Dirty Pictures

This belongs into my personal hall of fame. All time gold. A true master peace ans must watch stock item for any officer, teacher, educator and all psychonauts in the field. Good to see Sashas wife Ann and lots of his friends here!

Sasha published the books Pihkal and Tihkal which are considered to be both the old and the new testament to all organic and pharmaceutical chemists and travellers alike.

Sasha outlined actually more than 400 compounds in both of these books and gives great comments on exoloring further modifications to most of them. Truly the work of a century in organic mind bending chemistry!

This beautiful documentary movie tells the story of quiet a share of his life and raw and candid looks behind the scenes alike. Absolute recommendation!

Question your assumptions every day of your life. Public school health teachers told us frightening stories, complete with gory photographs of allegedly sick or deceased drug and tobacco abusers, probably to frighten us into submission. The problem with public school health class was that we had not studied logic or the scientific method before taking the class. Therefore, we did not know how to question the validity of what they told us. Were the evidence and photographs they used in class fabricated to frighten us? We guessed they were. I would then leave school and spend time with kids who took drugs. I took drugs. I smoked tobacco, drank alcohol and had sex. My friends and me did actually discuss these ideas sometimes. We talked about police officers, the work they did and the methods they used. We talked about medical research. We knew the establishments' accusations that drugs caused psychiatric symptoms were not entirely accurate because some of the kids we took drugs with did have experience in the sciences. They refuted these accusations. They were the children of doctors and medical laboratory researchers. Some of the children we partied with were police officers children. They believed the drugs were alleviating their psychiatric symptoms. That is why they took them. I appreciate this film for many reasons. Firstly, for demystifying drug use. We took mass quantities of drugs, but did not die the way our public health class teacher claimed we would. Secondly, I appreciate the film for informing the public about the history of the investigation of chemicals like L. S. D. Sasha was licensed by the D. E. A. Thirdly, I appreciate it for demystifying the ammature naturalist. Although, I'm not positive Sasha is an ammature. He has the desire, the time and the space to grow cactus plants, and to take notes on his drug use. State funded laboratories depend on the public for financial support. Sasha can accomplish at his home garden what a public lab can not. That is really important. It's part of our American heritage. The idea that he has the right to privacy on his own property, that this privacy allows him the freedom to run his own tests, and that the State has to stay out of his business is all a very essential part of being an American. Forth, I appreciate the film for drawing attention to the fact that the D. E. A. Has not accomplished it's goals in stopping drug use. (Video minute 1:18:00) We talked about this issue as well when we were teenagers. The trouble with the police agencies is they tend to bully the population instead of collecting information and doing a thorough investigation. We knew that. We talked about it. What we did not do was drive to Congress and testify, and I think that was a crime. I wish we had been braver.

I would say the movie itself isn't anything too special. I went in expecting to learn much about Shulgin, and his series of books: Pihkal and Tihkal. Perhaps more in-depth information about how Sasha and Ann synthesize their different analogs and homologues, their experiences with these substances, and info on how the family live their lives. The last one was fulfilled to some extent, but much of this movie gave me a sense of Deja Vu because I had seen some of the clips used in it on Youtube and such. However, this is not a failure, because while it doesn't focus on the things that a viewer might expect them to (this movie attracts a very rare breed, and the showings are very exclusive), it does show what some people don't expect: the lives of a happy, normal, successful family. No matter how many drugs Shulgin has invented for people to eat, snort, shoot, this film makes you realize that this man's only intention is to figure out the mind, and he's very careful (if a bit humorously absent-minded) with his creations. You can sense the love and life between the characters, they are simply normal people, and much of the movie shows the more mundane parts of their lives, albeit in a humorous way.

Its sad that his chemical formulas for things like mescaline and DMT derivatives are considered by many to be "Dirty Pictures", when really they are some of the only paths straight into the mind (not the brain, as Shulgin explains himself)

Don't get me wrong, its not that there wasn't enough detail on drug use (but it sort of is), and there is plenty of humor (although it is subtle) in this documentary, definitely more than I expected. Shulgin is juxtaposed with his son, who collects rare tools (unlike the "tools" Shulgin makes, these are tools in the most traditional way), and a DEA agent. Lots of filler as people ride in trains (this is symbolic of Shulgin's first MDMA trip as is explained in the movie, but it was overused if you ask me) Maybe its just that I'd like to know more about HOW Shulgin started manipulating chemical formulas to make 2c-b and created a whole series of famous 2c-based drugs, or his experiments with countless other hallucinogens, how he got DEA approval, more detail on his struggles with the DEA, since this information is basically nowhere to be found, besides maybe snippets of P/Tihkal.

On the other hand, its interesting to find out about his rebellious son, the way he and Ann go through the day, seeing the lab in person and hearing people being interviewed on their opinions and relation to Sasha Shulgin.

For a movie so exclusive, you would just expect more detail on the "low key" aspects of his life. I was fully prepared to hear psychedelic formulas and experience reports throughout the whole movie, only to find out this wasn't the case. Not a tragedy, but I wish the director had taken that route at least a *bit* more