Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died of a heart attack at his home in Basel at the age of 102.
Mr Hofmann first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal uses of a crop fungus.
He accidentally ingested some of the drug and said later: "Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror".
He hoped LSD could be used to treat mental illness, but it became a popular street drug in the 1960s.
'Turn on, tune in, drop out'
While working with the drug in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratory a few years after first producing it, Mr Hofmann ingested some of the drug through his fingertips.
He went home and experienced what he described as visions of "fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours".
The drug was popularised by Harvard professor Timothy Leary who suggested that people "turn on, tune in, drop out".
Rock stars and the counter-culture of the 1960s picked up LSD as a wonder drug but horror stories began to emerge of users suffering permanent psychological damage.
LSD was made illegal in many countries beginning in the late 1960s.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7374846.stm
Thanks for the memories.
5 comments:
Scary Man, Smaug, and Gushers...
"No depth...just goat"
Ahahah...one of the best quotes ever to come out of a riotous drug romp.
:-(
:-D
:-P
Ding dong diddley crap!
Good riddance! Have a smooth and comfortable ride on your way to hell! :)
What the fucking hell?
Frayed One, that statement is at best ignorant. One, Hofman is not Leary. Two, he legitimately believed it had medicinal uses. Three, he did other things aside from discovering LSD. Read up a little o him and you'll even find he says that LSD is dangerous in the wrong hands.
Again, that statement was just fucked up and sad and in poor taste to a man who was honestly trying to help others. Don't like drugs? Fine. But being a shit towards Hofman is out of line in my opinion. Boo.
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