LSD tests conducted on unwitting victims including prostitutes and drug addicts by the CIA in the United States.
A documentary depicts research and administration of LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide ) by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. A remote mountain area in Southern Mexico. A view of a hand holding a mushroom. View of a part time chemist for the CIA, Dr. James Moore, who narrator says duped amateur mycologist and mushroom science enthusiast R. Gordon Wasson into providing information that led to the development of LSD. Mr. R. Gordon Wasson is asked about a magic mushroom leading to the drug psilocybin. He talks about how they found the mushroom in Mexico and ingested it as administered by a local shaman or magical priestess, Maria Sabina, in a Mazatec mushroom ritual. Wasson describes his own experience of what it was like to be under the influence of psilocybin. He describes visions and his sensory experience. Narrator relates how Dr. Moore was instructed by the CIA to get close to Mr. Wasson and obtain the magic mushrooms on a trip to Mexico, and that internal memos revealed plans to derive a drug from the mushrooms that would remain an agency secret. Dr. Moore discusses his work in helping the CIA to produce a new drug. Anonymous speaker relates information from CIA operative of plans by the CIA to test the drug on unwitting American citizens. People drinking and sitting at a bar. Charles Siragusa, a former narcotics officer, tells about discussions with Mr. George White. Scenes with swirling colors and lights meant to simulate the experience of someone taking LSD drug. CIA operative says that George White helped the CIA locate unwitting persons on which to test the drugs, including prostitutes and illegal drug addicts. Traffic on city streets. Narrator states that Mr. White set up safe houses for CIA in Greenwich Village, New York. Night time views of neon signs for cocktail lounges and night clubs. Exterior neon sign of Plantation Inn Motel in San Francisco, another safe house. View of an apartment building atop Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, with a view of San Francisco Bay from the safe house apartment. Former CIA official relates how they used the safe houses to administer drugs to prostitutes and determine if the drug could be useful in getting people such as prostitution customers to reveal secrets. Cars and prostitutes on a street. Views of a college campus green. Narrator states that millions of dollars were spent on LSD research at universities throughout the United States. Narrator states that word spread on college campuses about the drug, and ushered in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s. Dr. Timothy Leary is interviewed and states that he gives the CIA credit for launching the consciousness movement and counter-culture events of the 1960s. Scenes of Dr. Leary in 1967, depicting him while using the drug. Dr. Leary states that the CIA funded and encouraged use of the drug by hundreds of psychologists to advance research and understanding of it, and that psychologists found it to be an intelligence enhancing and consciousness raising experience. Location: United States USA. Date: July 10, 1979.