LSD: A Short History
In 1938 in Basel, Switzerland, Albert Hofmann, a chemist working for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, synthesized LSD for the first time while searching for a blood stimulant. However, its hallucinogenic effects were unknown until 1943, when Hofmann accidentally ingested some LSD. It was later found that an oral dose of as little as 25 micrograms (equal in weight to a few grains of salt) can cause vivid hallucinations.
Because of its similarity to a chemical present in the brain and how its effects mimic certain aspects of psychosis, LSD was used in experiments by psychiatrists from the 1940s to the 1960s. While the researchers failed to discover any medical use for the drug, the free samples supplied by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals for the experiments were distributed broadly, leading to wide use of the drug.
LSD was popularized in the 1960s by individuals such as psychologist Timothy Leary, who encouraged American students to “turn on, tune in and drop out.” This created an entire counterculture of drug abuse and spread the drug from America to the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.
While the ’60s counterculture used the drug to escape the problems of society, the Western intelligence community and the military saw it as a potential chemical weapon. In 1951, these organizations began a series of experiments. US researchers noted that LSD “is capable of rendering whole groups of people, including military forces, indifferent to their surroundings and situations, interfering with planning and judgment, and even creating apprehension, uncontrollable confusion and terror.”
Experiments in the possible use of LSD to change the personalities of intelligence targets, and to control whole populations, continued until the United States officially banned the drug in 1967.
Use of LSD declined in the 1980s, but picked up again in the 1990s, becoming more widely used at dance clubs and all-night raves by older teens and young adults.
The days following my LSD use, I was filled with anxiety and extreme depression. Following my first trip on LSD, I would eat it frequently, sometimes up to four or five times per week for an extended period. Each time I would take the drug, mentally I was drifting more and more out of reality. The eventual effect was the inability to feel normal in my own skin.” —Andrea
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