The Complicated Legacy of Nick Sand
Wall Street, oil money, offshore bank accounts, CIA connections...
The following is an excerpt from p. 140-141 of Chapter 3, “Everywhere, All the Time: DMT and Drugism” from my new book, Drugism (2022):
[Note: today’s excerpt picks up where “The Rediscovery of Smoked DMT” left off.]
In 1973, William Mellon Hitchcock, owner of the Millbrook estate, got in trouble for tax evasion. Faced with imprisonment, he testified against Nick Sand and others as part of a legal negotiation to avoid punishment. The following year, in 1974, Sand received multiple convictions and was sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison.1 While out on bail, Sand decided to flee from the authorities, leading to years of fugitive status as he dodged federal pursuit. He wound up in Canada, in a town outside of Vancouver, where he set up another lab which he maintained for years.
Sand will appear again before our chapter’s end—he certainly did not stop producing DMT in the 1970s. His story can be found elsewhere in fuller form, and is worth studying for those interested in the history of DMT, LSD, etc. He contributed much to modern DMT culture: he was probably the first to smoke it in its pure form; his career in drug production was itself directly inspired by a DMT trip; and he became one of the primary producers of the drug in the early days of its use in the US.
That said, Sand’s success was nurtured by Timothy Leary, who himself worked with the CIA and who granted Sand legal protection to manufacture drugs. Sand’s work was funded with profits from the petroleum industry and Wall Street, via Hitchcock. [Note: Hitchcock’s family also had multiple connections to the CIA.2] The earnings from Sand’s drug sales were kept in off-shore accounts to evade taxation. One of the banks Hitchcock kept money in was Castle Bank and Trust, which was originally created to finance covert CIA operations.3 Let us not forget these facts as we reckon Sand’s legacy.
I spoke with Nick for a while at the premier showing of The Sunshine Makers at the Marriott Hotel 2017. His face was drawn, gaunt, the defined features of his Skull were prominent which would’ve startled me had his shit eating grin not offset this deathly starkness. His eyes lit up as he gave me a big hug & then with his right arm wrapped around my waist asked; “How have you been sweetheart?!”
RIP Nick