The "Acid King," Serving Life

Without Parole, Speaks to The

Influence

a Seth Ferranti

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July 29th, 2016

Convicted of making obscene amounts of LSD at a former nuclear missile

silo, William Leonard Pickard
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard)—aka “The Acid King”—was sentenced to
life without parole in the federal prison system in 2003.

Now 70 years old, Pickard is still steadfastly fighting this unjust and inhu-
mane sentence, trying to regain his freedom. He’s doing so with the help
of his exceptional intellectual arsenal. An alumnus of the Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard, with degrees in chemistry and public policy,
he was formerly a research associate in neurobiology at Harvard Medical
School, a fellow of the Interfaculty Initiative on Drugs and Addictions at
Harvard, and deputy director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program at
UCLA.

In November 2000 the DEA raided the LSD lab inside Atlas E, the old nu-
clear missile silo in Wamego, Kansas, a er a tip from an informant—the
man who owned the silo, who was granted immunity by the prosecution
in return for his testimony against Pickard.

The silo

The DEA reported

(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://www.dea.gov/pu
bs/states/newsrel/2003/sanfran112403.html) that it had seized 91
pounds of acid, making it by far the largest LSD bust in US history. They
also claimed that thanks to the arrests of Pickard and his co-defendent
Clyde Apperson, arrests and ER visits involving LSD both dropped dra-
matically nationwide. The following charts are taken from the DEA’s web-
site. (Their relevance and methodology are disputed by Pickard and
many others; they are provided here merely as an illustration of the scale
of the DEA’s claims.)
As o en happens
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/http://www.cjr.org/analy
sis/drug_bust.php), reports grossly inflated the quantities seized. The ac-
tual weight of the acid from the silo turned out
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/http://www.slate.com/ar
ticles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_minute/2005/03/the_91-
pound_acid_trip.html) to be closer to half a pound. But still, it was one of
the rare times that the DEA actually seized an intact, functioning LSD lab
—and without making any comment on Pickard’s level of involvement,
the operation was undoubtedly on a massive scale.

Even if Pickard was guilty—and even if you believe prison sentences are
ever merited for drug-law violations—his sentence is disproportionate. In
one of the few prior federal LSD lab seizures, also described as the
“largest in history,” the chemists served sentences of only 18 months and
seven years (US v. Sand and Scully, N.D. Cal. 1973).

As he winds his way through the courts, going through the slow-moving
appeals process and awaiting his day of justice, Pickard has penned and
published a book, The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets & Sacraments
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://www.amazon.-
com/Rose-Paracelsus-Secrets-Sacraments/dp/0692509003?
ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0). It’s a journal of research interviews
with an elite international group of six underground psychedelic
chemists. It “explores a global entheogen system, discovering their prac-
tices leading to cognitive enhancement and, arguably, the next human
form.”

I approached Pickard through a mutual contact, using the BOP email sys-
tem. A er a few questions from the Acid King about my purpose—for ob-
vious reasons, there are aspects of his case he can’t discuss right now—
he agreed to an interview.

When he called me from USP Tucson in Arizona I didn’t know what to ex-
pect. To someone who was involved in the LSD world like I was—I served
21 years in the feds for my own nonviolent, first-time drug-law violation—
talking to Pickard is like talking to the President. Despite being locked up
since 2000, Pickard is good-humored and curious, with a direct way of
speaking. It was hard for me to believe that this cultured, educated man
is serving life.
 
Seth Ferranti: What can you tell me about the situation in your case and
where you stand in the legal process?

William Leonard Pickard: A er 16 years of glacial litigation, and a thou-

sand motions, we are making progress through Freedom of Information
Act requests on documents that seem to be of quite unusual concern to
the opposing party. There have been four consecutive reversals in the ap-
pellate courts, with renewed and intensive scrutiny of earlier proceed-
ings, so that hope remains.

You have an extensive academic background that most prisoners don’t

have. How do you get along with your fellow prisoners and what has sur-
prised you about them?

While doing research in unstable regions abroad, amid the chaos, I

found my way by noticing the instances of humanity. Captive populations
are similar; courtesy and service to others is the only path.

