Another member of the drug related books on Taya's bookshelf, Acid Test is yet another historical look at psychedelics in the United States. The subtitle is "LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal" which is basically descriptive of the theme.

The focus of this book is on theraputic uses of various psychoactive compounds including LSD and MDMA, but also DMT as well as a smattering of others. It reminded me of The Harvard Psychedelic Club in the format being many small chapters focusing on a particular individual. I already knew the vague story of most of the MDMA related history, but there are a lot of details which are very interesting.

More than once this book has come up with people saying they are surprised I haven't read it. I am glad I have now because it is good, informative, and made me think about certain theraputic use cases in a different way. There is quite a bit of illicit self medicating using these compounds, but the idea of having a focused therapy using some of these drugs as supplements is something I have pondered but never really given serious thought. It always seemed obvious that they would be useful, but I never took the next step to think of what real therapy would actually look like.

I highly recommend this book if you do not know the history of MDMA in America. I plan to add a couple other books to my reading this spurred by mentions in this one.