Taking a Trip with America’s LSD Research Pioneer - NYAS blog post on Max Rinkel, LSD research, and cautions

LSD research in the United States is traced through Max Rinkel, an early medical researcher who pursued psychiatric applications while warning about misuse. Rinkel’s LSD work is linked to key experiments in the late 1940s, including supervision of an early North American LSD experience and administration of LSD to artist Hyman Bloom. The account highlights how Rinkel observed mood effects and also noted limitations, such as impaired artistic control. Across the 1960s, the discussion contrasts Rinkel’s more objective, scientific stance with more counterculture-forward advocates, while emphasizing practical safety concerns. Rinkel cautioned that unregulated black-market LSD could be dangerous due to variation in purity and dosage, and he supported continued controlled research even as legal restrictions increased in the late 1960s and early 1970s.