Rick Doblin on Sasha Shulgin’s Courage and the Return of Psychedelic Research | Sasha Centennial

Alexander Shulgin played a crucial, courageous role in establishing the validity of early modern psychedelic research through his public disclosure of subjective experience. When the FDA convened to decide whether to permit the resumption of human trials in the early 1990s, Alexander Shulgin used the opportunity to speak directly about his own experiences with psychedelic substances. His willingness to be vulnerable and authentic in such an institutional setting helped convince regulators to end the decades-long ban on human research. This pivotal event, occurring against the backdrop of restrictive drug policy, helped create the regulatory pathway that the modern psychedelic industry now navigates. By arguing for the value of phenomenological reporting in scientific inquiry, Alexander Shulgin bridged the gap between purely empirical animal studies and the necessity of human data, ultimately paving the way for the current generation of psychedelic medicine.