Photos of
Alexander Shulgin's Analytical Reference Standards
Feb 26, 2009

These photos are from a series taken recently of what remained of his analytical reference standard collection. Because Dr. Shulgin reinquished his controlled substances license after the publication of his first book, PIHKAL, he is no longer able to store many chemicals that he had in the past. Although the DEA allows for the distribution and use of analytical standards of controlled substances by unlicensed labs, Dr. Shulgin no longer works with controlled substances.
Analytical reference standards are very small amounts of chemicals used to verify the identity of an unknown chemical, and/or to test a material's purity. A single milligram of a compound can often be used for a number of analyses or calibrations, so reference standards are generally quite small. With nearly all psychoactive chemicals, reference standard amounts are far lower than a single human dose of the substance.
The photos of the papers depict logs of the chemicals synthesized, noted on a grid/table that represents where they are in the boxes. The logs are kept inside the boxes that hold the vials of reference standards. Each vial is also labeled with the identity of the chemical inside.
Many thanks to everyone working on this project!