Press "Enter" to skip to content

Top 5 Inventions and Discoveries Made by People High on Drugs


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

to subscribe for more great content but

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

picks check out these other great clips

from watch mojo and subscribe for new

videos every day [Music]

Please follow and like us: