Source: Ottawa Citizen 
Author: Mike Blanchfield
Contact:    Saturday 28 February 1998
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Editors note: While discussing the news on MAP CHAT Saturday evening Debbie
mentioned that she needed help recovering the article with the proper
format, so I quickly snatched it from the newspaper's web page. MAP CHAT, a
service of the Canadian branch of MAP, is an interactive discussion forum
which attracts activists from around the world on Saturday and Sunday
evenings between 9:00 p.m. and midnight, Eastern Standard Time (the time in
New York and Washington). Using only your web browser, you may join MAP
CHAT by going to:
http://www.mapinc.org/chat/ 

LSD TESTED ON FEMALE PRISONERS

Scientists Experimented On Inmates At Kingston's Prison For Women In 1960s

Twenty-three inmates at Kingston's Prison for Women were given LSD as part
of a psychology experiment in the early 1960s, the Citizen has learned. 

The study involving the powerful hallucinogenic drug was conducted with the
full knowledge of the prison's superintendent and federal corrections
officials. The subjects included a 17-year-old girl who was unable to give
informed consent to the experiment and who still suffers from periodic acid
flashbacks. 

"This use of LSD with inmates in the Prison for Women was a risky
undertaking," says a report into the LSD use completed in January by
Correctional Services. "We conclude that the administration of LSD at the
Prison for Women, particularly when it was administered at the prison
rather than the Institute of Psychotherapy, could lead to substantial,
debilitating long term negative effects." 

The report recommends that all the women involved receive a full apology
and a "settlement package" from the federal government. 

But locating the women who were part of the study may prove difficult. 

The investigators who wrote the report discovered that many inmate files
were either missing or had been destroyed. 

"The access to administrative and inmate files has been unsatisfactory,"
the report states. 

"The inability to obtain relevant administrative files and most inmate
files made it impossible to provide a full account of the use of LSD or ECT
(electroshock therapy) at the Prison for Women." 

Investigators interviewed two of the women and uncovered documents that
referred to an additional 21 who were part of the pilot study by a
psychologist and psychiatrist. Both women complained of long-term effects
that continue to plague them decades after their first exposure to LSD. 

The report says the women suffer from a recognized psychiatric syndrome
called Post-Hallucinogen Perceptual Disorder. 

"It's a very sad indictment of our commitment to human rights and social
justice, and a number of principles I think Canadians hold dear," said Kim
Pate, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry
Societies. "We're happy to parade around the globe maintaining this is one
of the best countries to live. The reality is: not when you go into the
bowels of some of our institutions. You certainly don't see the short
fingers of the rule of law creeping in there to protect prisoners." 

As the head of the Canada's leading female prisoner's rights group, Ms.
Pate has researched the history of Kingston's Prison for Women. She has yet
to uncover documents that back up the inmates' claims of "weird stuff
happening in segregation" that dates back decades. 

"It's outrageous," Claire Price, the executive director of the Council of
Elizabeth Fry Societies of Ontario, said yesterday when told of the report.
"I didn't think things of this sort went on in Canada. You always hear
these conspiracy theories about various studies they do on prisoners in the
(United) States." 

These experiments at the Prison for Women add another chapter to a dubious
era in Canadian medical research history. 

The study was conducted at the same time as the LSD brainwashing
experiments by Dr. Ewen Cameron at the Allen Memorial Institute at McGill
University in Montreal in the 1950s and early 1960s. That scandal has cost
the federal government at least $7.7 million because it compensated Dr.
Cameron's victims to the tune of $100,000 each. 

Dr. Cameron's research was initially funded by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency. It was also the subject of a two-part CBC television
drama called The Sleep Room, which aired in January. So far no one,
including the report's authors, have been able to link the CIA with the
experiments that were conducted in Kingston. 

Between 1952 and 1962, 500 people were given LSD at Saskatoon's University
Hospital, Regina General Hospital and Weyburn Union Hospital. Businessmen,
students, artists, inmates and hospital staff volunteered for the research
project, which was funded by the federal and provincial governments. 