Early on, it was a privilege each morning to teach reading to an illiterate

black man in his forties. We laughed sometimes, but always yearned for
our families. He struggled with Jack and Jill, and especially deciphering
“the” and “them.” Because he could not read, he compensated by devel-
oping acute social senses, all beyond my own. Never before had he been
praised for any small accomplishment. He hid Jack and Jill from his cell-
mate, so others would not ridicule him. I asked why he wanted to learn.
He replied, “So I can read bedtime stories to my children.” How very
brave he was.

Prisons are dense multi-culturally, with vastly di erent codes than the
free world. In The Rose, I describe two circumambulations of the earth,
encountering tribal markets and a toothless grandmother with only a
tomato to sell, and babushkas with twigs for brooms, and Hmong chil-
dren in gay head-cloths who never heard of America. Living now among
prisoners of many nations, a few of the more colorful may remind one of
Afghan militants, of tattooed war fighters.

Yet long-term prisoners, especially the nonviolent who may be captive for
decades, somehow retain a certain dignity. In all these years, lost among
the thousands, I have seen only one man cry.

What is The Rose of Paracelsus about? How long did it take you to write,
and why did you write it?

 The manuscript has quite a parallel to T.E. Lawrence’s 1919 autobiogra-

phy. Returning from the Howetat tribes in Arabia, and a er years of writ-
ing in a freezing, borrowed garret, Lawrence misplaced his immense,
handwritten Seven Pillars of Wisdom at a London train station. He began
again. The Rose was handwritten in two years, without notes and based
on recollection, but seemed too trivial to honor the reader. I destroyed
the work in minutes, then began again. It took another three years to
compose, then a year to edit the 656 pages.

Some may consider it fiction. Perhaps it is a love poem to only one, over-
heard by many. Perhaps it is for those who wonder at the source of
things, of the lives of those who must be clandestine. Yet the subjects
who are interviewed, each known by a cryptonym and collectively as
“The Six,” regard it as a record of the first senses and tentative abilities of
the next human species.

How hard was it to get it published from prison?

The barrier is only that of pencil and paper and mind, a wall at first seem-
ingly unscalable, but which opens into boundless freedom. Long-su er-
ing friends and family took my hand, so that from a dark and buried cor-
ner thoughts and feelings suddenly gained wings.

In maximum-security there is, for most, no way out; the only voice that
can be heard is from writing. In a ceaseless sea of noise, one develops
tunnel hearing, and in that precious silence may bloom the thousand
flowers.

The federal system encourages the writing of manuscripts, for which we

are grateful, and bylines recently have been approved. A kind visitor, the
esteemed poet and author Richard Shelton
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Richard_Shelton_(writer))—Professor Emeritus of English and Cre-
ative Writing at the University of Arizona—listened to many readings of
The Rose and guided me most carefully.

Prison writers may wish to recall future Nobelist Joseph Brodsky’s retort
to a Soviet tribunal [which asked him]: “Who gave you permission to
write?”

[He replied:] “I think that it … comes from God.”

You have long been associated with LSD and drugs of the mind. Can you
explain your fascination and interest in psychedelics?

There is no fascination with drugs per se, but with the quality of mind. In
The Rose, The Six remark that the ultimate gi is our natural mind, that
to which one must always return—and venerate.

They said, in e ect, that a mere substance dare not mimic its majesty.

But can mind-opening drugs help people to see things more clearly? Can
they foster innovation?

For survival, we evolved as novelty-seeking creatures who can project al-

ternative futures useful for hunter-gatherers. Insight, or self-reflection to
“see things more clearly,” thus hardly is drug-dependent. Altered states
and perceptions that disrupt linear thinking and are helpful to the cre-
ative process may be generated through a range of substance-free prac-
tices, or—according reports of users—through temporary employment of
any substance, the most favored in the literature being the rare use of
cannabis and psychedelics.

Kary Mullis reported his invention of the Polymerase Chain Reaction

(PCR) as an outcome; the debatable DNA structural insight of Crick is
another.

However, while one may, [to paraphrase

(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/All_in_the_golden_a ernoon...)] Lewis Carroll, bring back pilgrims’
flowers from a far-o land—and find them very precious—how even more
wonderful to consider that no phenomena are inaccessible to normal
consciousness.

Do you think LSD helped create the Internet?

