State Allows Drug Studies At University

Psilocybin research will continue at the University under partial medical supervision, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health plans no action against Richard Alpert, assistant fessor of Clinical Psychology, or Timothy Leary, lecturer on Clinical Psychology, the CRIMSON learned last night.

In future experiments, a licensed medical doctor will be required to be in attendance while the consciousness-expanding psilocybin pills are administered, but he will not have to stay for the rest of the experiment.

Medical supervision is necessary because psilocybin is still classified as an "unknown" drug and thus falls under the provisions of the Commonwealth's harmful drug law. Alpert and Leary are attempting to gather evidence that psilocybin is not dangerous.

Massachusetts authorities have apparently adopted a friendly attitude towards the research and are insisting on medical precautions in order not to violate State laws or upset public opinion.

State investigators will drop the issue of the legality of psilocybin research carried on by Alpert and Leary without direct medical supervision for the past two years.

The psilocybin controversy started in early March, when several members of the Center for Research in Personality charged at a public meeting that "the project was being run nonchalantly and irresponsibly and that alleged permanent injury to participants had been ignored or underestimated."

A week later, Alfred J. Murphy, senior food and drug inspector of the Department of Public Health, launched an investigation to determine if the two researchers were violating State laws by possessing or prescribing psilocybin.

George A. Michael, deputy commissioner of the Department, has expressed his own opinion that the drug "must be administered by a physician."

University officials reportedly knew about the psilocybin research for two years, but did not interfere because to do so would be an invasion of academic freedom.