starway6 wrote:When Nick sand was charged for producing "Orange sunshine" he claimed that his product was not lysergic acid diethylamide but 1-acetyl-lysergic acid diethylamide (ALD-52), now, this may have been a legal tactic to avoid prosecution (though it failed), or there's a chance that orange sunshine really was ALD-52, I guess you would have to ask Mr. Sand personally.
There's some display of universal karma when looking at the clandestine LSD manufacturers, so it doesn't surprise me that sand is free, and people like pickard (who I have heard terrible things about) ended up serving two life sentences...
Unhfortunatly.. Pickard was more harshly treated in a... KANSAS Court..receiving two life sentences because it was ...[KANSAS!]
The state of[ Kansas] is often mercyless on people charged with drug ofences...
Nick Sand was busted in Canada i think..and got a more fair judgment in court...thats why he is free today..
Nick sand was first busted in the United states around 1974, he made the ALD-52 argument, which failed, so he ran to Canada before they could sentence him...
He set up a new lab in Canada, which was busted in 1996.
1996 through late 2000 sand was incarcerated, first in Canada, then in the United states, which made up for the charges he evaded in the 1970s.
Sand did about 4 years total
Ok, I was trying not to get into the pickard thing because I don't know what's true and what isn't, but I can say it seems his motivations were far different from people like Nick sand, Tim scully, Casey Harrison or Alexander shulgin. most will tell you pickard himself was an informant, though as far as I know this was never confirmed. there's stories of kidnapping and torture, and so on, things you would expect from a "drug dealer", but things that seem to have not played a role in the actions of these other (al)chemists, who seem to have honestly wanted to share the amazing potentials of the psychedelic chemistry with the world.
So it may have been karma, and not just harsh treatment with pickard.
Casey Harrison is an example of harsh treatment, and he is free today.
Casey Harrison was arrested in the UK, he represented himself, and while he made great arguments, he really was subject to harsh treatment and prejudice, he made a beautiful case, full of arguments for Entheogenic liberty...unfortunately logic and reason were no match for the law...he was sentenced to 20 years, he served nine years, three months, two weeks, and three days, and is now free.
...I don't know, I've listened to these chemists reasonings for their actions, and I've listened to the story of what they actually did in reality, and it seems that those motivated by pure enthusiasm for psychedelics, and an honest desire to share these things with the world, and really believed in what they were doing, ended up ok in the end...
While those who you hear typical drug kingpin type stories about, as well as rumours of working with law enforcement, didn't seem to make it out.
-eg