Nicholas Sand

Sand was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on May{{nbs}}10, 1941.{{cite news|title=Nicholas Sand, creator of famous 'Orange Sunshine' LSD, dies at 75|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-nicholas-sand-20170516-story.html|accessdate=May 17, 2017|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=May 16, 2017}} His father, Clarence Hiskey, was a researcher in the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory who attempted to spy for the Soviet Union. After his parents divorced, Sand took his mother's maiden name.

Sand graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1959 and then spent a year working on a kibbutz in Israel.{{cite news|last1=Grimes|first1=William|title=Nicholas Sand, Chemist Who Sought to Bring LSD to the World, Dies at 75|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/us/nicholas-sand-chemist-who-sought-to-bring-lsd-to-the-world-dies-at-75.html|accessdate=14 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=14 May 2017|page=A24}} He graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in anthropology and sociology in 1966.

Sand became interested in the teachings of George Gurdjieff, the study of different cultures, and various Eastern philosophers.Lee, Martin A. Shlain, Bruce. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of Lsd. Grove Press. 2007 In 1961, he had his first mescaline experience. Shortly after graduating from college, Sand followed Leary and Alpert to Millbrook. During this time Sand also began synthesizing DMT in his bathtub, and he is credited with being the first to discover that it was active when volatilized (smoked).{{Cite web|url=http://www.dmtsite.com/dmt/information/history_discovery.html|title = DMT Discovery and History}}

Sand later started Bell Perfume Labs as a front for the production of mescaline and DMT.[http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/lsd/books/bel3.htm The Brotherhood of Eternal Love] Drug Library.net

Sand and David L. Mantell were arrested on April{{nbs}}1, 1967 when their truck failed to stop at the Dinosaur, Colorado Port of Entry. The truck was eventually searched and federal agents reportedly found 313,000 doses of LSD and a laboratory-on-wheels.{{cite news |agency=United Press International |work=The Billings Gazette |location= Billings, Montana |date= April 7, 1967 |page= 2 |title= LSD Lab Carried $1.5 Million of It}}

In 1967 Sand was introduced to fellow chemist Tim Scully, who trained under Owsley Stanley until Stanley's legal troubles in December 1967.{{cite book |title=The Brotherhood of Eternal Love |year=1984 |url=https://archive.org/details/brotherhoodetern00tend |url-access=limited |first1= Stewart |last1= Tendler |first2= David |last2= May |publisher= Panther Books |location= London |page= [https://archive.org/details/brotherhoodetern00tend/page/n111 109]|isbn=9780586049099 }}

In December 1968 Sand purchased a secluded farmhouse in Windsor, California, a small town in rural Sonoma County. There he and Scully set up a large LSD lab. Here they produced over 3.6 million tablets of LSD that was distributed under the name "Orange Sunshine, which was considered the quality standard for LSD in 1969.[https://books.google.com/books?id=cZGfAAAAMAAJ&q=%22tim+scully%22+%22orange+sunshine%22 Waiting for the man: the story of drugs and popular music], by Harry Shapiro, 1988, Quartet Books

A joint state, federal and local strike force called "Operation BEL" was assembled in early 1972. On August 3, 1972, the Orange County, California, Grand Jury returned an indictment against 29 alleged members of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, including Sand; the indictment was primarily aimed at the hashish smuggling arm of the Brotherhood.{{cite report |title= Hashish Smuggling and Passport Fraud: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love |author= United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act |date= October 8, 1973 |pages=21, 79 }}

The investigation continued and on December 6, 1972, the Orange County, California, Grand Jury returned another indictment, this time aimed primarily against the Brotherhood of Eternal Love's "Orange Sunshine" LSD system; Sand was included in that indictment too.{{cite report |title= Hashish Smuggling and Passport Fraud: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love |author= United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act |date= October 8, 1973 |pages=22, 79 }}

On January 19, 1973 "Leland H. Jordan" (later identified as Sand) and Judy Neal Shaughnessy were arrested on drug charges by Kirkwood, Missouri, police, shortly after they arrived from San Francisco. Their residence at 425 North Highway 21 in Fenton, Missouri, an elaborate hilltop home on 18 acres of land, had been found to contain hundreds of gallons of chemicals and elaborate laboratory equipment.{{cite news |title= Quantity of Drug Materials Seized |newspaper= Post-Dispatch |location= St Louis, MO |pages= 1, 5 |date= January 18, 1973 }}{{cite news |title= Pair Arrested in Drug Case |newspaper= Post-Dispatch |location= St Louis, MO |pages= 1, 3 |date= January 20, 1973 }}{{cite news |title= Press for LSD Tablets Confiscated in Fenton |newspaper= Post-Dispatch |location= St Louis, MO |page= 12b |date= January 22, 1973 }}

