well they do say that inspiration
strikes at the strangest times welcome
to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top five
inventions and discoveries made by
people high on drugs this is the future
this is like the apex of the vortex of
joint engineering before we begin we
publish new videos every day so be sure
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this list will be looking at various
inventions medical breakthroughs and/or
discoveries that were made by people
while they were high on drugs these
stories must have either been proven or
are considered extremely likely to have
occurred since it’s only a rumor and
according to his biographer a false
rumor that Francis Crick discovered the
double helix while on LSD he won’t be
included in this list number 5 Timothy
Leary conducts research into
psychedelics while on them himself
Timothy Leary was a psychologist who was
prominent throughout the 60s for
advocating the use and benefits of
psychedelic drugs Leary began a study at
Harvard in 1960 called the Harvard
psilocybin project which was meant to
research the use of psychedelics under
the right conditions this included not
only controlled experiments but also
rigorous personal use often at the same
time in Leary’s opinion psychedelics
could help people where regular therapy
could not a hypothesis seemingly proven
by his alcoholic and criminal subjects
everything in the world just seemed to
glow inwardly with life while he may
have gotten a little carried away later
in life his Harvard experiments remain
influential research into the effects of
psychedelics it’s a great American
tradition of speaking up and challenging
and stirring things up because no change
takes place in the brain West’s shocked
number four
William Halsted makes breakthroughs in
medical practices while high on cocaine
and morphine known as the father of
modern surgery William Halsted is
remembered for his exceptional medical
talents and breakthroughs including the
advocacy of anesthetics the importance
of clean operating tools weird right and
the invention of the radical mastectomy
a revolutionary procedure that combated
breast cancer and was pretty much all
done while Halsted was filled with
cocaine and morphine it was very common
for many a doctor in the late 19th
century in the early 20th century to use
themselves as guinea pigs
he became addicted to cocaine after
testing its properties as an anesthetic
and morphine after it was
to treat his addiction to cocaine
despite battling addiction he went on to
revolutionize medicine and is now
regarded as one of the most important
and influential surgeons in history
number three Kary Mullis invents the
polymerase chain reaction while on LSD
while Kary Mullis has been a bit of a
controversial figure in the early 21st
century he won the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1993 for inventing the
polymerase chain reaction a process that
generates multiple copies of a specific
DNA sequence this is used in multiple
fields including forensics and
biomedicine and this Nobel prize-winning
concept was developed using LSD at a
symposium for LSD pioneer Albert Hofmann
it was revealed that Mullis had once
told Hofmann that LSD was a major
contributing factor for the development
of the polymerase chain reaction but
what if I had not taken LSD ever would I
have still invented PCR I don’t know I
got it
number 2 Sigmund Freud invents
psychoanalysis while on cocaine
psychoanalysis was established by
notable Austrian neurologist Sigmund
Freud in the early 1890s and while its
validity and use are hotly contested
within academic circles
it has nevertheless been a major source
of discussion and influence in the
practice of psychiatry for more than a
century and Freud loved him some cocaine
and he also his nose was so congested he
had to have a surgeon open it up with a
knife so he could breathe Freud’s
medical reputation was somewhat ruined
once it was reported that cocaine caused
overdoses and addiction but Freud still
remained a user of the drug to treat his
depression and headaches he finally
stopped using the drug in 1896 one year
after the publication of studies on
hysteria which is often considered to be
a formative work on psychoanalysis
number one John Pemberton invents
coca-cola on cocaine and morphine a
story of coca-cola begins with
debilitating morphine addiction cokes
creator John Pemberton was seriously
injured during the Civil War and
subsequently became addicted to morphine
which was used to treat his pain seeking
a less addictive replacement Pemberton
started experimenting with coca and
cocoa wines and created Pemberton’s
French wine coca a drink consisting of
French wine and a unique mixture of
cocaine and alcohol called cocoa
ethylene however Pemberton was forced to
tweak the recipe amid the temperance
movement in the late 19th century
he removed the alcohol and created a
little drink called coca-cola
might have heard of it a bottle of
ice-cold coca-cola when you’re a thirsty
or a little tired do you agree with our
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