Ann Shulgin died on July 9 at her home near Lafayette, she was the wife of Alexander Shulgin and the author of two massive books that showed readers how to make hundreds of drug combinations. She passed away at the age of 92.
Wendy Tucker said that her mother had died.
The Shulgins were among the world's most experienced psychonauts, people who use themselves as guinea pigs to research new psychoactive drugs or to explore the mind- altering capacities of existing ones.
Their work was taken seriously. Ms. Shulgin would give Alexander Shulgin's new drug a try at a small amount. A panel of friends, including fellow chemists, psychiatrists and anthropologists, would test it at higher dosages.
Shulgin and his wife are two of the most important scientists of the 20th century according to a friend of theirs.
Ms. Shulgin used drugs like MDMA, also known as ecstasy, with her clients for years as a lay therapist. Researchers and therapists have begun to use hallucinogens in small amounts to treat a range of psychological disorders, despite the fact that they were ahead of their time.
In 2001, Ms. Shulgin said in an interview with the French newspaper that she and her co-worker were very close to each other. Both of us have the same interests, but our views are different. We add each other to our work.
The first person to describe its potential uses in therapy was Dr. Shulgin, who was known as the "god father of ecstasy". He didn't approve of its recreational use because it led to governments outlawing it.
The Shulgins were allowed to work with Schedule 1 drugs because of their close ties with the Drug Enforcement Administration. The administrator from the agency was the one who performed the wedding in 1981
The relationship between the Shulgins and the D.E.A. ended after they published their first book. The title refers to a class of drugs called phenethylamines that include ecstasy and mescaline.
A do-it-yourself guide to making some 170 drugs was a feature that made this self-publishing volume an underground hit in the US and Europe.
The feds didn't like it. They fined Dr. Shulgin and took away his Schedule 1 license.
The new drugs that Dr. Shulgin came up with were legal until they were added to the list.
Their goal was to break new ground.
Ms. Shulgin told The Los Angeles Times in 1995 that it was like creating new music.
Laura Ann Gotlieb was born in Wellington, New Zealand, where her father, Bernard Gotlieb, an American diplomat, was serving. Gwen Gotlieb was a native of New Zealand.
After moving to Sicily, the Gotliebs lived in Italy, Mexico, Cuba, and Windsor, Ontario. They settled in San Francisco after Mr. Gotlieb retired and Ann took art classes.
She took her first trip to a park in San Francisco in the early 1960s. She said that she saw something forming in the air when she stopped and looked around. I knew it was a doorway to the other side when I saw it up there in the air.
Three of her marriages ended in divorce. Dr. Shulgin passed away in the year 2004. She is survived by her daughter, Ms. Tucker, as well as two sons, Christopher McRee and Brian, and eight grandchildren.
The couple wrote a second volume after the success of the first one. The hallucinogens that are included in the T are psilocybin and other drugs.
Ms. Shulgin preferred drugs for their ability to allow people to look inside.
She incorporated ecstasy and other drugs in her practice as a way to help her clients confront repressed emotions, memories and self-impressions.
She said that ecstasy is an insight drug. Its main function is that. Insight that doesn't involve self-hatred. You can love yourself and appreciate what you are.
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