{"id":657,"date":"2005-11-22T17:23:59","date_gmt":"2005-11-22T21:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dbnews\/2005\/11\/22\/the-tragic-search-for-the-perfect-drug"},"modified":"2005-11-22T17:23:59","modified_gmt":"2005-11-22T21:23:59","slug":"the-tragic-search-for-the-perfect-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/2005\/11\/22\/the-tragic-search-for-the-perfect-drug\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tragic Search for the Perfect Drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n
\n

As promised, followup on the expanding investigation
\n into the drug lab\/sex den discovered near the Children’s Museum on the
\n downtown Boston waterfront.  Turns out that the lab was NOT the
\n biggest methamphetemine lab ever discovered on the East Coast. It was
\n much more sophisticated than that.<\/p>\n

\n

Police seized materials with labels indicating that they belonged
\n to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with an array of
\n illegal substances including ecstasy, LSD, and marijuana, inside a South
\n Boston apartment, according to court papers filed yesterday.<\/p>\n

Authorities had suggested that the apartment where Kevin McCormick, a 29-year-old
\n MIT graduate, was found dead on Nov. 13 contained one of the largest crystal
\n methamphetamine labs found in New England. It now appears, however, that
\n the operation may instead have focused on making designer drugs, according
\n to two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation, who spoke
\n on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Among substances seized were the designer drug MMDA, which produces
\n effects similar to mild LSD, and hallucinegenic mushrooms.<\/p>\n

The investigators also found bottles with labels bearing the names of
\n other psychedelic drugs.
\n It is not clear whether any of the drugs were being cultivated or made
\n at the apartment.<\/p>\n

For years, specialists say, enthusiasts of designer drugs have aimed
\n to discover new drugs or alter existing ones to create the perfect high.
\n The labs are typically extremely secretive.<\/p>\n

Police found the South Boston lab after emergency medical workers called
\n to the apartment found McCormick, dead from a heart attack during a sex
\n act, surrounded by chains, wetsuits, and masks, as well as illicit drugs.
\n Two of his roomates told police he had taken ecstasy hours earlier.<\/p>\n

from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The perfect high, indeed. In our decidedly low key book the perfect
\n high has nothing to do with chains, wetsuits or masks.  However,
\n this does reveal a long-standing sub-culture within the MIT community.
\n – geek genius psycho shamen, applying all the tools of modern chemistry
\n to psychotropic research, and using themselves as guniea pigs.<\/p>\n

This is not a new phenomena. We remember, thirty years ago, the organic
\n chemistry departments of Harvard and MIT were locked in thier own intercollegiate
\n space race, to design the perfect drug.  Every week the lab rats
\n would scurry out of the depths to display their latest designs and discoveries
\n at proto-raves in dorm rooms up and down the banks of the Charles. MMDA
\n was a novelty in those days, along with a veritable alphabet soup of
\n stimulants, halucinogens, morphine analogs, exotic plant extracts and
\n even certain substances reputedly available only from living human donors.<\/p>\n

As far as we were able to ascertain, the perfect drug was never isolated.  It
\n is interesting to note that the search goes on 30 years later, and that
\n MIT is still at the forefront of these efforts to expand the frontiers
\n of science, just as it is undeniably a tradegy that it has cost the life
\n of a young artist.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As promised, followup on the expanding investigation into the drug lab\/sex den discovered near the Children’s Museum on the downtown Boston waterfront.  Turns out that the lab was NOT the biggest methamphetemine lab ever discovered on the East Coast. It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serious-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}