 How tantalizing that the same era and locations—Cambridge, Palo Alto,
San Francisco—hosted psychedelic phenomena and transformative cy-
bernetics. Stanford physics and engineering, Aiken Lab at Harvard, the
first Internet nodes, and especially Stanford Research Institute and Artifi-
cial Intelligence lab, all were synergetic with availability of soon-to-be
controlled substances.

While causality may not be implied, certainly global awareness and com-
munication, DARPA’s rudimentary email, Tim Berners-Lee’s hyperlinking,
and Vint Cerf’s packet-switching, all occurred contemporaneously with
society’s then-endemic experimentation with entheogens. Steve Jobs,
Bill Gates, Elon Musk, his friend Larry Page, and Sergey Brin are the mod-
ern heirs. Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel.

I delight in the visionary physics being done: the X-prizes, the grand pri-
vate awards for discoveries, the gauntlets thrown down by young billion-
aire thinkers and doers. Reminiscent of the British prize for determining
the longitude of sailing ships, these goals for inventors will allow us to be-
come more altruistic, creative, more human, more civilized.

Our time is of ultimate evolutionary consequence.

New drugs are being developed

(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/http://theinfluence.org/
why-lousy-synthetic-drugs-are-going-to-end-the-drug-war/) all the time.
What influence do you think they will have on society?

The Six anticipate compounds that heighten learning and memory, but
also libido. Dark-net commerce of untested research opioids, such as Up-
john’s U-47700 or W-18, already result in pandemic and lethal clusters.
What of substances that promote dendritic sprouting by neurotrophic
factors, inducing brain growth?

These chemical alternatives are technologies that may empower individ-

uals but also pose threats, and increasingly so. In computer science, we
have the specter of autonomous artificial intelligence, where machines
handle complex tasks, advance drug design, and e iciently teach individ-
uals, but also may independently out-think humanity. Stephen Hawking
fears that AI could create weapons we won’t recognize.

The recent CRISPR gene insertions into human ova is a simple technique
adaptable by IVF clinics in unregulated nations, and that could make her-
itable an enhanced cortical function. But CRISPR also easily allows rogue
third-world actors to, as a fictive example, splice genes for Ri Valley
fever into E. coli, a common bacterium.

Our future is both frightening and exhilarating.

Seth Ferranti was released in 2014 a er serving 21 years for a first-time,

nonviolent drug o ense. He blogs at gorillaconvict.com (https://we-
b.archive.org/web/20160803200553/http://www.gorillaconvict.com/) an
d his latest book, Gorilla Convict
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/http://www.amazon.-
com/Gorilla-Convict-Prison-Writings-Ferranti/dp/1467526622?
tag=viglink21074-20), is a compilation of his writings about prison gangs,
the mafia, hip-hop and hustling. His recent pieces for The Influence in-
clude “Meet Three Ex-Drug War Prisoners Doing Amazing Things With
Their Lives (https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/http://thein-
fluence.org/meet-three-ex-drug-war-prisoners-doing-amazing-things-

with-their-lives/).” You can follow him on Twitter: @SethFerranti.

(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://twitter.com/Seth-
Ferranti)

Seth Ferranti
(https://web.archive.org/web/2016080320055
3/http://theinfluence.org/author/seth-
ferranti/)

 Face-  Twitter  Google+  Pinterest

Lee Pinsky
The drop in LSD use coincided with an 800% increase in the use of MDMA, and directly
a ected use of the former

Carl Fredricks
unsupportable bull-shit.

Lee Pinsky
Perhaps more education would less harm than your ignorance. Who’s
words are you repeating? Have you EVER had a thought that was your
own? Do you have a clue what about the issues? I would graciously
enlighten you and lessen the danger.

Carl Fredricks
1984: All hell breaks loose. The growing networks of therapists,
chemists and users, which had managed to stay largely below
the radar of the government, becomes impossible to ignore
when Michael Clegg begins openly selling MDMA in Texas, using
advertising, a 1-800 number to place orders, and even o ering

shipping. A former seminary student, Clegg considered himself

an ‘Ecstasy missionary’ (having given the drug that name
himself) destined to help bring MDMA to the public. At its peak,
he was delivering half a million pills a month to the Dallas area.
 gary lopez-watts
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://garylopezwatts.wordpress.com/)
you should have disgust at yourself for not
understanding the beauty inherent in psychedelic
experiences, then you could understand its (your
misunderstanding’s) unpleasance.

