The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library is a library of psychoactive drug-related literature created in 1970 by Michael D. Horowitz, Cynthia Palmer, William Dailey, and Robert Barker, who merged their private libraries. It was named for Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of the first full-length work of drug literature written by an American, The Hasheesh Eater (1857). It was the largest such library in the world and was based in San Francisco, California. The Ludlow Library became part of the Ludlow Santo Domingo Library in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2003. After the death of its owner, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Jr., his family loaned the book collection to the Houghton Library at Harvard University and the music collection to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
During the 1970s the library grew rapidly and operated out of San Francisco as an international resource for psychoactive drug research, and for the study of psychoactive drug use in contemporary and historical societies. The Ludlow Library flourished during a period of perhaps the most intense media interest ever focused on the personal, social, scientific and political aspects of drug experience. The Library helped hundreds of writers, filmmakers, and news media researchers collect accurate historical information on cannabis, the opiates, coca and cocaine, and psychedelics for their publications.
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: Cannabis sativa, C. indica, and C. ruderalis. Alternatively, C. ruderalis may be included within C. sativa, all three may be treated as subspecies of C. sativa, or C. sativa may be accepted as a single undivided species. The genus is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from Asia.
Entheogens are psychedelic drugs—and sometimes certain other psychoactive substances—used for engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts. They have been used in various ways, e.g., as part of established religious rituals or as aids for personal spiritual development. Anthropological study has established that entheogens are used for religious, magical, shamanic, or spiritual purposes in many parts of the world. Entheogens have traditionally been used to supplement many diverse practices geared towards achieving transcendence, including healing, divination, meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, asceticism, prayer, trance, rituals, chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstatic dance. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms of consciousness such as those experienced in meditation, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences. Ego dissolution is often described as a key feature of the psychedelic experience.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of The Atlantic Monthly, during which he published writers including Charles W. Chesnutt. He was also known for his semi-autobiographical book The Story of a Bad Boy, which established the "bad boy's book" subgenre in nineteenth-century American literature, and for his poetry.
Tod Hiro Mikuriya was an American medical doctor and psychiatrist. Known as an outspoken advocate for the use of cannabis for medical purposes and its legalization, he is often regarded as the grandfather of the medical cannabis movement in the United States.
Fitz Hugh Ludlow, sometimes seen as Fitzhugh Ludlow, was an American author, journalist, and explorer; best known for his autobiographical book The Hasheesh Eater (1857).
Cannabis, also known as marijuana or weed among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of cannabis, which is one of the 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 65 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.
The Hasheesh Eater (1857) is an autobiographical book by Fitz Hugh Ludlow describing the author's altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while he was using a cannabis extract. In the United States, the book created popular interest in hashish, leading to hashish candy and private hashish clubs. The book was later popular in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s.
Richard Aldrich was an American music critic. From 1902–23, he was music critic for The New York Times.
A drug is any chemical substance that when consumed causes a change in an organism's physiology, including its psychology, if applicable. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and other substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, absorption via a patch on the skin, suppository, or dissolution under the tongue.
Heather McHugh is an American poet. She is notable for Dangers, To the Quick and Eyeshot. McHugh was awarded the MacArthur Fellows Program and Griffin Poetry Prize.
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The collections of Houghton Library include the Harvard Theatre Collection and the Woodberry Poetry Room.
Cannabis consumption refers to the variety of ways cannabis is consumed, among which inhalation and ingestion are most common. All consumption methods involve heating the plant's THCA to decarboxylate it into THC, either at the time of consumption or during preparation. Salves and absorption through the skin (transdermal) are increasingly common in medical uses, both of CBD, THC, and other cannabinoids. Each method leads to subtly different psychoactive effects due to the THC and other chemicals being activated, and then consumed through different administration routes. It is generally considered that smoking, which includes combustion toxins, comes on quickly but lasts for a short period of time, while eating delays the onset of effect but the duration of effect is typically longer. In a 2007 ScienceDaily report of research conducted at the University of California–San Francisco, researchers reported that vaporizer users experience the same biological effect, but without the toxins associated with smoking. Δ9-THC is the primary component when inhaled, but when eaten the liver converts this to the more psychoactive 11-hydroxy-THC form.
Alejandro Santo Domingo is a Colombian-American businessman. He manages the Santo Domingo Group, his family's conglomerate, with his net worth estimated by Forbes to be US$2.6 billion as of May 2023. He is a board member of several companies and organizations, such as Bavaria Brewery, Caracol Televisión, El Espectador, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Barefoot Foundation. Santo Domingo also owns a minority stake in the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He is married to British socialite Lady Charlotte Wellesley.
Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga was a Colombian-American businessman. He was the director of the Santo Domingo Group, his family's conglomerate of more than 100 companies.
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent, or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance that changes the function of the nervous system and results in alterations of perception, mood, cognition, and behavior. These substances may be used medically, recreationally, for spiritual reasons, or for research. Some categories of psychoactive drugs may be prescribed by physicians and other healthcare practitioners because of their therapeutic value.
Drug cultures are examples of countercultures that are primarily defined by spiritual, medical, and recreational drug use. They may be focused on a single drug, or endorse polydrug use. They sometimes eagerly or reluctantly initiate newcomers, but their main functions are to share drug experiences, to reduce harm by providing knowledge of how to use drugs as safely as possible, and to exchange information on suppliers and avoidance of law enforcement.
Jonathan Aldrich was an American poet and educator. He was the author of eight collections of poetry and several chapbooks. His collected poems, The Old World in His Arms, was published in 2021 by Wolfson Press.
The history of cannabis and its usage by humans dates back to at least the third millennium BC in written history, and possibly as far back as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B based on archaeological evidence. For millennia, the plant has been valued for its use for fiber and rope, as food and medicine, and for its psychoactive properties for religious and recreational use.
The International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service (ICEERS) is a non-profit organization (NPO), headquartered in Barcelona. ICEERS is dedicated to transforming society's relationship with psychoactive plants by engaging with some of the fundamental issues resulting from the globalization of ayahuasca, iboga, and other ethnobotanicals. Founded in 2009, ICEERS is registered as a non-profit organization, and has charitable status in the Netherlands and Spain, and through partner organizations in the US and UK. ICEERS also has consultative status with the United Nations' ECOSOC.
The Cannabis Action Network (CAN) is a former U.S. nonprofit cannabis policy reform organization, active between 1989 and 2008. The organization strove to "encourage sensible cannabis use" and advocated for "safe access for responsible adults and patients" through the "challenge the laws of the United States and the individual states prohibiting the possession and distribution of marijuana".
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