The Kingston investigation was sparked when a former inmate, Dorothy
Proctor, complained in October 1995 to then-solicitor general Herb Gray.
Last year, Correctional Services struck a board of inquiry to investigate
the complaint. 

The report concluded researchers tried to exercise care in the selection of
subjects but that they did not obtain proper consent from Ms. Proctor when
they gave her her first dose of LSD in 1961. She was in solitary
confinement at the time. That first exposure caused Ms. Proctor to have
traumatic hallucinations -- what is commonly known as a "bad trip." 

In an interview, Ms. Proctor said she doesn't expect "a compassionate
response from the Canadian public at large" because prison inmates are not
generally held in high regard and "I know how complacent Canadians are." 

"Hopefully the day will come when taxpayers realize it is their money being
spent by past mistakes of government," she said. "Maybe then, they'll be
more vigilant." 

The Commissioner of Corrections, Ole Ingstrup, declined to be interviewed.
Department spokesman John Vandoremalen said yesterday he could not answer
specific questions about the report. 

He said the department needed to "study" the findings. Some of the issues
to be studied, said Mr. Vandoremalen, would include the issues of
compensation and the missing documents. 

"The issues are rather complicated," he said. 

He would not say what, if anything, the department is doing to track down
the missing study subjects. 

In testimony before the board of inquiry last year, Ms. Proctor said she
believed she was was targeted by researchers because she was viewed as a
"throwaway" who had no family connections beyond prison walls. 

"I had no friends. If I had died in Kingston Penitentiary, the report would
have said I just died," Ms. Proctor testified. "I think I was targeted
because I was 16, I was black, and I didn't have anybody on the outside who
cared." 

The board of inquiry conducted interviews throughout 1997 with Ms. Proctor,
retired prison staff and the two men who conducted the study. The two
researchers provided investigators with written records of their study. 

In the early 60s, LSD was legal and was viewed in the psychiatric community
as potential wonder drug that could break down the brain's defences and be
an effective therapeutic tool. That promise was never realized. As the
report states: "this promise was considered more of a hypothesis than a
proven fact." 

The drug was banned in Canada in 1969. By the end of the decade, the drug
had penetrated the flower child subculture. 

The complaint was one of two filed by Ms. Proctor with the federal
Solicitor General. She also complained the RCMP mistreated her during her
tenure as a paid crown agent in the 1970s and 1980s. Her role was to
infiltrate the drug underworld on behalf of police. 

She alleged that the Mounties took advantage of the fact she was a drug
addict who came from an abusive background. They plied her with drugs and
took advantage of her sexually, she alleged. An investigation has cleared
at least one Mountie of any criminal wrongdoing. However, and internal
disciplinary probe is still under way. 

The Corrections Canada investigation into Ms. Proctor's LSD complaint has
concluded. Her complaint was corroborated by one other former inmate and
through written records about the experiments uncovered during the
investigation. 

Ms. Proctor said she is pleased with the report's findings, and was well
treated by Corrections Canada officials during the course of the
investigation. She hopes she will receive a suitable financial settlement
that will allow her to go to university. Ms. Proctor kicked her drug habit
several years ago. 

Ms. Proctor and her lawyer are to meet in March with Corrections Canada
officials to discuss a financial settlement. No lawsuit has been filed,
however her lawyer, James Newland, said he won't hesitate to take the
matter to court if a "substantial" settlement can't be negotiated. 

"I found the report disturbing," said Mr. Newland. "Put yourself in the
place of a 17-year-old young woman in solitary confinement. To be in that
vulnerable of a position and have the last vestiges of your identity swept
away with this kind of drug is a scary proposition." 

In 1960, Dorothy Proctor was a troubled 17-year-old who was sentenced to
three years in prison along with three accomplices for her role in an armed
robbery and break-in at a private home in southern Ontario. It was Ms.
Proctor's first run-in with the adult court system, although she had been
in and out of juvenile detention facilities. She was born and grew up in
the Maritimes, where she was sexually abused as a child. 

