LSD Chemist Wants Drug Ban Eased

cbs ^ | 1-11-06

[LouAvul]

(AP) Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug LSD, turned 100 on Wednesday with the wish that the banned drug be made available for scientific research.

"This is a wonderful birthday party we are having. One could say it is a consciousness-expanding experience without LSD," Hofmann said with a twinkle in his eye, standing at a podium to address about 50 people attending a formal gathering in Basel, the city where he worked in Switzerland's pharmaceutical industry.

Hofmann, who still takes walks almost daily in the nearby hilly village where his lives with his wife, Anita, whom he married 70 years ago, was more serious in an interview with the Zurich-daily Tages-Anzeiger.

"Before LSD got onto the streets (in the 1960s), we were able to gather a lot of therapeutic experiences," Hofmann said. "The substance was used in the psychoanalysis of patients who couldn't be talked to."

If they were given LSD, they were stimulated enough to begin responding to analysis, he said.

"What began as a miracle substance subsequently became a youth cult drug, and thus a political danger for America," Hofmann said. "The decision of the U.S. to ban LSD was purely political. Every doctor has controlled access to heroin, morphine and even strychnine. But for LSD there's a total prohibition."

He said he hoped an upcoming symposium planned in conjunction with his birthday would contribute to easing the ban for medical purposes.

[isthisnickcool]

This guy must be on drugs.

[Windsong]

Here come the potheads (i.e. Libertarians/Anarchists)

[Firefigher NC]

If doctors want to try LSD therapy with their patients, let them. Might be some interesting medical use. I know they're using ecstasy for treating PTSS.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Who cares what a 100 year old brain thinks?

[jdm]

[P.O.E.]

Conversation between Avery Schreiber and Guy Stockwell in "The Monitors":

"I'm a butterfly"

"You are not a butterfly"

"I was a butterfly, now I'm a paisley shawl"

[Wally_Kalbacken]

"Before LSD got onto the streets (in the 1960s), we were able to gather a lot of therapeutic experiences," Hofmann said. "The substance was used in the psychoanalysis of patients who couldn't be talked to."

What about patients who shouldn't be talked to?

[starbase]

"One could say it is a consciousness-expanding experience without LSD," Hofmann said with a twinkle in his eye"

No, one could not. I've always despised that lie. Watching shifting colors and being under false impressions of the world around one does NOT "expand consciousness", come to think of it, can anyone actually define that term? Or does is just refer to a doped up moron rolling around and slobbering on the floor?

I'm not aware of any successful brain surgeries, or things of that complexity, that relied on "expanded consciousness", but rather on sober mental focus.

And the "twinkle in his eye bit", was trash. That's to imply he has some magical perception now, he's not sharing it with us, and won't attempt to, but he has a "twinkle". Rubbish.

[Mojave]

Here come the potheads (i.e. Libertarians/Anarchists)

Potheads then acidheads then junkies.

[RedMonqey]

LSD... LSD...

Scientist make it.

Teachers take it

Why can't we?

Why can't we?


-----Old high school singsong.

[hinckley buzzard]

This guy must be on drugs.

No, he just has memory loss for the last forty years or so, typical of senile dementia, with vivid recollections of the days of his youth, ie intact long-term memory.

If he were mentally competent, he would know that LSD is still legal for research purposes today, but that the research of generations past, which he idealizes as being about magic cures and cosmic insights, was long ago discredited and given up as a bad job.

That's why few researchers seriously waste their time with the stuff, any more.

[boulderite20]

Seems like the people that just make stupid drug comments got here first.