or tails,
if it's going to be a
good time, or a bad time.
If you're going to have to
deal with something traumatic.
MARK: If you look at
something like PTSD,
it's a tape loop
(rapid gunfire)
That horrible experience
replays itself again and
again and again.
And it's triggered.
It's triggered uncontrollably.
MARIANA: Earlier
in my investigation,
I talked to researchers in
Vancouver who helped shed light
on why psychedelics can
be so effective in therapy.
MARK: Traditional treatments can
go there and find the tape loop,
but they trigger the
tape loop and there's
a huge fear response.
Psychedelics allow access
to the unconscious mind.
You can actually go there
and find the tape loop without
the big fear response.
You can go into
the tape loop and
essentially release its energy.
MARIANA: But the
optimism around psychedelics
doesn't exist in a vacuum.
ERIC (over TV): The people
who called police said the man,
who was apparently high on LSD,
was acting erratically and
actually attacked another man.
(yelling)
MARIANA: Retired DEA agent
Dennis Wichern is quick to
point out there's no shortage
of tragic incidents in either
case files or the evening news.
DENNIS: On the
law enforcement side,
you see the pain and
misery by a family member
when their, their child's
taken it and had
some effect, you know,
like death or
effect that's lifelong.
One decision is
forever life changing.
MARIANA: In truth,
there are no known
overdose deaths from pure LSD.
But that's not to
say there's no risk,
either from impairment
under the influence,
or from pre-existing conditions.
So before knowing
anything about LSD,
what were your thoughts?
MATT: I mean, drugs,
in general, were, were horrible.
That's what, that's
what my community believes.
MARIANA: They
don't approve of it?
MATT: No, no they don't.
We're labeled as
drug addicts and,
generally bad people
because of the choices we make.
MARIANA: Have you explained
to them what it's done to you?
MATT: They don't want to,
people don't wanna listen to it.
But this truly
improved mental health.
I take no medication
now and I just finished
my first semester
of college, full-time.
And I got 3.85 GPA, so.
MARIANA: Nice, congrats.
MATT: This is, yeah, thanks.
This is, this is
doing great things.
MARIANA: What are you studying?
MATT: I'm studying psychology.
MARIANA: Matt
still has bad days,
but he credits LSD with helping
to get his life back on track.
And he's not alone.
It's these stories of
transformation that inspire me
to keep looking for one of
these ever elusive chemists.
Through some mix of
persistence and luck,
it finally happens in a broken
down school bus in Wyoming.
♪
MARIANA: So, how did
you become a chemist?
CASEY: You know, I took LSD.
Changed my life.
Set me free.
Unleashed my mind.
MARIANA: After months of
searching for a chemist,
I finally found one in Wyoming.
Casey Hardison is
known in certain circles
as a drug wizard.
We have spoken to so many people
about their first acid trip and
I think you're the
first person that even
gets emotional when
you talk about this.
Why?
CASEY: I experienced freedom.
I experienced complete,
absolute peace.
Complete relief from
all of my cares, concerns,
and anxieties, and hang-ups,
and I had just had an immensely
profound spiritual awakening.
MARIANA: So, you
know how to make every
drug out there, right?
CASEY: No. But I could,
could follow any protocol.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
CASEY: There's no protocol
out there that I couldn't,
you know, get the equipment,
set up the reaction
and complete the process.
LSD needs a lot more precision.
And you also need to
know what you're doing.
You need to know how
to run a laboratory.
MARIANA: You were
in the UK working?
You had a lab in England?
CASEY: Yeah. Yeah.
Matter of fact, I even
said the words to a friend,
"I think I'm
flying under the radar."
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
CASEY: I had no idea that they
were out in a field way across
from me in a horse box,
listening, watching, observing.
MARIANA: And then
what happened that day?
CASEY: I worked in
a lab for a while.
Then I went up to a
bar called The Sanctuary,
and they came in, one of the
detectives leaned over and said,
"I'm here to arrest
you for being concerned in
the manufacturing
of controlled drugs."
And I just said,
"How do you wanna do it?"
You know, I was high, actually,
I was on LSD at the time,
"As peacefully as possible."
I'm like, "That works for me."
MARIANA: At the height of
your production as a chemist,
how much were you making?
CASEY: A little under 200 grams.
Not a lot, you know.
Enough. But not,
not, not, not massive.
Not like kilos, some
other people are doing.
MARIANA: And why not?
CASEY: Limited
ergotamine supplies.
MARIANA: So were you doing it
for the money, or the ideals?
CASEY: Dude, I was doing it
for the alchemical adventure.
MARIANA: Was there a part of you
that was doing it for the money?
CASEY: You know,
if I worked hard I
could make 50,000 a month.
Didn't have to work
that hard. You know.
MARIANA: That's a lot of money.
CASEY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Was your stuff good?
CASEY: My stuff was delicious.
You know, smelled
like grape popsicles,
strangely enough.
They say it's odorless,
tasteless, colorless.
Well it is, and it's a crystal.
But as an oil it
smells like grape popsicles.
MARIANA: So we've been trying
to find an LSD chemist to talk
to us for months and no one
is willing to talk to us.
Why do you think that is?
CASEY: Life sentences.
Federal mandatory minimums.
MARIANA: And why
are you talking to us?
CASEY: 'Cause
I'm not practicing.
I'm not, uh, I'm not concerned.
I've already served my time,
done my sentence and I'm,
you know, shamelessly,
proud of my accomplishments.
The war on drugs is a war on
people and we can't possibly
win a war on people.
It cost us all that
gangster criminal trafficking.
Clogs the prison system.
It's not working.
The idea that you are going
to extinguish people's desire
to alter their
mental functioning is, um,
that's the craziest idea ever.
MARIANA: I mean, do
you think you could put
us in touch with a chemist?
CASEY: When considering
such a question,
it brings to mind what
I lost in being arrested.
I knew my purpose.
I knew who I was,
what I was up to,
and the law took that away.
And I'm not sure I
wanna risk that for them.
That was my greatest joy.
And now I can't do the
thing I want to do most.
I truly believe in
the transformation that
psychedelics can, can catalyze.
And these chemists know that
they're making a molecule that
causes that transformation.
They believe they're
making a difference and
I don't wanna
take that from them.
I don't want them to lose that.
I lost it.
I (bleep) want it back.
I want the freedom to alter my
mental function as I see fit and
to make molecules to
help others to do the same.
That's all I want.
MARIANA: I've met
plenty of drug dealers
who've done hard time in prison.
But I've never seen one weep
as he describes being robbed of
what he calls his purpose.
Perhaps I shouldn't
be surprised.
After all, indigenous
communities have used
psychedelics in spiritual
and therapeutic ceremonies
for thousands of years.
Some say it's time for
the rest of us to catch up.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.