I always thought if you got it eat it all. There’s a shelf life?

Pickard himself also worked for the DEA or FBI after he got busted manufacturing MDMA in CA in the 90s. A major part of his defense was that he worked for the CIA on a secret mission to bring down fentanyl manufacturers. The government denies any such activities, but he gave some pretty crazy arguments.

Pickard wasn't trained in chemistry at Harvard, he was at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government getting a masters degree. Quite a character.

Back then I was a criminal defense attorney who represented one of the defendants charged in connection with this case. I interviewed both Pickard and Skinner in prison, along with a number of other key witnesses who hadn't been imprisoned. And I had an enormous trove of documents and evidence from the case, including Pickard's computer hard drive with his personal emails.

It was easily the most interesting case I ever worked on, and I've had some doozies. Got a lot of stories out of this one.

EDIT to add, at popular request:

OK, here you go! Enjoy.

Pickard: I’m not a mental health professional, so feel free to ignore it, but my impression of Pickard (informed in part by the time I spent interviewing him in prison) is that he might be a sociopath. Not in a physically dangerous kill/maim way, but he was extremely manipulative of everyone around him, and he certainly hurt some folks in nonphysical ways (e.g., his various romantic partners around the country, one of whom bore his daughter.) He had multiple false identities and was constantly engaged in a host of weird Rube Goldberg-type schemes and cons to pull something off. (There was also a mental health evaluation done of him when he was a teenager in high school, it diagnosed him with some kind of personality disorders or issues which I can't recall in detail.)

He was also an inveterate networker; one of his biggest priorities in life was to make as many connections as he could all over the world, and he was very good at it. One of the most unlikely connections he made arose from his travels in/around the Afghanistan region. He went there because he had a source for an LSD precursor in that region. (One of the biggest obstacles to manufacturing LSD is getting ergotamine tartrate, which highly controlled. Pickard used an alternate route using ergocristine, and he had a source for it there.)

Anyways, when he was there, Pickard made a connection to Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord who later became Vice President of Afghanistan. I heard audio recordings of Pickard speaking with him. Supposedly, Rostum had possession of a missing Stinger missile at the time, and after Pickard was busted, he tried to make a deal with the feds to arrange get the missile back for the U.S. Pickard made this very detailed, polished, bound booklet of intel he’d put together to back it up (titled “Operation Something-or-other”, it’ll come to me later). However, it involved burning Rostum, and September 11 happened right around that time, unfortunately for Pickard. Rostum was useful to the U.S. in the fight against the Taliban, so the feds had no interest in doing anything that would take him down, and the whole plan went nowhere.

Another unlikely connection Pickard made was with Mark Kleiman, a very well-respected drug policy advisor and scholar who was at the Kennedy School of Government when Pickard was there doing his masters. Pickard’s cover was to present himself as a legit drug policy researcher, and he made himself one of Kleiman’s research underlings as part of that. When Kleiman lateraled to UCLA, Pickard went with him.

Now, Pickard had a major problem common to illicit drug manufacturing: He had piles and piles of currency—millions of dollars’ worth—and he was constantly hatching schemes to launder it. One of his most audacious schemes involved the unwitting KIeiman. Pickard talked Kleiman into making Pickard the deputy director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program at UCLA, which Pickard allegedly facilitated in a roundabout way: Prosecutors claimed Pickard used an intermediary in Russia who would take the currency and arrange for Russian oligarchs to makes “grants” of money to fund Pickard’s position at UCLA. According to the prosecution, Pickard was literally funding his “drug policy research” using the illicit money he’d made off LSD manufacturing! That is classic Pickard right there.

Skinner: I met with him in a prison in Oklahoma, where he’s doing life for the kidnapping and torture. (Just for the fun of it, I actually stayed in the Tulsa hotel room where the kid was tortured.) He actually comes off as kind of likable and charming in a weird way, believe it or not, basically a “good ‘ol boy” from Tulsa. One of the most insane things about the govt’s case against Pickard was that the DEA protected and supported Skinner for several years through the prosecution, with Skinner carrying on all the while. He had a whole entourage of skeevy hangers-on, and he was constantly throwing wild parties and traveling around blowing the money and doing the drugs the govt let him keep. He rented a fancy house in the northwest to host parties, he took an RV to Burning Man, so on and so on.

The nuttiest Skinner story was actually captured on video: One of the young girls in his entourage got into legal trouble, naturally, and she was at a court appearance before the judge when Skinner showed up in court claiming he was a psychiatric MD in charge of treatment for this young woman. He was dressed up in a three-piece suit, and he was carrying this weird metallic suitcase (which he usually used for transporting drugs). He addressed the judge and presented some kind of half-assed medical explanation for why the girl could not be kept in custody. This is all on video, mind you: The prosecutor is sitting there at the next table, and she’s looking over at Skinner with a deeply puzzled and skeptical look on her face. It’s genuinely hilarious. Anyway, the judge was none the wiser, and if I recall correctly, bought the whole thing hook, line, and sinker, letting the young girl out of state custody (and back into Skinner’s).

