Abstract
IN RECENT YEARS there has been an increasing interest in hallucinogenic drugs, especially among young Bohemian intellectuals. Interest has perhaps been encouraged by such eminent authors as Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts who have praised the effects of mescaline, LSD-25, and psilocybine in their books, The Doors of Perception and The Joyous Cosmology. The extent of this interest is indicated in Rigney's1 study of San Francisco Bohemians. Of 51 subjects, he found that 40 had tried marijuana and 25, peyote. The search for a readily available, legal, hallucinogenic drug has led some individuals to the discovery that hallucinatory effect can be produced by an old-fashioned asthma remedy containing 50.4% stramonium and 4.5% belladonna preparation (Asthmador). This was the case with three young men who were admitted to the San Francisco General Hospital because of deliberately self-induced intoxication with Asthmador. Report of Cases Case 1.— A 17-year-old boy was found