This is not at all surprising, if you are familiar with the history of psychedelics. At around the same time (and even earlier) similar "state-sanctioned" LSD

This is not at all surprising, if you are familiar with the history of psychedelics. At around the same time (and even earlier) similar "state-sanctioned" LSD (and other psychedelic) experimentation was being carried out in the US, Canada, and other parts of Europe. LSD was around this time (and may still remain) the most researched psychoactive compound in history, with thousands of papers written on it. No surprise that there was a lot of research on it all over the world.