Dubbed “the acid king,” William Leonard Pickard was at the center of the most legendary LSD case in U.S. history—his 2000 arrest allegedly triggered a global shortage of the drug. A former drug policy fellow at Harvard and deputy director at UCLA’s Drug Policy Analysis Program, Pickard spent 20 years in maximum-security prison before being granted compassionate release in 2020.
While incarcerated, he authored The Rose of Paracelsus (2015)—a metaphysical, literary epic written in pencil and now a cult classic in psychedelic circles. Today, he serves as a senior advisor to JLS Fund, a leading investment fund in the psychedelic space, and is also a research affiliate at Harvard Law School. His insights span the hidden history of psychedelics, the rise of synthetic opioids (which he predicted in 1996), AI in drug development, and the urgent need for criminal justice reform.
This fireside chat will be facilitated facilitated by psychedelic researcher and Founder of Hello SciCom, Sarah Rose Siskind, as Pickard reflects on the past and looks ahead—illuminating what’s next for psychedelics, policy, and cultural change.
What: Fireside chat with world’s LSD Acid King himself William Leonard Pickard
When: Thursday, April 24, 2025
Where: NeueHouse Madison Square (110 E. 25th st, New York, NY)
Time: 6:00 p.m. doors/ 6:30 p.m. fireside chat
RSVP here
https://rsvp.neuehouse.com/psychedelicroyals
