Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age By Norman Ohler

Tripped by Norman Ohler is a riveting exploration of the dark, hidden history that connects Nazi drug experiments to the origins of the CIA’s controversial MKUltra program and the shaping of America's War on Drugs. Building on the success of his bestseller Blitzed, Ohler delves into the aftermath of World War II, focusing on Berlin in 1945—a city fractured and awash with drugs after the collapse of the Third Reich. Under the jurisdiction of the Allied powers, Berlin's drug policies varied, but it was in the American zone where Arthur J. Giuliani of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was tasked with uncovering Nazi anti-drug laws and bringing any valuable findings back to the United States.

Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher, collaborating with the US government, began investigating Nazi research on psychedelics, specifically their experiments with mescaline and LSD. These experiments were initially designed for military mind control and truth serum purposes, but they would later become the cornerstone of the CIA's MKUltra program—a covert project involving brainwashing and psychological torture during the 1950s and 1960s.

Ohler’s Tripped is a meticulously researched and provocative narrative that uncovers the clandestine efforts to appropriate Nazi drug research and its profound impact on American drug policy. This hidden history, spanning decades, reveals how the early days of psychedelics in America were deeply intertwined with Nazi experiments, leading to a legacy that hindered therapeutic research and fueled the War on Drugs. A must-read for history buffs and anyone interested in the complex, often disturbing, intersections between science, war, and policy.