Godfather of Ecstasy Alexander ''Sasha'' Slugin dies at 88

Throughout his life, Shulgin had synthesised and self-tested hundreds of psychoactive chemicals, including MDMA – which became known as the drug ecstasy.

“In 1976 Shulgin was introduced to MDMA by a graduate student in San Francisco”, DJ Mag reports. “He developed a new synthesis method and passed the finished results to his therapist friend Leo Zeff. Zeff began using it for sessions with clients, and soon word spread about the effects of MDMA — or XTC — on people’s emotional states. As has been well documented, ecstasy then spread to the club culture in New York, Chicago, Ibiza, and then the UK and across Europe”.

”There can never be a new Alexander Shulgin”