LSD creator celebrates 100th b-day

By Sam Cage , Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 10, 2:12 PM ET

GENEVA - LSD is an unlikely subject for a 100th birthday party. Yet the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug and was its first human guinea pig is celebrating his centenary Wednesday — in good health and with plans to attend an international seminar on the hallucinogenic.
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"I had wonderful visions," Albert Hofmann said, recalling his first accidental consumption of the drug.

"I sat down at home on the divan and started to dream," he told the Swiss television network SF DRS. "What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures. It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."

Hofmann, who also had bad experiences with the drug, continues to insist it should be legalized for medical treatment, particularly in psychiatric research. But LSD's reputation has been as turbulent as some acid trips.

The drug earned a bad reputation amid fatalities associated with hallucinations and reports of "flashbacks" — the recurrence of hallucinations when not taking the drug.

LSD inspired the 1960s hippy generation and was immortalized in the Beatles' hit "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," although the band denied any connection. But it was also known as Like Swift Dead.

For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine," he said. "It's not my fault if people abused it."

The chemist — who still takes nearly daily walks in the picturesque village where he lives in the Jura mountains with his wife of 70 years, Anita — discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm, now part of Novartis.

The company declined to comment for this story.

Hofmann was the first person to test the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped on to his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment in April 1943.

"Everything I saw was distorted, as in a warped mirror," he wrote of the experience, noting his surprise that LSD was able to produce "such a far-reaching, powerful, inebriated condition without leaving a hangover."

The chemist experimented with a larger dose three days later, but the result this time was a "horror" trip, he wrote. His surroundings turned into threatening images. A neighbor was transformed into a wicked witch.

"I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," he wrote.

Hofmann and his scientific colleagues hoped LSD would make an important contribution to psychiatric research. The drug exaggerated inner problems and conflicts, and they hoped it might be used to recognize and treat mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

The drug was popularized by Timothy Leary, the one-time Harvard lecturer known as the "high priest of LSD," whose "turn on, tune in, drop out" advice to students in the 1960s glamorized the hallucinogen. The film star Cary Grant and numerous rock musicians extolled its virtues in achieving true self-discovery and enlightenment.

But away from the psychedelic trips and flower children, stories emerged of people going on murder sprees or jumping out of windows while hallucinating. Heavy users suffered permanent psychological damage.

The United States banned LSD in 1966 and other countries followed suit.

Hofmann maintains that was unfair, arguing the drug was not addictive. He has repeatedly said the ban should be lifted so LSD can be used in medical research, and he took the drug himself — purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest — for several decades.

But he added a note of caution.

"The history of LSD to date amply demonstrates the catastrophic consequences that can ensue when its profound effect is misjudged and the substance is mistaken for a pleasure drug," he wrote.

yay for LSD

'yes, I engineer and distribute a substance that is extremely harmful, but it's not my fault if people die from it. They should be smart enough not to use it. Nevermind that I constantly am saying how great it is, I never told them to listen to me...'

this guy should become a lawyer or work for the government or something.

I just read a bunch of Timothy Leary's books....the drug is interesting in what it could've done for humankind if it had not been misued. :(
Oh well....
Happy 100th LSD creator....

While I do not advocate the use of hallucinogens either for pleasure or spiritual enlightenment I can't hold Mr. Hofmann responsible for deaths simply because he was reasearching and got LSD. Yes, he thought it could be useful for psychiatric treatment and advocated it's use as so - not as a pleasure drug.

Besides LSD, people have used mushrooms (psilocybin, psilocin, muscimol, and ibotenic acid) and peyoti (mescaline) for hallicinogenic agents during religious ceremonies and for pleasure for a very long time. There are far safer ways to initiate an altered state of conciousness for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment than drugs. But IMHO even those ways of attaining altered conciousness are not safe for someone who is not mentally stable or emotionally grounded. I personally prefer meditation.

I wouldn't say that he's responsible, just that he's full of shit. since he is not a person suffering from a mental disorder, presumibly, then he doesn't have any reason using lsd, according to his own statements for it's intened use.

If it wasn't for LSD I'd wouldn't be here today

Happy birthday :thumb:

Ahh yes, I remember all those LSD related murders back in 65. Oh, no wait there were none of those. But the country was brought to a halt by all the LSD junkies living on the steets... no wait I made that up. Butit is horribly addictive... hmmm...


Well lets ask some experts, like the the National Institute on Drug Abuse

Quote:

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Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered an addictive drug since it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior, as do cocaine, amphetamine, heroin, alcohol, and nicotine.