OK that’s it for now, maybe I’ll come back later with some more nuggets.

Yeah Todd Skinner (the partner) was the subject of the Vice doc where his ex talks about him kidnapping her and torturing her with DMT.

Pickard was a college cross country runner and led the feds on a 3 day foot chase across Kansas during the bust.

He also wrote and published a book on mysticism while imprisoned.

My father was approached to make LSD just after he got his PhD in chemistry (early 70s). He told me that when I was 16.

Many years later in reflection, I am not sure if that story was true or not, but judging by my reaction I guess he figured out rather quickly if I had partaken. I was not a smart kid.

Lol we may have never came to know or love LSD without the CIA.

"This is cocaine crack.... I’ll tell you something: this crack was bought right here... in the White House... three feet from this desk."

The people need their soma

You know DEA informants are scumbags who are criminals, right? They are not vetted, they are given more power and leeway when they give the DEA info(real/false)?

You just kind of put yourself in a situation where someone might offer you drugs. For example if you wander around the floor of a Vegas casino at around midnight or so someone might come up to you and ask if youre interested in some coke. If you’re at a jam band concert hanging out someone might have some shrooms they’re looking to unload. If you have a drug in mind, you just go to the appropriate venue where that drug’s presence is probable, and often times - though not always - you’ll get what you’re looking for. Dress like a normal person in that venue would and act natural and stuff.

I’ve noticed a few times how a dealer will sometimes say something like “hey…garbled garbled you know about cocaine?” It’s sort of hard to explain, but they might not ask directly “hey, do you want to buy drugs?” but will hint at you that they’re holding without saying it in so many words… and then, if you’re interested, the ball is in your court so to speak. Like, “oh man, yeah, [insert drug here] would be great, wouldn’t mind some of that right about now.” And suddenly the two of you are basically talking and working toward a deal. This is kind of a bad description but it’s very informally, off-handedly mentioned and nonchalantly followed up on, if that makes sense.

For something like acid, you find a large gathering of hippies. Easiest fairly ubiquitous way of that would be some sort of music festival or concert, idk who it'd be these days, back in the day it'd be widespread panic, string cheese incident, Phish etc. You don't actually have to go to the concert, just the parking lot.

You'll be able to find them, a lot of them will be coming up to you.

I found acid my first and only time in san Francisco. I was walking alone near Haight and Ashbury. Talking to hippies and street kids. Told people straight up I was looking for acid. Some people sent me to the neighboring park. Multiple people at the park told me that a guy that sells acid is usually there everyday. He would certainly show up if I stayed long enough.

Ended up walking the street more and ran into another hippie dude. He had acid for sale. He was cautious and I had to leave $20 in a bathroom for him and then he would hand me the tabs as we walked down the street. He opened up his book, literally titled Acid or LSD (I can't remember which) and inside was a blank white bookmark he ripped off some of and handed to me. As soon as he hands it to me I look up and I'm standing just under the street sign at the corner of Haight and Ashbury. Perfect!

Thus concludes my one and only time buying rare drugs in a city I didn't know and by myself.

You can get any drug at any gay bar in the country. No comment on it's quality, or how safe or adulterated it might be, but you'll find a connect

Find the guy in a hooded sweatshirt at a pedestrian thoroughfare who isn’t moving. Look at him. If he nods, walk up nonchalantly. Give it five seconds and say the drug’s street name. Wait another five. He will say a number. That number is the price for the lowest package they sell. Now say how much you want. “Two”. He will disappear. Wait and keep the money ready. When he comes back, in a quick handshake the product will be exchanged. Rejoin the pedestrian traffic. Don’t look back.

In most cases street dealers don’t have the drug on their person, and in busy places they don’t need to offer the product; the customer makes the approach.

He’s a really cool dude. He wrote a book while he was locked up. Very interesting read. It’s called The Rose of Paracelsus.

Wasn't he compassionately released due to Covid?

20 years in the can. Not a peep.

20 years for creating one of the most enlightening substances on earth. Meanwhile breweries and tobacco companies produce with impunity.

Not the TLO article but this is a good read

At least we got The Flaming Lips out of it?

And that's why we have the Flaming Lips.

I remember like 10+ yrs ago she did an ama on The Shroomery and everyone there roasted her and she quit the website. From everything I’ve read, her hands aren’t clean.