Ms. Proctor complained that her exposure to LSD in prison, which she said
was her first experience with drugs, was the first step in becoming a drug
addict. In the next three decades, she experimented with soft drugs, heroin
and cocaine. By the time she was recruited by the RCMP in the early 1970s,
she had bottomed out and was living on skid row. 

"Arguably, the administration of LSD in prison was a major aspect of her
going down a road in life which was not a very happy experience for her,"
said Mr. Newland. "She's managed to pull herself out of that life. She
deserves credit for doing that." 

While the LSD experiments were going on at the Prison for Women, a
researcher at Queen's University was also studying the drug. Dr. George
Laverty, a psychiatrist and professor was studying "perceptual heightening"
of subjects while under the influence of LSD. 

However, as Corrections Canada investigators found, Dr. Laverty's
experiments were conducted under much different circumstances than those
carried out on inmates across the city. "While Dr. Laverty's work was
neither on the use of LSD for treatment purposes, nor carried out in a
prison setting, it does speak to other views on what was appropriate at the
time," the report states. 

The experiments were conducted at Kingston Psychiatric Hospital using
volunteers. Emotionally unstable people were screened out because they were
known to be prone to adverse effects. The subjects were also supervised
until the effects of the drug wore off; family members or a researcher
would remain with the subjects overnight. 

In Ms. Proctor's case, she was abandoned in her cell in solitary
confinement in the basement of the penitentiary. During her bad trip, the
walls melted, the bars of her cell turned into snakes. 

"I remember dry screaming, screaming but nothing coming out," she testified
at the board of inquiry. "No one (was) there to help me... things all over
my body." 

The report concluded that giving Ms. Proctor LSD while in solitary
confinement "fell far short of what was considered suitable in the field at
that time" and could be "conducive to negative effects during the session
and possibly long term as well." 

Another female inmate, whose name was withheld in the report, told
investigators about being locked in her cell after she was given her LSD
dosage. She slashed her left arm. When it bled she imagined spiders
crawling out of the wound. She could not sleep because she hallucinated
that "spider semen crawled up my legs and into my vagina and some crawled
up my body and entered through both ears. That night I waded up toilet
paper and plugged my vagina, anus and ears. I never slept." 

The long-term affects on both women were severe. 

Ms. Proctor avoids opening cans because she imagines the lid growing large
and moving towards her to slice her. She can only sleep if she holds her
arms across herself or clasps her hands together. She avoids looking into
mirrors to avoid being drawn into them. She also avoids her reflection in
store windows or pools of water. She has difficulty with depth perception
and walking down stairs. If she looks at her body too long, she imagines
her skin starting to bubble and ooze. 

The unnamed woman said she continues to hear voices in her head. She can
only sleep three hours at a time, and only if she can feel the stability of
a wall. She has panic attacks on escalators and elevators. She avoids
mirrors for fear of being drawn into them. 

"We are struck by the similarity of some of the long-term affects reported
by these two subjects of LSD treatment at the Prison for Women," the report
states. "We are certain they have had no contact with one another." 

The report says the women likely suffer from a condition called Post
Hallucinogen Perceptual Disorder (PHPD), which was first recognized in
1958. It is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, the recognized handbook of mental illnesses. 

The manual says flashbacks are a feature of the disorder, which "causes
clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or
other important areas of functioning...the perceptual disturbances may
include geometric forms, peripheral-field images, flashes of color,
intensified color, trailing images (images left suspended in the path of a
moving object remaining after removal of the object)..." 

The flashbacks can be triggered by entering a dark environment, drugs,
fatigue, anxiety or other stressors, the manual says. 

The Prison for Women remains open despite plans to close it and transfer
female inmates to five smaller regional facilities across Canada. 

As of late last year, it was home to 24 female prisoners.

Copyright 1997 The Ottawa Citizen