Operation Midnight Climax: How the CIA Used Prostitutes to Lure Americans to Take LSD

Did the Same People Introduce Crack Cocaine to Black America?

By Washington Our Home — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111392186

In August 1966, the San Jose Mercury News published a three-part series called “Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion.” The Dark Alliance series recounted how Ricky Donnell Ross began peddling small quantities of cocaine in the early 1980s and rapidly grew into one of the largest cocaine dealers in southern California until he was convicted of federal drug trafficking charges in March 1996. The series seemed to claim that the CIA and other agencies of the United States government were responsible for the crack epidemic that ravaged Black communities across the country. The newspaper articles suggested that the United States government had protected drug dealers from prosecution and either knowingly permitted them to peddle massive quantities of cocaine to the Black residents of South Central Los Angeles or turned a blind eye to such activity.

The series stated: 

“For the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.”

After significant pushback from the CIA and Justice Department, the Mercury News revised its claim on its website:

“The Mercury News published a three-part series in late August that detailed how a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the street gangs of South-Central Los Angeles in the 1980s, sending some of the millions in profits to the Contras. The series never reported direct CIA involvement, although many readers drew that conclusion.”

Like any good conspiracy theory, the story that the CIA introduced crack cocaine to Black America to fund its illegal activities made its way into the culture. Many newspapers reprinted or summarized the articles. The theory made its way into television shows, books, and films. The government has always denied it, but many people believe it to be true. I have no proof other than what has already been presented. I do propose we look at what the CIA is known to have done and ask ourselves, is the CIA capable of introducing drugs to American citizens?” I think the following information goes a long way toward answering that question.

In 1954, the CIA established several safe houses, primarily in San Francisco and New York, where they paid prostitutes to lure men into sexual liaisons in the safe houses. The men were given alcohol and illegal drugs, including LSD, and were monitored behind a one-way glass. Sometimes, the men were given subliminal suggestions in attempts to induce them to involuntary actions, including criminal activity such as robbery, assault, and assassination. Operatives were told the program was an attempt to keep up with the Russians. Operation Midnight Climax was part of the much larger MK-Ultra Program, exploring all aspects of mind control. MK-Ultra involved 162 projects, some carried out by universities and research programs. Most people involved didn’t know they were working for the CIA.

Senate investigators were told that the goals of the Midnight Climax experiments were to study mind control and sexual behavior. More specifically, to learn about the secrets of brainwashing to gain control over enemy spies and protect U.S. agents. They tested the effect of combining LSD and isolation, where the subjects would be dosed and isolated for months at a time with minimal food and water.

Harry Truman prohibited the CIA from spying on U.S. citizens in 1947. Operation Midnight Climax was illegal, and several significant operational techniques were developed in this theater, including extensive research into sexual blackmail, surveillance technology, and the possible use of mind-altering drugs in field operations. Superiors told the CIA operatives in charge of administering these experiments that the results of the experiments would be beneficial to the country.

In 1974, the New York Times journalist Seymour Hersh published a story exposing the CIA’s illegal spying on U.S. citizens and how the CIA had conducted non-consensual drug experiments. Project MKUltra came to light in the spring of 1977 during a wide-ranging survey of the CIA’s Technical Services Division. John K. Vance, a member of the CIA inspector general’s staff, discovered that the agency was running a research project that included administering LSD and other drugs to unwilling human subjects.

1975, President Ford established the United States President’s Commission on CIA Activities. Known as the Rockefeller Commission, its purpose was to investigate possible illegal activities being performed by the CIA. Project MKUltra, Operation Midnight Climax, and other similar projects were a part of the investigation. According to the Rockefeller Commission Report, the CIA was charged with various illegal activities such as large-scale spying on American citizens, engaging in unlawful wire-taps, and aiming their illicit activities at Americans who openly disagreed with the government. The Ford White House significantly altered the report before its release. Future vice-president Dick Cheney was among those making changes to hide the results from the American people.

I wish I could share the results of Operation Midnight Climax and MK-Ultra, but I cannot. Many of the records were destroyed, and the CIA isn’t talking. After 8,000 pages of financial records were discovered in 1977, two lawsuits made their way to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Both times, SCOTUS sided with the government and not the people.

I cannot definitively answer whether the CIA introduced and spread crack cocaine to Black communities. I can’t say whether the grossly disproportionate penalties for crack vs. powdered cocaine, one as high as 100:1 (now reduced to 18:1), was a government conspiracy to create mass incarceration of Black people or coincidental mass incarceration, a distinction without a difference. I can say that the United States of America is quite capable of conducting such a program, as it did in Operation Midnight Climax, ML-Ultra, the Tuskegee Experiments, and more. What do you think?