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Hmm... well as dangerous as it is and as wide spread as it's use is or was, there must be hundreds of documented cases of breakdowns and deaths right?

Like any introxicant, LSD can be dangerous. This is why they are called intoxicant, toxic is right there in the name. Also Hofman told doctors and scientist it was great, Leary told everyone else. Hofman never encouraged it's use as a party drug. I think Hofman can continue living with a clear conscience. The people advertising Viagra or other ED medicines on TV sa a recreational drug, they might be a little more worthy of your ire.

The only thing I don't like about LSD and like about Mushrooms...is that mushroom are organic, and you don't have the 'flashbacks' like with LSD. Somehow, the chemicals in mushrooms aren't stored in the spinal fluid like LSD..but pass through the system.

Nothing worse than having an inopportune LSD flashback...like when driving or something else just as serious...

I wonder if there have been any studies on LSD on schizophrenic patients? That would be interesting to see if it makes them better..or worse.

Spoke too soon...there are...
------------------------------------------------
The best review of this question is Rick Strassman's "Adverse Reactions to Psychedelic Drugs: a Review of the Literature" in _J. Nerv and Mental Disease_ 172(10):577-595. He writes:

The most common adverse reaction is a temporary (less than 24 hours) episode of panic --the "bad trip". Symptoms include frightening illusions/ hallucinations (usually visual and/or auditory); overwhelming anxiety to the point of panic; aggression with possible violent acting-out behavior; depression with suicidcal ideations, gestures, or attempts; confusion; and fearfulness to the point of paranoid delusions.

Reactions that are prolonged (days to months) and/or require hospitalization are often referred to as "LSD psychosis," and include a heterogenous population and group of symptoms. Although there are no hard and fast rules, some trends have been noted in these patients. There is a tendency for people with poorer premorbid adjusment, a history of psychiatric illness and/or treatment, a greater number of exposure to psychedelic drugs (and correlatively, a great average total cumulative dosage taken over time), drug-taking in an unsupervised setting, a history of polydrug abuse, and self-therapeutic and/or peer-pressure-submission motive for drug use, to suffer these consequences.

In spite of the impressive degree of prior problems noted in many of these patients, there are occasional reports of severe and prolonged reactions occuring in basically well adjusted individuals. In the same vein, there are many instance of faily poorly adapted individuals who suffer _no_ ill effects from repeated psychedelic drug use. In fact, it has been hypothesized that some schizophrenics do not suffer adverse reactions because of their familiarity with such acute altered states. Another possibility is that there individuals may be "protected" by possible "down-regulation" of the receptors for LSD, bu the (over-)production of some endogenous compound. _Individual_ prediction of adverse reactions, therefore, is quite difficult...

Major "functional" psychosis vs. "LSD psychosis

yeah I guess I was wrong, drugs are good. tie dye, ben and jerrys and ashton kutcher movies is totally worth tens of thousands of deaths per year, destruction of family life and community,robbery and theft, millions of tax dollars spent on treatment...

I have taken LSD hundreds of times. I dont think I will ever take it again, but from 95-01 it was one of my favorite things to do.
I have never expierenced a "flashback", or any negative effects from the drug. But I would not recommend it to anyone I know either.

I was never into acid that much. I do recall a party though where a group of us were outside in the backyard tripping and someone said "no one move, we're surrounded by snakes!". So then we're all standing on top of the picnic table and someone else says "oh my god! they're hanging from the trees!!"

And seeing Supertramp while tripping was an absolute blast!

(mental note: see Supertramp)
Watching Pink Floyd's THE WALL is cool while tripping too...
it makes sense, then..

have you seen the website form when some americans locked up an artist, fed him acid and watched what he produced?
its amazing, its pretty old, from cowboy days or somthing :D (not hte website, obviously :D)
I cant find it now tho, dammmnit

"brave new world" was written on acid, wasnt it?

his name was andy warhol.

lol
ah ha ha

yeah..... crazy man :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eva:Gina

"brave new world" was written on acid, wasnt it?

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I think that guy was actually big on mescaline

aldous huxley? yeah probably, some type of head-fuck definatly went into that book
god i lov eit, i tried to read more of his but i jsut coudlnt get into it...

I had to read that book in high school and I dont think any of us understood it then, and now that I actually get it ,all I can think is why did they make us read that anyway?

it was AMAZING
I loved it
i sat down and read it in one go when i was 14, and i am SO glad i did :D