Cohen, Sidney, 1910-

Sidney Cohen (1910-1987) was born in New York City in 1910, graduated as a pharmacist from Columbia Univ. in 1930, and received his medical degree from Bonn University in Germany in 1938. After completing an internship in Jamaica, Long Island, and New York, Cohen entered the U.S. Army and served in the Pacific Campaign, eventually becoming a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, from which he retired in 1963. After the war, Sidney Cohen completed an internal medicine residency. He then became the Assistant Chief of Medical Service for the Veteran's Administration Wadsworth Hospital in Los Angeles from 1948 to 1960. As UCLA's medical school was started, many V.A. physicians served as faculty, Cohen serving as an Associate Clinical Professor from 1954 to 1970. Cohen was a prolific writer in both medical journals and in popular media, with more than 250 articles to his credit. He also served as founder, member of an editorial review board or committee, or editor for a number of journals and collections including: Drug dependence, Journal of psychopharmacology, American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, Drug abuse and alcoholism review, Psychosomatics, International journal of addictions, and the Journal of substance abuse treatment. Sidney Cohen was appointed the first Director, Division of Narcotic Abuse and Drug Addiction, National Institute of Mental Health by Richard Nixon in 1968, where he remained until 1970. Returning to UCLA, Cohen became a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and also participating on a number of government grant review committees, including serving as chair of the F.D.A's. Drug Abuse Advisory Committee from 1982 to 1983. Cohen also served as anti-drug consultant to the Army and the State Department, as well as various public relations and advertising agencies with pharmaceutical company clients, travelling as an expert on drugs and drug policy. Sidney Cohen is perhaps most well-known in popular culture for LSD experiments he conducted with Keith Dittman, Betty Eisner and Gerald Heard, based on correspondence with Humphrey Osmond, in the mid-1950s. Cohen also conducted a number of very loosely-controlled experiments with LSD, resulting in descriptions of LSD experiences. Cohen provided LSD to Clare Boothe Luce and Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, among numerous others. After becoming convinced that use of LSD could be dangerous, particularly if unsupervised, Cohen maintained a public anti-LSD stance and sometimes testy discourse with Timothy Leary. In 1965, Cohen published The beyond within: the LSD story. Cohen also provided the LSD used by Aldous Huxley in his deathbed experience and advocated LSD research, particularly for the terminally ill, until his own death in 1987.

From the description of Collection, 1910-1987. (University of California, Los Angeles). WorldCat record id: 666038648

Biography

Sidney Cohen (1910-1987) was born in New York city in 1910, graduated as a pharmacist from Columbia University in 1930, and received his medical degree from Bonn University, Bonn, Germany, in 1938. After completing an internship in Jamaica, Long Island, and New York, Cohen entered the U.S. Army and served in the Pacific Campaign, eventually becoming a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, from which he retired in 1963.

After the war, Sidney Cohen completed an internal medicine residency. He then became the Assistant Chief of Medical Service for the Veteran's Administration Wadsworth Hospital in Los Angeles from 1948 to 1960. As UCLA's medical school was started, many V.A. physicians served as faculty, Cohen serving as an Associate Clinical Professor from 1954 to 1970. Cohen was a prolific writer in both medical journals and in popular media, with more than 250 articles to his credit. He also served as founder, member of an editorial review board or committee, or editor for a number of journals and collections including: Drug Dependence, Journal of Psychopharmacology, American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse and Alcoholism Review, Psychosomatics, International Journal of Addictions, and the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment .

Sidney Cohen was appointed the first Director, Division of Narcotic Abuse and Drug Addiction, National Institute of Mental Health by Richard Nixon in 1968, where he remained until 1970. Returning to UCLA, Cohen became a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and also participating on a number of government grant review committees, including serving as chair of the F.D.A's. Drug Abuse Advisory Committee from 1982 to 1983. Cohen also served as anti-drug consultant to the Army and the State Department, as well as various public relations and advertising agencies with pharmaceutical company clients, travelling as an expert on drugs and drug policy.

Sidney Cohen is perhaps most well-known in popular culture for LSD experiments he conducted with Keith Dittman, Betty Eisner and Gerald Heard, based on correspondence with Humphrey Osmond, in the mid-1950s. Cohen also conducted a number of very loosely-controlled experiments with LSD, resulting in descriptions of LSD experiences. Cohen provided LSD to Clare Boothe Luce and Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, among numerous others. After becoming convinced that use of LSD could be dangerous, particularly if unsupervised, Cohen maintained a public anti-LSD stance and sometimes testy discourse with Timothy Leary. Cohen published The Beyond Within: The LSD Story in 1965. Cohen also provided the LSD used by Aldous Huxley in his deathbed experience and advocated LSD research, particularly for the terminally ill, until his own death in 1987.

From the guide to the Sidney Cohen collection, 1910-1987, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)