David Goldstein, 75, who died last July 31, was a drug researcher who also had a unique and extensive collection of literature on mind-altering substances, with some of it dating as far back as the 1400s.
His cause of death was complications from COVID and pneumonia.
Goldstein, who lived in the Grand Street co-ops on the Lower East Side, was born on May 27, 1948, right nearby on Columbia Street. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School and the City University of New York.
His roommate, RJ Cote, said, “He was a legend in the area of drug research as a specialist in the field, but within his collection was a range of topics that were unequal in the scope and breadth of discovery about mind-altering substances.”
Cote hailed Goldstein’s “impact on the taboo topics of drugs and the culture surrounding them, both legal and not,” noting, “as these issues evolved, so too did the knowledge curated by David.
“He leaves us the Psychedelic History of Drugs (PHD) Library and Archive, with the librarian and catalog in place. A friend to all and a legend to most, David will be remembered as a base of knowledge through which our understanding of the internal workings of the mind can be better understood.”
My old roommate, dad, friend, mentor. I miss him and the world he created for us all.
Will be missed… A saint amongst psychonauts!
David was also the co-editor (with Hakim Bey) of the massive tome ORGIES OF THE HEMP EATERS (Autonomedia, two editions), a compilation anthology about the reception of cannabis culture in the West.