SASKATCHEWAN DOCTORS 'PSYCHEDELIC PIONEERS'

The press notes for History Television's documentary The Psychedelic
Pioneers, about medically motivated drug experiments in the 1950s,
point out that in a remote corner of the Prairies, "three gifted
Canadian doctors were attempting to unlock the secrets of the human
psyche in an unconventional way -- with the use of the drug LSD."

It's debatable whether that would qualify as a legal defence in this
day and age, but the documentary profile of how the Saskatchewan
doctors first used LSD as a way to understand schizophrenia and later
as an aid in psychotherapy and treatment for alcoholism has special
significance today, given the renewed debate over legalized drug use.

The Psychedelic Pioneers notes how, when news of LSD's seemingly
magical effects first became public, artists, writers and
intellectuals like Aldous Huxley were quick to experiment. Huxley
would later write about his experiences in his 1956 book The Doors of
Perception -- written under the influence, as it were.

Here's another curious trivia note for you: The Psychedelic Pioneers
is narrated by Shirley Douglas, whose father, Tommy Douglas, was
Premier of Saskatchewan while the docs were doing their mind control
experiments. (Saturday on History Television)