Nicholas Sand (born Nicholas Francis Hiskey; May 10, 1941 – April 24, 2017)Erowid Nick Sand Vault
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cult figure A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, bo ...

known in the psychedelic community for his work as a clandestine chemist from 1966 to 1996 for

the Brotherhood of Eternal Love The Brotherhood of Eternal Love was an organization of drug users and distributors that operated from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s in Orange County, California. They were dubbed the Hippie Mafia by the police. They produced and distribut ...

.Nocenti, Annie. Baldwin, Ruth. Krassner, Paul. ''The High Times Reader''. Nation Books. 2004 Sand was part of the

League for Spiritual Discovery League for Spiritual Discovery (LSD) was a spiritual organization inspired by the works of Timothy Leary, and strove for legal use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the purpose of meditation, insight, and spiritual understanding. It was in ...

at the Millbrook estate in New York, has been credited as the "first underground chemist on record to have synthesized

DMT Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), also known as ''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (''N'',''N''-DMT), is a serotonergic hallucinogen and investigational drug of the tryptamine family that occurs naturally in many plants and animals, including humans. D ...

" and is known for manufacturing large amounts of

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

.Lee, Martin A. Shlain, Bruce. '' Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of Lsd''. Grove Press. 2007

Early life

Sand was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City, on May10, 1941. His father,

Clarence Hiskey Clarence Francis Hiskey (1912–1998), born Clarence Szczechowski, was a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was identified as Soviet espionage agent. He became active in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) when he attended graduate ...

, was a researcher in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

Metallurgical Laboratory The Metallurgical Laboratory (or Met Lab) was a scientific laboratory from 1942 to 1946 at the University of Chicago. It was established in February 1942 and became the Argonne National Laboratory in July 1946. The laboratory was established i ...

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 Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...

in 1959 and then spent a year working on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in Israel. He graduated from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

with a degree in anthropology and sociology in 1966.

Career

Sand became interested in the teachings of

George Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff ( – 29 October 1949) was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, composer, and movements teacher. Born in the Russian Empire, he briefly became a citizen of the First Republic of Armenia after its formation in 1 ...

, 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 Mescaline, also known as mescalin or mezcalin, and in chemical terms 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, is a natural product, naturally occurring psychedelic drug, psychedelic alkaloid, protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, found ...

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). Sand later started ''Bell Perfume Labs'' as a front for the production of mescaline and DMT. Sand and David L. Mantell were arrested on April1, 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. In 1967 Sand was introduced to fellow chemist

Tim Scully Robert "Tim" Scully (born August 27, 1944) is an American computer engineer, best known in the psychedelic underground for his work in the production of Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD from 1966 to 1969, for which he was indicted in 1973 and con ...

, who trained under

Owsley Stanley Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 – March 12, 2011) was an American-Australian audio engineer and clandestine chemist. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role ...

until Stanley's legal troubles in December 1967. In December 1968 Sand purchased a secluded farmhouse in

Windsor, California Windsor is an incorporated town in Sonoma County, California, United States. The town is 9 miles north of Santa Rosa and 63 miles north of San Francisco. The population was 26,344 as of the 2020 census. History Founding The site now occup ...

, a small town in rural

Sonoma County Sonoma County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 488,863. Its seat of government and largest city is Santa Rosa. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa-Petaluma ...

. 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.

1972 indictments

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. 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.

1973 arrest and prosecution

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. On April 25, 1973, Sand,

, Michael Randall, and four other major figures in the LSD operation were indicted by a Federal grand jury in San Francisco. On January 30, 1974, Sand and Scully were found guilty, partially due to the testimony of Billy Hitchcock and other informants. On March 8, 1974, Sand was sentenced to 15 years in a federal penitentiary. The defense presented at his trial claimed that the defendants had made

ALD-52 ALD-52, also known as 1-acetyl-LSD (1A-LSD), is a psychedelic drug of the lysergamide family related to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). It has been reported to produce similar psychoactive effects as LSD, but its pharmacological effects on hu ...

instead of LSD-25. 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. LSD chemist

William Leonard Pickard William Leonard Pickard (born October 21, 1945) is one of two people convicted in the largest lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) manufacturing case in history. In 2000, while moving their LSD laboratory across Kansas, Pickard and Clyde Apperson wer ...

contributed to Sand's legal defense fund. Sand fled to Canada in 1976, evading imprisonment. LSD historian Mark McCloud reports that Sand then traveled to the

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Rajneesh Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain; 11 December 193119 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and later as Osho (), was an Indian Godman (India), godman, philosopher, Mysticism, mystic and founder of the Rajnees ...

in west India. Sand eventually returned to North America, again producing large quantities of LSD. Sand was arrested for drug manufacturing in 1990 in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, but as he was living under an alias, police did not determine his identity and Sand fled while on bail.

1996 arrest

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 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...

, 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.

Death

Sand died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in

Lagunitas, California Lagunitas (''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Little lagoons") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Marin County, California, Marin County, California. It is located southwest of Novato, California, Novato, at an eleva ...

, on April 24, 2017, at the age of 75.

References

External links

Erowid Character Vaults: Nick Sand

Erowid Character Vaults: Nick Sand Extended Biography

Audio (MP3): Nick Sand giving his 2006 Palenque Norte lecture at Burning Man
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sand, Nicholas 1941 births 2017 deaths Scientists from Brooklyn People from Marin County, California American Buddhists Psychedelic drug researchers Lysergic acid diethylamide American psychedelic drug advocates Erasmus Hall High School alumni Brooklyn College alumni Psychonautics researchers