Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 1998
Source: Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/

LSD TESTED ON CANADIAN INMATES

OTTAWA (AP) - Twenty-three inmates at a Canadian federal prison for women
reportedly were given the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a psychology
experiment in the early 1960s, a newspaper reported.

The study was conducted at the women's prison in Kingston, Ontario, with
the knowledge of the prison superintendent and federal corrections
officials, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

The newspaper said it obtained a report from Canada's correctional services
department, completed in January, that described the tests as ``a risky
undertaking.''

The report recommended that the Canadian government offer all the women
used as unwitting guinea pigs a full apology and a settlement package, the
newspaper said.

But locating the women may prove difficult because investigators who wrote
the report discovered that many inmate files were missing or had been
destroyed.

Investigators located two women who both complained of long-term effects -
decades after their exposure to the hallucinogen, the Citizen said.

Corrections officials declined immediate comment, saying they needed more
time to assess the report.