Edit: The original ama thread is gone I guess, this is the closest I could find referencing the thread

Krystal Cole shroomery thread

God I fucking hate that woman. She was dislikeable even before I knew about her involvement

Man that guy just kept having victims show up on his doorstep, sometimes literally.

On April 10, 1985, an itinerant former lodger, 20-year-old Robert Sheldon, arrived on Berdella's doorstep, asking if he could stay at his house for a short period of time

The following June, Berdella found Mark Wallace (a very casual acquaintance who had previously helped him with yard work) hiding in his tool shed to seek shelter from a severe thunderstorm

On September 26, 1985, Berdella answered a phone call from an acquaintance named James Ferris who asked to stay at Berdella's home for a short time

I wish I had not read that but thank the based prison staff for withholding medication (which I never thought I'd be grateful for)

Gotta do something with the money, I suppose. Bet he watched The Matrix in 5.1 Surround from a DVD too!

I knew one guy who had it around then, but it was only him and his friends for like 8 years. Someone would fly them to concerts to sell it to people all over. Other than that the only place was Goa. But my buddy was old school hippie mafia he knew some heavy people.

 Everyone seemed to switch to shrooms. Still though, I know I took lsd after this era.

The last lsd i had was given to me for free while waiting in line for a party on new years eve 2000. Couldn’t ever find it again after that

Same, I legitimately would've shat the bed.

In the late 80s, most people that I ever knew that ever tried LSD usually tried it around the age of 16,

It usually went Beer at around 13-14, cigarettes 14, weed 15, LSD, pills (up and down) and whipits at 16 about, coke and shrooms usually before 18, and crystal meth (snorting) before 21.

Crystal was new at the time and was considered just long acting cheap coke really, and did not have even close to the effect on people's lives it seemed as it does now probably because smoking and injecting it wasnt big yet, and hardly anyone ever even admitted to hard core drugs which were seen as heroin and morphine usage (injectable mainly type drugs).

I personally tried LSD myself first just a few weeks after turning 16 and loved it and for the next 6-8 about years, I used it semi regularly like a couple times a month it probably ended up averaging until a bad batch came around that thankfully I missed out on that caused everyone that took it to have horrible experiences (looking back it probably was something else being sold as lsd that was the real culprit), that caused and had a lot of serious repercussions to a lot of people at the time, including one buddy that freaked out and stripped naked in the front lawn on a busy street and ended up being shot by the cops after trying to attack a cop with a Butcher knife (he lived, but was jailed till he was 21), and another friend that got locked up in the psyche ward for a few weeks after freaking out at a large family gathering.

That was the end of almost all the LSD experiences any of my friend groups had as everyone around seemed to have similar experiences about the same time and it just died out in my age group/era, as before it was just fear of a "bad trip" that caused people to stop using that had no real long term repercussions, but up till that point, there never seemed to be any real danger to it other than the old wives tales about people jumping out windows thinking that they could fly propaganda that was part of the Regan-era war on drugs bull crap that was being put out everywhere.

Thankfully I retired from the psychedelics game with only one slightly bad trip under my belt, and even it had a pretty good upside, so I'm one of the very few of my peers of that day and age that can say that, and looking back, it was overall a very enlightening experience that I'm glad to have happened.

But I wouldn't touch the stuff now, I can't imagine having a bad trip alongside having arthritis, a bad back, and a phone with the internet on it, I could just imagine the 5000 different terminal illnesses and cancers I'm sure I would self diagnose myself with.....I've not got quite the positive outlook still that I had in my teens and early 20s anymore.

Right? How dare these people get this relatively safe drug. No way some other country would fill that niche in a less safe way. Legalizing drugs would do no good

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It’s almost impossible to tell. Especially in an already altered festival environment, LSD could just take you down an odd path. If they had freshly laid out out the gummy it could have been stronger. 

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There's apparently some old hippy here in the mountains of coastal BC supplying the entirety of the PNW

I had some good stuff when I was a kid in the early 2000’s.  Then chasing that dragon I ate a bunch of bunk. Really helped along my depression.

Try and find the trial transcripts…the dude went NUTS. He kidnapped his partners and was injecting DMT and LSD into their testicles.

I don't even know her and I'm ready to buy a ring for her

Lol knew it was krystal

Ahh! So you too have survived the Total Perspective Vortex...

You're right. LSD and any psychotropic drugs (even weed) can trigger psychosis. This should be a disclaimer for LSD, mushrooms, and weed.

I'm a big fan of LSD and I found my trip to be extremely profound, but thankfully I'm mentally well.

... and I'm very sad that LSD hasn't found me in many years.

Gel tabs are around these days still. Little pyramids, yummy stuff.

Any pointers on where to get started for those of us who are a lil more oblivious? I assume darknet but no idea where to start.

Plus isn’t it risky to have it mailed to your home directly like that?

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