MEMOS SHOW HUMANS USED IN CIA DRUG TEST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00156R000300050038-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: September 1, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2007/01/16: CIA-RDP83-00156R000300050038-9
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ByBill Richards
Waabtndoa Poet Staff Writer -
~~~ ?. CIA documents released this week
eontradict testimony given a Senate
--. ? committee by intelligence director
Stansfield Turner and another intelli
"'-gence agency official that-no human
.~, ;subjects were involved in the final se-
ries of the agency's .rnassice drug test-
; ing program.
- Turner ..and= Edward Gordon, who
.. -was described by 'the Central Intelli-
:`h;ger`ceAgency director as an "'expert".
''Ton Project OFTEN, the. last known
CIA drug testing lprogram, testified in
September 1977 at'.the Senate subcom-
' ...inittee on health' and scientific re-'
p- search that no humans were- drugged
,as part of the project
OFTEN was the .last in a`series of
;.*-o- drug testing and mind control experi-
.: ,ments on _ which the CIA spent mil
-'iions of dollars. The experiments,
'Kept secret for a quarter-century after
;f.-,they began in '1949, "ultimately in-
~?'volved a range --of sites stretching
-from San Francisco. whorehouses to
prestigious U .S. universities.
According to the latest documents,
-Tzreleased under a Freedom of Infornia-
~ " . ;,t;on Act request filed before Turner's
%,=-Senate testimony on Project OFTEN,
=the final prop am ran from 1967 into
`,.1973. It .was finally disbanded after
";newspaper reports of covert drug and
i-r'cher ical testing .'on humans by the
t CIA and the military.
0
t.9. awe ., .... kw". .._ ....b.......,
a'. designed to include drug testing on
= `,human subjects. But Turner and Gor-
'don told Sen. Edward M..Kennedy (D-
''? Mass.),'chairman of the Senate sub-
.committee, that there was no evidence
4 jn the agency's files to indicate' any
humans were actually used in
experi- ments before.. the project was termi
,: nated. " '. h..
' The documents state, however, that
s "the CIA allocated $37,000 in 1971 to
test a glycolate, class. of chemical on
i humans at-the Army's Edeewood
An- renal Research Laboratory.
One report, compiled in 1975 under
:,''the heading, "Influencing Human Be- ?
' havior," notes that 20 persons were
tested.with the drug-five prisoners
.s-from Holmesburg State Prison In
Holmenburg, Pa., and 15 Army volun.
x. teens. ' i
The report does not -say what the
fects were evident up to six weeks
;:later. The report notes that the CIA
spent money for medical. follow-up
testing of the research subjects.
A CIA spokesman noted yesterday
that while several memos and reports
trention the testing, one 1975 memo
states that "an unnamed - doctor at
Edgewood told a CIA interviewer that
year that no human subjects were
used in the tests.
The spokesman noted that the pro-
gram was set up to include human
drug testing. "Maybe it did happen,"
he said, "but it's all academic now."
C i.
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 Approved For Release 2007/01/16: CIA-RDP83-00156R000300050038-9
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Approved For Release 2007/01/16: CIA-RDP83-00156R000300050038-9
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MKSEARCH. OFTEN /CHICK WIT
JIKSEARCH was the name given to the continuation, of the MKULTRA pro-
gram. Funding commenced in F1 1966, and ended in F]' 1972. Its purpose was to
develop, test, and evaluate capabilities in the covert use of biological, chemical,,
and radioactive material systems and techniques for producing predictable human
behavioral and/or physiological changes in support of highly sensitive operational
requirements.
OFTEN/CHICKWIT
In 1967 the Office of Research and Development (ORD) and the Edgewood
Arsenal Research Laboratories undertook a program for doing research on the
identification and characterization of drugs that could influence human behavior.
Edgewood had the facilities for the full range of laboratory and clinical testing.
A phased program was envisioned that would consist of acquisition of drugs and
chemical compounds believed to have effects on the behavior of humans, and
testing and evaluating these materials through laboratory procedures and toxi-
cological studies. Compounds believed promising as a result of tests on animals
were then to be evaluated clinically with human subjects at Edgewood. Substances
of potential use would then be analyzed structurally as a basis for identifying and
synthesizing possible new derivatives of greater utility.
The program was divided into two projects. Project OFTEN was to deal with
testing the toxicological, transmisivity and behavioral effects of drugs in animals
and, ultimately, humans. Project CHICKWIT was concerned-with acquiring infor
mation on new drug developments in Europe and the Orient, and with acquiring
samples.
There is a discrepancy between the testimony of DOD and CIA regarding the
testing at Edgewood Arsenal in June 1973. While there is agreement that human
testing occurred at that place and time, there is disagreement as to who, was
responsible for financing and sponsorship. (See hearings before the Subcommittee
on Health and Scientific Research of the Senate Human Resources Conxmittee,
September 21, 197T.)
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