Officials: Ronald Reagan LSD probe bigger than you think, 14 nuke sailors snagged

Just think about that for a second.

Officials: Ronald Reagan LSD probe bigger than you think, 14 nuke sailors snagged

Fourteen sailors from the nuclear reactor department of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan face disciplinary action in connection to LSD abuse, Navy officials confirmed this week.

Two sailors are already heading to court-martial for using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley.

Another 10 sailors with the Japan-based ship were administratively disciplined on LSD-related charges, Keiley said.

A 15th sailor was also disciplined, but that person was not assigned to the carrier’s reactor department.

*

Accused sailors were removed from all duties pending the findings of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe, he said in an email.

Out of an abundance of caution, Ronald Reagan leadership reviewed the work previously performed by the accused sailors and no improper work was identified,” Keiley said in an email to Navy Times.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/11/06/officials-ronald-rea...

Too bad this article didn’t tell us what work those guys did because “Out of an abundance of caution...” just doesn’t do it for me. It makes me even more curious. What if they were taking shore leave without leaving the ship (so to speak) when they were at work? What did they do? If they made a mistake what would be the result?

I know that being out-to-sea for a long period of time could be boring. My Dad said it was. But there are so many problems with this situation. Sailors are people too. They’re going to act up from time to time. But it sure shouldn’t be like this. LSD and nuclear reactors are two words that should never be used in the same sentence and never be used when you have a job like that. Or be for sale by naval personnel on a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

I was 16 in 1964 and I knew some really ‘far out’ characters. ‘Acid’ was never my thing so I don’t know anything about it personally, but I did see people who were using it. I saw some strange reactions to the stuff. Now I just have something else to obsess about.

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Big Al's picture

And I was on a nuclear submarine.

Well you know, if more of our service members "tuned in, turned on and dropped out", maybe we could end the wars and imperialism itself.

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CS in AZ's picture

@Big Al

Please, do tell. (Change the names and details to protect the innocent/guilty.) Sounds very interesting.

This is what Timothy Leary and the Sunshine Boys believed:

Well you know, if more of our service members "tuned in, turned on and dropped out", maybe we could end the wars and imperialism itself.

They wanted not just soldiers but everyone to take acid, to dissolve differences and bring world peace.

Ah, the 60s. Such a time of hope. Maybe it can still happen.

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Big Al's picture

@CS in AZ while out at sea on a nuke sub. In fact, the dude I joined on the buddy system with from high school. That was a different sub than mine, I never did that. Not sure I could have handled that. But smoking weed out at sea, even on sub, was common. We'd go down to the diesel engine room, which wasn't used at sea, and use pipes we made out of materials we had on board. The stuff we had, Buddha thaistick, was one hit stuff so we'd hold it in as long as we could and release whatever was left into a ventilization system that was scrubbed. I know people (ahem) who would get stoned and go drive the boat (what we call subs). That must have been a trip (ahem).

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CS in AZ's picture

@Big Al

I can’t imagine tripping on a submarine. In fact, I can’t imagine even being on a submarine under the ocean. I get claustrophobic just thinking about it.

I realized my reference to sunshine boys is probably too obscure.

It’s a reference to a fairly recent documentary called The Sunshine Makers

The Sunshine Makers reveals the entertaining, untold story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counterculture. United in a utopian mission to save the planet through the consciousness-raising power of LSD, Orange Sunshine, as they tried to stay one step ahead of the feds.

It’s a very interesting film. True believers, but it went wrong.

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Pricknick's picture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_microdosing
I'm a staunch supporter of it. I have used many hallucinogens over the years and currently practice microdosing of LSD.
That's not to say that this is what those sailors were doing but if they were it's harmless in my opinion.
As said sailors will learn, it's taboo in the military.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

CS in AZ's picture

@Pricknick

Most likely microdosing. It’s possible they were tripping, but when I see “LSD abuse” I wonder what that means because LSD is not typically a drug that is used at high doses on a frequent basis. There’s some exceptions, of course, (acid heads), but very few people who take trip-level doses do so more than a few times a year, at most. Regular use suggests microdosing.

Which, having had a rare chance to try it out for a few weeks not too long ago, I agree is not something to freak out about. Although people will, for sure.

But I took very tiny doses and went about my day, told no one, and when I asked hubs later if I had seemed any different, he was puzzled - nope. No difference in my interactions or activities that he could discern. I felt slightly ... elevated, I guess is a good word, but not high, and certainly not tripping. Unfortunately this was a one-time opportunity, although I’m hoping to find others sooner or later.

Of course for anyone in the military, this was a bad idea and they are in big trouble, whether or not they were doing perfectly safe microdoses or tripping to the center of the universe. Interesting story but I bet we will never know any details.

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Pricknick's picture

@CS in AZ @CS in AZ
That this should hit my inbox moments ago.

I have invented a new guilt-free ice cream.
It is full of fat and sugar,
and it is not vegan,
but it contains psilocybin
so when you eat it you can see that guilt
is an unhelpful tool of societal manipulation
which may be safely dispensed with.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/11/08/things-i-have-invented/

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

CS in AZ's picture

@Pricknick

I want that ice cream, stat.

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lotlizard's picture

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Hawkfish's picture

And her piss tests, there was a story in the industry that Motorola (who in those days made all the apple cpu chips) had tried to institute such tests and failed because the entire advanced chip design team refused. Maybe they were just being principled but many of us suspected that it simply wasn’t possible to design high end chips in those days without overclocking your brain...

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

@Hawkfish The folks on a fucking nuclear sub? vs The folks that are under pressure to develop apple's newest cpu chip? There is probably an overlap of environments that are surprisingly similar. And, others that aren't at all.

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about alcohol, which really promotes reckless behavior.
For comparison, in 1970, Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter while tripping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_Ellis#June_12,_1970,_no-hitter
Many other references online.
In general, I think you'd have to be a Zen monk to be really trusted with that level of equipment. Substances, including caffeine, don't generally help with judgement.

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dystopian's picture

Didn't Steve Jobs say Bill Gates needed to drop acid? I think that was how I heard it. Also wasn't it that when the gov tested it on soldiers they quit wanting to fight and kill? Orange Sunshine was the best. Forever life-changing for the better. Can y'all pass some of that ice cream thisaway? We are a half-century behind in our knowledge of psycho-active's benefits due to the insane drug war. Well, not all of us, but society as a whole.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Amanda Matthews's picture

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa