sure if the surgeon had shot himself as part of an experiment that would teach the world something. the line - and the observation frankly - look pretty thick otherwise.
I imagine that obtaining those books might get me put onto a certain government list or two based on what I read at Wikipedia (but thanks anyway! ... just kidding - I don't really know :)
> In 1994, two years after PIHKAL was published, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided Shulgin's lab and requested that he turn over his DEA license. Richard Meyer, spokesman for DEA's San Francisco Field Division, has stated in reference to PIHKAL "It is our opinion that those books are pretty much cookbooks on how to make illegal drugs. Agents tell me that in clandestine labs that they have raided, they have found copies of those books," suggesting that the publication of PIHKAL and the termination of Shulgin's license may have been related.
A bit like being impressed by a surgeon's ability to fix up his own femoral artery when he deliberately shoots himself in the groin.
Hmm, it's a fine line...