newlibertarian
Early acid was all high dose and pretty clean. Over the years, doses seemed to

get smaller, and purity levels lowered. As such, an LSD trip became more of a
club experience, one of shorter duration and where control wasn’t lost. And
availability did become scarce a er the silo bust. But MDMA came roaring back
at about the same time, a er experiencing a short interlude when the DEA
scheduled it. I’m not convinced there was an 800% increase, but it was
substantial. And we should not discount the fear and uncertainty created by all
the research chemicals being fraudulently sold as LSD: It seems today you have
about as much chance finding LSD in your LSD as you did 15 years ago finding

MDMA in your Ecstasy. Consequently, over a decade ago I switched to shrooms:

you can always trust a pile of cow shit…

newlibertarian
Thanks for bringing Leonard to your readers. I’ll be visiting him again before the end of
the year: always an enjoyable day in a most-desperate environment. (And I tend to
agree with Lee Pinsky.)

gary lopez-watts
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://garylopezwatts.wordpress.com/)
i am on a mission to write a book, which i would like to be a collaborative e ort
between several in an e ort at communicating our fundamental unity + consequent
eternity. we will develop the predestined eternal paradise, alongside the cessation of
capitalism, carnivorism, and all sources of displeasure. global education must be
achieved in an e ort to unite the entire globe, eventually becoming the entire

universe, should it exist to such an extent as we imagine, as existence is in fact

immaterial. there is no death, that is merely a transformation of energy, which we all
know to be eternal. my name is gary lopez-watts, i have a google+ profile, a facebook
profile, and can be contacted at garylopezwatts@gmail.com
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/mailto:garylopezwatts@gmail.com).
become vegan + environmentalist, promoting the pleasure + comfort of all life! make
e orts to see the organized abolition of capital + government, aiming for a universal
concurrence! eternal paradise, let’s go!

Carl Fredricks
Try to get back on your meds and return to you Psychologist.

gary lopez-watts
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://garylopezwatts.wordpress.com/)
i have no taste for comments of this sort, which reflect the blind
stupidity i have come to refer to as “satan”. peace

Carl Fredricks
You are a sick minded little cockroach, a nuisance to society and
you should be locked away for your own safety and the safety of
others.

gary lopez-watts
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://garylopezwatts.wordpress.com/)
i do not know why you refer to me as a “sick minded little
cockroach”, i am only trying to achieve our obvious goal
of an eternal paradise. you may not realize that we are
one, i will be trying to do away with your separation from
me.

yosselot
Thanks for the interesting article! I wish it were much longer. I will definitely purchase
his book, he is clearly brilliant and eloquent in prose and thought. His focus on the
mind being the real treasure when discussing entheogens is, in my opinion, critically
important. Along with the importance of set and setting, is the intention we use when

exploring altered states of consciousness. Many people still enter these states with
little to no preparation of intent, and this can hamper the potential e icacy of their
use. Placing the focus back on to consciousness itself helps prioritize our own growth
over mere moments of experience. A larger context is o en the answer.

Carl Fredricks
As soon as I saw the author was too stupid to know the correct spelling of “TUCSON” I
realized what a piece of crap this article is. The acid king is exactly where he belongs
for the rest of his life RIP,

gary lopez-watts
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://garylopezwatts.wordpress.com/)
 such a comment greatly upsets me, please understand our fundamental unity
and consequent eternity, when you imprison any reflection of our father, you
imprison our father itself.

Lee Pinsky
You are another person with insu icient education to get past a typo. It is the
ignorant person that does damage, and too many are.

Eric B.
Ending a sentence with a comma instead of a period?

Go back to TUSCON.

Tom Berg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH1pyMJ6QTs
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://www.youtube.com/watch?
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553if_/http://savefrom.net/?
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYH1pyMJ6QTs&utm_source=userjs-
v=YH1pyMJ6QTs) chrome&utm_medium=extensions&utm_campaign=link_modifier)

Tom Berg
There are great minds wanting to heal people and want to o er assistance- but
government blocks such- the video shows a doctor speaking on what works-

Adam L Watson
https://disqus.com/by/carlfredricks/
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160803200553/https://disqus.com/by/carlfredricks/)?

All it takes is a quick scan of this guy’s comments to see he’s just a troll. Ignore and
move on…

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