On April 25, 1973, Sand, Tim Scully, Michael Randall, and four other major figures in the LSD operation were indicted by a Federal grand jury in San Francisco.{{cite report |title= Hashish Smuggling and Passport Fraud: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love |author= United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act |date= October 8, 1973 |page= 23 }}{{cite news |title= 8 Indicted by Federal Grand Jury After Worldwide Probe |newspaper= The Times |location= San Mateo, California |agency= Associated Press |date= April 26, 1973 |page= 25 }}{{ cite news |title= Six 'World Suppliers' Are indicted In LSD Net |newspaper= The Sacramento Bee |location= Sacramento, California |date= April 26, 1973 |page= A18 }}

On January 30, 1974, Sand and Scully were found guilty,{{cite news |title= Federal Jury Convicts Two in LSD case |first= Evan |last=Maxwell |work= Los Angeles Times |date= February 1, 1974 |page= OC_A3}}{{cite news |title= 2 Guilty in LSD, Tax Evasion Case |first= Drew |last= McKillips |newspaper= San Francisco Chronicle |date= January 31, 1974 |page= 4 }} partially due to the testimony of Billy Hitchcock and other informants.{{ cite news |title= Oil Heir Testifies on Financing of LSD Lab |newspaper= The Los Angeles Times |location= Los Angeles, California |date= November 15, 1973 |page= 27 |last= Lembke |first= Daryl}}{{cite news |title=Oil Millionaire Key in Drug Case |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/28/archives/oil-millionaire-key-in-drug-case-california-jury-resuming-in-trial.html|newspaper= The New York Times |last= Fosburgh |first= Lacey |date= January 28, 1974 |location= New York, New York |page= 16}} On March 8, 1974, Sand was sentenced to 15 years in a federal penitentiary.{{cite news |title= Scully gets twenty years, Acid trial's judge freaks out, saves US from mind-expanders |first= Stephen |last=Gieber |work= Berkeley Barb |location= Berkeley, California |date= March 15–31, 1974 |page= 15}}

The defense presented at his trial claimed that the defendants had made ALD-52 instead of LSD-25.{{cite news |title= The Acid Trial Peaks |first=Stephen |last=Gieber |work= Berkeley Barb |date= January 25–31, 1974 |pages= 3–4 |location= Berkeley, California}}

Sand's attorney appealed his conviction, based on four technical legal issues: pre-indictment delay, refusal to suppress bank records, lack of a taint hearing and use of Swiss bank records. The appeal was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on September 13, 1976, and rehearing was denied October 8, 1976.{{cite court |litigants= US v Sand |vol= 541 |reporter= F.2d |court= 9th Circuit |date= 1976 |opinion=1370 |url= https://openjurist.org/541/f2d/1370/united-states-v-sand }}

LSD chemist William Leonard Pickard contributed to Sand's legal defense fund.{{cite book|last1=Jarnow|first1=Jesse|title=Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America|date=2016|publisher=Da Capo|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-306-82255-1|page=357|edition=First}}

Sand fled to Canada in 1976, evading imprisonment. LSD historian Mark McCloud reports that Sand then traveled to the ashram of so-called "sex guru" Rajneesh in west India. Sand eventually returned to North America, again producing large quantities of LSD.{{cite book|last1=Jarnow|first1=Jesse|title=Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America|date=2016|publisher=Da Capo|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-306-82255-1|page=356|edition=First}} Sand was arrested for drug manufacturing in 1990 in British Columbia, but as he was living under an alias, police did not determine his identity and Sand fled while on bail.{{cite news|last1=Wallace|first1=Bill|title=LSD Fugitive From '70s Busted for Lab in Canada|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/LSD-Fugitive-From-70s-Busted-for-Lab-in-Canada-2955156.php|accessdate=3 October 2016|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=19 December 1996}}

Sand was arrested again in 1996 in Canada. Refusing to cooperate with the police, it took forensic investigators two months to determine Sand's real identity. Police found 43 grams of crystalline LSD at Sand's lab, approximately 430,000 doses of LSD. The bust also uncovered six million dollars worth of designer drugs such as MDMA, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in laboratory equipment. In 1998 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years to be served in an American prison. He was paroled in 2001.

Sand died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Lagunitas, California, on April 24, 2017, at the age of 75.

• Tim Scully
• Owsley Stanley
• William Leonard Pickard
• Casey William Hardison
• History of lysergic acid diethylamide
• Psychonautics
• Counterculture of the 1960s
• The Sunshine Makers

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/sand_nick/sand_nick.shtml Erowid Character Vaults: Nick Sand]
• [https://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/sand_nick/sand_nick_biography1.shtml Erowid Character Vaults: Nick Sand Extended Biography]
• [http://www.matrixmasters.com/pn/speakers/Sand-bio.html Audio (MP3): Nick Sand at Mind States II in 2001]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061108085438/http://www.matrixmasters.com/podcasts/NickSand/054-NickSand-PalenqueNorte2006.mp3 Audio (MP3): Nick Sand giving his 2006 Palenque Norte lecture at Burning Man]

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Category:1941 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Scientists from Brooklyn

Category:People from Marin County, California

Category:American Buddhists

Category:Psychedelic drug researchers

Category:Lysergic acid diethylamide

Category:American psychedelic drug advocates

Category:Erasmus Hall High School alumni

Category:Brooklyn College alumni

Category:Psychonautics researchers