Father Of LSD Celebrating 100th Birthday

wjz.com ^ | 1/10/06 | unknown

[beyond the sea]

http://wjz.com/watercooler/watercooler_story_010144726.html

Father Of LSD Celebrating 100th Birthday

(AP) 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.

"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.

[beyond the sea]

FAR OUT!!!!

I wish I had some orange sunshine or a little window pane.

;-)

[dforest]

Well at least it is good to know that LSD is not what created the RATs in power now. Had to be some other substance to so dement a mind.

[LexBaird]

Father Of LSD Celebrating 100th Birthday

Meanwhile, Timothy Leary's dead...

[beyond the sea]

Meanwhile, Timothy Leary's dead...

Silly comment, but ........ that silly b*stard made LSD look bad.

[beyond the sea]

One more time.......... there are so many "drugs", if they may need to be referred to as "drugs". LSD CAN make many wiser.

I wish it were possible that more folks could be wiser and see a bigger picture. The world may be better.

[LexBaird]

You got your cue all wrong! The proper reply is: "No, no, no, no. He's just outside looking in."

[beyond the sea]

Moody Blue you.

;-)

[beyond the sea]

I'm really sorry for that........... I'm replacing a battery on my golf cart here at the nursery............... I was not on the correct level for that comment.

;-)

[Ciexyz]

I don't trust anything on snopes.com, they have a liberal agenda and will spin anything to promote a liberal viewpoint. I believe Art Linkletter and his contention that LSD drug use contributed to his daughter's death. This is what I heard at the time of the accident, and I distrust any attempt by snopes to spin this as something else.

[Borges]

The whole point of Snopes is to not trust other things. I've found it pretty accurate with a grain of salt of course...like Wikipedia. It's used as a reference here constantly.

[megatherium]

I recall reading that large studies were done of LSD, involving thousands of subjects, and no flashbacks were observed. (These studies were done at places like Columbia University. Word got around that they would pay you $75 to spend a very interesting Saturday in the study...) When the drug became a street drug (circa 1960) and many people took doses of varying purity and strength, people started to report flashbacks. Typically these would last for weeks or months after the individual ceased using the drug. (This matches the experience of people I knew in college; if you use a lot of LSD, meaning large doses every weekend, for example, you might have flashbacks for some months.) I am unaware of any evidence that people had flashbacks more than a year or two later (after having ceased using LSD or similar drugs). But certainly I can't fault the DoD with restricting access to nuclear weapons based on any prior LSD use.

I think the real danger from LSD is that it can cause extraordinarily intense and frightening experiences, and thus lead to psychotic breaks. Perhaps in this way, some unfortunate people became "acid casulties." A famous example of this was the original guitarist for the Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett. I think some people are not schizophrenic but are suseptible to that illness (it is known that the disease is only partly genetic), and it seems plausible to me that LSD could trigger the illness.

[GSWarrior]

Do you mind consuming mind consuming drugs?

[6ppc]

I had a friend jump out of a third story window, but that was mushrooms not LSD.

[SJSAMPLE]

HOLY THREAD RESURRECTION !!!

Reading your response made me think I was having an LSD flashback ;)

Honestly, I wouldn't know if there is such a thing, but hallucinagenics were the big no-no for certain MOS's.

[Tokra]

I worked with nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons delivery while in The US Army. When you undergo psychological and reliability interviews, they ask about drugs. The only past drug use the PERMANENTLY disqualifies you are hallucinagenics like LSD, as many consider the effects PERMANENT because of "flashbacks".

I've heard this term "flashbacks" many times over the years - but have never known anyone actually experience one.

I did LSD probably 30 or 40 times during 1969 - 70. The last trip was a classic "bad trip" (I had taken WAY too much at once), so I stopped then and never did it again.

37 Years later and nary a flashback - nor have I ever heard of anyone who actually had one.

One of my few regrets from life was doing LSD at such an early age (I was only 17 years old). I feel lucky that I came out of it (relatively) unscathed.

[beyond the sea]

bummer

[beyond the sea]

bummer

[beyond the sea]

bummer

[Palladin]

Only the ones who took it and acted on their hallucinations, leaping off all buildings, etc.

[Palladin]

"tall buildings"

I need a new keyboard!