CIA DRUG SUBJECTS AT IONIA HUNTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500071-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 71
• Publication Date: August 6, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500071-7
STAT
CIA Drug
Subjects
it Ion
Izb,nted
BY PAUL MAGNUSSON
Fret Press Staff wrt`er
The CIA is attempting to lo-
cate 142 mental patients from
the former Ionia State Hospital
who were the subjects of exper-
imentation with ISD and mari-
juana derivatives in a CIA-
sponsored program.
The experiments, revealed in
documents released this week
by the CIA. were conducted
from 1957 to 1969 on patients
classified as sexual psycho-
paths under a now-repealed
law
Patients at the hospital never
were told of the experiments.
in which the subjects were
given the drugs while being
interrogated by doctors.
"We're trying to locate the
victims to Inform them and ad-
vise them of their rights and
possibly make restitution," a
CIA spokesman said Friday.
All those judged criminally
insane were once sent to the
Ionia State Hospital, which
was run by the Department of
Corrections. The program
.:der which saxual. psycho-
aths were coinwitted without
trla: .: ne c. dad in the late
1960s, and the hospital was
closed in 1975.
One of the drug program' -
researchers. Dr. John G.
Hearer, said Friday that the
CIA had not told him it was
about ;o release information on
the experiments.
Dr. ltaarer. now a general
practitioner in Sarasota, Fla..
said the victims of the experl-
r. nts were committed and se-
lected "through legal chan-
nels."
He identif led Dr. Perry Rob-
ertson, now deceased, as the
chief researcher. He declined to
comment further.
DETROIT FREE PRESS
6 August 1977
RECORDS OF the Depart- i
ment of Mental Health show'
that Haarer was medical super-
intendent of the hospital during
two years when the experi-
ments were conducted. \
CIA documents indicate that
subjects were selected from
those committed through the
Detroit Recorder's Court psy-
chiatric clinic and that some
state judges may have been in-
formed of the program.
Miciiigan supreme Co!irt
Tastier. G. Mennen Williams,
who was governor during the
time of the drug experiments,
-aid Friday that he could not
recall being informed of the
project.
Charles Wagg, director of
the Department of Mental
Health during the experiments.
said Friday that he had not
known of the CIA program.
MRS. SHIRLEY Vaughn, di-
rector of the Recorder's Court
clinic. said employes from the
era of the CIA experiments are
either retired or dead. No
program. code name4,w1,IK-,
Ultra, identify the project man-1
ager as Dr. Alex Canty, now
dead. Canty reportedly corre-
sponded with the CIA through
a double envelope mailing
scheme using a pseudonym.
The experiments at Ionia
were one of 149 projects at 80
U.S. and Canadian universities,
hospitals, research founda-
TH; NA-.t S of researc..ersl
in the projecis and the names ut
the non-government institu-
tions were generally tint made
public but were given to ,fhe
Senate panels.
This was done, according to
a CIA spokesman. "to avoid
potential embarrassment to
those who were involved."
The experiments were
funded through the Society for
the Investigation of Human
Ecology Inc., a CIA front pre-
tending to study criminal be-
havior.
Iu fact, according to the re-
leased documents, the CIA's in-
tention was "to exploit the re-
search potential that is
represented by 142 criminal
sexual psychopaths(who) have
the hind of motivation for tint- ,
bolding certain Information
that is comparable to opera-
tional interrogation situations
in the field-"
This meant, apparently. that
mental patieniswho haad some-
thing to hide were surrogates
for CIA agents who might be+
captured and interrogated by
the,enemy with drugs s': e=ar
to LSD.
tions, drug firms and prson3,j
according to CIA Director' -
Stansfield Turner.
The purpose of MK-Ultra
was to determine the ways in
which human behavior can be
'controlled thj ough drugs, hyp-
notism and psychological tor-
ture.
Turner, in testimony before
a joint session of the Senate
Intelligence Committee and a
Senate human resources sub-
committee, said he finds such
experiments on humans "to,
.tally abhorrent:'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500071-7