Gordon A. Alles (November 26, 1901 – January 21, 1963), was an American chemist and pharmacologist who did extensive research on the isolation and properties of insulin for the treatment of diabetics.
[5] Alles also spent time in Tahiti, where he was investigating the possibilities of developing tranquilizers from alkaloids in a native drink called kava.
Perhaps inspired by the psychic effects he discovered in methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA, the original ecstasy) in 1930, Alles devoted almost the whole of his career to mind-altering drugs.
In the 1930s and early 1940s, while still working closely with SKF, he produced hallucinogens related to amphetamine and mescaline, including MDA, for the firm to test in low doses as diet drugs and antidepressants.
Starting in the late 1950s, having become an honorary pharmacology professor at the medical school of the University of California, Los Angeles, he worked on developing hallucinogenic amphetamines such as MDA and even more powerful derivatives, partly funded by the U.S. Army’s chemical warfare program.