He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_re_eu/obit_hofmann "I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses. "Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he said, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast." Upon reaching home, Hofmann sat down on a divan and began experiencing what he called "wonderful visions." "What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures," he told Swiss television network SF DRS for a program marking his 100th birthday two years ago. "It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared." Three days later, Hofmann experimented with a larger dose. The result was the world's first scientifically documented bad trip. "The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," Hofmann wrote. 41 years after he first produced LSD Albert Hofmann dies in Switzerland aged 102 years old The U.S. government banned LSD in 1966 and other countries followed suit. Hofmann maintained this was unfair, arguing that the drug was not addictive. He repeatedly argued for the ban to be lifted to allow LSD to be used in medical research. Comments please About the Drug ? About the Ban ? About Hofmann ? Please post your input Thanks
As a young, dumb twerp, I experimented several times with LSD over the course of a few years. Some of the most wondrously fantastic experiences of my life. Beautiful beyond belief, that are as salient in recall now as they were in direct experience then. And one experience, my last, that brought me straight to the bowels of a personal hell. Padded walls, a bare mattress on the floor, and an eternity of harrowing hours; requiring a massive bolus of Thorazine, and sustained doses of same, to keep me from going bye bye for good. Leary and Company would have liked us all to believe enlightenment can be achieved with a pill, or a square of drug-soaked paper. The west, generally - a weekend workshop mentality to the true pursuit of inner life. We see Buddha sitting serene and still, beneath the banyan tree. We forget his years of labor to get there. Sheer crap, LSD. It kills you, and those you love.
Much of why LSD is bad is because of how it's made and being illegal This is not to say LSD is 'good' simply the basic fact, imagine if your aspirin was made under ground in someones run down lab with no safety restrictions over the process of it.
Not in my experience. I wasn't dropping adulterated crap. LSD-25, pharmaceutical grade, and windowpane made by users themselves. It's a crap shoot - many can go on for years with no acute, bad effects ("downers"), but the bad can be really bad. I once said goodbye to a shipmate in the navy - the guy jumped, on acid, and broke his neck. He laid in a hospital bed for one month before finally succumbing. Many, many instances. The long term effects are also potentially quite bad. The early anti-LSD med reports indicating possible chomosomal damage have largely been dismissed, but the potential for long term psychosis is real. I myself lived with chronic flashbacks for years. Mostly, a little green caterpillar with the head of a chatty man who perched himself on my right shoulder. He'd regularly pop up at the most inopportune moments, startling the hell out of me (and anyone sitting next to me, as I jerked my body rightward to see). Sound unreal? It was. Welcome to delusions. Maybe your experience was different. The dangers to me far outweigh any possible "kick" from a 12-18 hour trip into Xanadu.
LSD is a brain damaging drug. Not as damaging as ecstasy but still bad. I'm generally against outlawing stuff that doesn't have much potential to cause harm to others, but LSD makes you psychotic, literally, which makes you potentially dangerous to others, so it shouldn't be legal. I would say the same for alcohol but we tried prohibition and it didn't work because the demand was too great. It's probably the same for marijuana, but LSD is different because there's not a big demand so it can probably be kept in check with laws.
making any substance illegal will always result in more crime, more violence and a more dangerous substance. I have had some excellent times on acid and have not had any flashbacks and only experienced one bad trip, And even that wasn't too bad. These days i don't have much time for drugs, Kinda been there and done it and would much rather spend the evening in my local having a few Heineken's chatting to mates or chatting up one of the many gorgeous barmaids, Or even just sitting at the bar reading the papers. But when i was doing drugs (pretty much all drugs) i had an excellent time and don't regret a second of it.
You're an Englishman drinking Heineken? That alone proves the lunacy. My bad trip concerned my own footsteps chasing me down the hallway; catching up, no matter where I tried to hide, and stripping the flesh from my legs and trunk. My breath pounded to a violent loudness, morphing into an image - I saw my lungs pulsing in and out from my body, through my mouth, much like what happens to a fish hauled in too fast from the depths - eyes bulging, its organs disgorged; my lungs billowing and bloody before my face with every out-breath. I was also alone. Not quite the rapture of past experiences.
lol i only drink Heineken because it's the strongest beer in the pub. English beer is usually only about 3%, Except in country pubs that have cask ales. That stuff can sometimes strip the varnish off the bar.
Ahem. These are two of the beers I brew: on this, "Ugly Betty" (before the show of the same name), because I'm a lousy welder but a seriously driven brewer: My Black Stag Imperial Stout comes in at 11.75%. These can strip the varnish off varnish. Love English ales. I appreciate the "drinkability" and flavor of even the low strength beers - compare you're Coniston's Bluebird ordinary bitter, or any reputable mild, to whatever crap 3.2% from the States you'd find. English brewing is the style I brew. I've got two casks in cellar, beer engines up top, at any one time. Shhh - industrial espionage. Once toured Fuller's Young's, and many breweries in the Midlands, including Hook Norton. I air-dried spent yeast on business cards and re-streaked them on plates to health, isolating strains in my micro lab. Kent hops, Maris-Otter, hand-turned malt...doesn't get better. OK, sorry, Britishguy. Craft brewing gets me in a lather (pun intended). Apologies for off-topic.
Like all drugs, risks can be minimised if you know what you're doing, what you're taking and how to deal with it but the majority of people who do drugs don't. LSD is definitely a powerful creative aid... as I said in another topic today, it was responsible for the DNA Helix structure and the computer mouse (along with countless amounts of music and literature). Steve Jobs described his trip on LSD as the most amazing time of his life (when the fields were playing Mozart to him). Governments are all too quick to completely ban drugs and label them as bad as if it's a black and white issue. These governments don't attempt to understand these drugs, which is a shame.
If the pub done a decent strength ale i would definitely drink that. With the Heineken i can do 6 or 7 pints and then im done, too bloated. With ales and bitters i can drink them all day. Getting bloated does give me an excuse to go on to the spirits though, Another of my vices. My mate told me i once went to a whisky tasting party in a Scottish distillery with him, But i don't remember doing that.
You don't need to convince me Maybe I haven't seen the bad side because I have only dropped acid once.
Mine as well. Big Speyside (Macallan, Dalwhinnie), West Highlands (esp. Oban), and Islay malts (in winter, or when it's just cold enough to warrant it) guy.
If I seem like a preacher, I don't mean to be. I've seen it kill people, and in my case, it put me in a loony bin. In my story, nothing sensational at all. Quite real, and factually quite what I experienced. Just my experience, and I can't, and won't speak for others - I just hope to hell no one else has to go through what I experienced.
Long Strong Day.....whew I also experimented with that stuff a long time ago. Way way strong. Keep off the hard drugs kids.....its potentially very ruff. Hoffman? may he rest in peace
Something so powerful as to shape an entire human culture [or should we say counterculture] Turn on, tune in, drop out
LSD Inventor Albert Hofmann, RIP. He and his drug had relationship with the CIA http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/020764.html
Good advice. But if for some reason it's not heeded, this may help you along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQB1oAVbvQ