Leonard Pickard on Making LSD and the Brotherhood of Underground Chemists

PSYCHOACTIVE

The federal government claimed that Leonard Pickard was quite possibly the biggest producer of LSD in history. There’s no telling if that was true, but a judge sentenced him to two life sentences without parole in a high-security prison. Leonard thought he’d die there, but he was released late last year after serving twenty years.

We talked about the Brotherhood of Underground Chemists who produced much of the world’s LSD in the late twentieth century – their motivations, beliefs and what distinguished them from major producers of other illicit drugs.

Leonard talked about his many years behind bars, living with the belief that he’d never get out. And we talked about the recent explosion of interest in psychedelics research and medicine, as well as his growing involvement in this increasingly legal domain.

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