WOMAN CONSIDERS LAWSUIT OVER LSD

Given Drug While Inmate

A Toronto-area woman who was given LSD by officials at Kingston's Prison for
Women in the 1960s says the drug trip has sparked ongoing flashbacks of
childhood sexual abuse.

The 75-year-old widow, one of 23 inmates who were subjected to experiments
with LSD-25, the purest form of the hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide,
says she intends to begin a class-action lawsuit in the Superior Court of
Justice.

Identified as "Jane Doe," the woman says in court documents that she wants
to sue the federal government and a prison psychiatrist and psychologist for
assault, battery, breach of duty and infliction of mental suffering.

But she also says the lawsuit is likely conditional on a court granting a
publication ban on her name because she wants to prevent her family and
neighbours from learning of her criminal background and the LSD experiments.

The woman was given a three-year sentence in 1959 for writing a bad cheque,
and prison records show she was given LSD on June 7, 1961, in what she
contends was an attempt to modify criminal behaviour.

Instead, it triggered recurring memories of abuse by her foster father, a
United Church minister, she claims.

A 1998 Correctional Service of Canada probe confirmed 23 women were given
LSD in a pilot project at the prison in the 1960s.