Synapse

In early 1967, David Smith was embarking on a career in academic medicine as a postgraduate fellow in pharmacology and toxicology at UCSF. On his way to and from campus, however, the reality of what was going down that year in San Francisco changed his career and life. “I’d spend the day in the lab, injecting white rats with LSD, mescaline, and amphetamines,” recalls Smith. “Then I’d walk home through the Haight and see kids who were taking those same drugs.”