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History of lysergic acid diethylamide

March 10, 2023

The psychedelic drug (or entheogen) lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was first synthesized on November 16, 1938, by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz (now Novartis) laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.[1] It was not until five years later on April 19, 1943, that the psychedelic properties were found.[2]

Discovery

Albert Hofmann, born in Switzerland, joined the pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories, located in Basel, as a co-worker with professor Arthur Stoll, founder and director of the pharmaceutical department.[3] He began studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals. His main contribution was to elucidate the chemical structure of the common nucleus of Scilla glycosides (an active principle of Mediterranean squill).[3] While researching lysergic acid derivatives, Hofmann first synthesized LSD on November 16, 1938.[1] The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (an analeptic). It was set aside for five years, until April 16, 1943, when Hofmann decided to take a second look at it. While re-synthesizing LSD, he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug and discovered its powerful effects.[4][5] He described what he felt as being:

... affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After about two hours this condition faded away.[6]

"Bicycle Day"

Not to be confused with the United Nations designated World Bicycle Day.
Bicycle Day
 
LSD blotter commemorating Bicycle Day
TypeSecular
CelebrationsConsumption of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)
ObservancesHonors the anniversary of the first ever acid trip, undergone by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann on April 19, 1943 in Basel, Switzerland.
DateApril 19
Next time19 April 2023 (2023-04-19)
FrequencyAnnual

On April 19, 1943, Hofmann ingested 0.25 milligrams (250 micrograms) of the substance. Less than one hour later, Hofmann experienced sudden and intense changes in perception. He asked his laboratory assistant to escort him home. As was customary in Basel, they made the journey by bicycle. On the way, Hofmann's condition rapidly deteriorated as he struggled with feelings of anxiety, alternating in his beliefs that the next-door neighbor was a malevolent witch, that he was going insane, and that the LSD had poisoned him. When the house doctor arrived, however, he could detect no physical abnormalities, save for a pair of widely dilated pupils. Hofmann was reassured, and soon his terror began to give way to a sense of good fortune and enjoyment, as he later wrote:

... Little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux ...

The events of the first LSD trip, now known as "Bicycle Day", after the bicycle ride home, proved to Hofmann that he had indeed made a significant discovery: a psychoactive substance with extraordinary potency, capable of causing significant shifts of consciousness in incredibly low doses. (The term trip was first coined by US Army scientists during the 1950s when they were experimenting with LSD.)[7] Hofmann foresaw the drug as a powerful psychiatric tool; because of its intense and introspective nature, he could not imagine anyone using it recreationally.[8] Bicycle Day is increasingly observed in psychedelic communities as a day to celebrate the discovery of LSD.[9][10][11]

The celebration of Bicycle Day originated in DeKalb, Illinois, in 1985, when Thomas B. Roberts, then a professor at Northern Illinois University, invented the name "Bicycle Day"[a] when he founded the first celebration at his home.[12] Several years later, he sent an announcement made by one of his students to friends and Internet lists, thus propagating the idea and the celebration. His original intent was to commemorate Hofmann's original, accidental exposure on April 16, but that date fell midweek and was not a good time for the party, so he chose the 19th to honor Hofmann's first intentional exposure.[12][13][14]

Psychiatric use

See also: Psychedelic therapy

LSD was introduced as a commercial medication under the trade-name Delysid for various psychiatric uses in 1947.[15]

LSD was brought to the attention of the United States in 1949 by Sandoz Laboratories because they believed LSD might have clinical applications.[16]

Throughout the 1950s, mainstream media reported on research into LSD and its growing use in psychiatry, and undergraduate psychology students taking LSD as part of their education described the effects of the drug. Time magazine published six positive reports on LSD between 1954 and 1959.[17]

LSD was originally perceived as a psychotomimetic capable of producing model psychosis.[16][18] By the mid-1950s, LSD research was being conducted in major American medical centers, where researchers used LSD as a means of temporarily replicating the effects of mental illness. One of the leading authorities on LSD during the 1950s in the United States was the psychoanalyst Sidney Cohen. Cohen first took the drug on October 12, 1955, and expected to have an unpleasant trip, but was surprised when he experienced "no confused, disoriented delirium."[16] He reported that the "problems and strivings, the worries and frustrations of everyday life vanished; in their place was a majestic, sunlit, heavenly inner quietude."[16] Cohen immediately began his own experiments with LSD with the help of Aldous Huxley whom he had met in 1955. In 1957, with the help of psychologist Betty Eisner, Cohen began experimenting on whether or not LSD might have a helpful effect in facilitating psychotherapy, curing alcoholism, and enhancing creativity.[16] Between 1957 and 1958, they treated 22 patients who had minor personality disorders.[16] LSD was also given to artists in order to track their mental deterioration,[16] but Huxley believed LSD might enhance their creativity. Between 1958 and 1962, psychiatrist Oscar Janiger tested LSD on more than 100 painters, writers, and composers.

In one study in the late 1950s, Dr. Humphry Osmond gave LSD to alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous who had failed to quit drinking.[19] After one year, around 50% of the study group had not had a drink—a success rate that has never been duplicated by any other means.[20] Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, participated in medically supervised experiments on the effects of LSD on alcoholism and believed LSD could be used to cure alcoholics.[21]

In the United Kingdom the use of LSD was pioneered by Dr. Ronald A. Sandison in 1952, at Powick Hospital, Worcestershire. A special LSD unit was set up in 1958. After Sandison left the hospital in 1964, medical superintendent Arthur Spencer took over and continued the clinical use of the drug until it was withdrawn in 1965. In all, 683 patients were treated with LSD in 13,785 separate sessions at Powick, but Spencer was the last member of the medical staff to use it.[22]

From the late 1940s through the mid-1970s, extensive research and testing was conducted on LSD. During a 15-year period beginning in 1950, research on LSD and other hallucinogens generated over 1,000 scientific papers, several dozen books, and six international conferences. Overall, LSD was prescribed as treatment to over 40,000 patients. Film star Cary Grant was one of many men during the 1950s and 1960s who were given LSD in concert with psychotherapy. Many psychiatrists began taking the drug recreationally and sharing it with friends. Dr. Leary's experiments (see Timothy Leary below) spread LSD usage to a much wider segment of the general populace.

Sandoz halted LSD production in August 1965 after growing governmental protests at its proliferation among the general populace. The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States distributed LSD on a limited basis for scientific research. Scientific study of LSD largely ceased by about 1980 as research funding declined, and governments became wary of permitting such research, fearing that the results of the research might encourage illicit LSD use. By the end of the 20th century, there were few authorized researchers left, and their efforts were mostly directed towards establishing approved protocols for further work with LSD in easing the suffering of the dying and with drug addicts and alcoholics.

A 2014 study showed evidence that LSD can have therapeutic benefits in treating anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases. Rick Doblin, an American drug researcher, described the work as "a proof of concept" that he hoped would "break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance."[23]

Eight subjects received a full 200-microgram dose of LSD while four others received one-tenth as much. Participants then took part in two LSD-assisted therapy sessions two to three weeks apart. Subjects who took the full dose experienced reductions in anxiety averaging 20 per cent while those given the low dose reported becoming more anxious.

When subjects taking the low dose were switched to the full dose they too showed reduced anxiety, with the positive effects lasting for up to a year. The effects of the drug itself lasted for up to 10 hours with participants talking to Dr Gasser throughout the experience.

"These results indicate that when administered safely in a methodologically rigorous medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting, LSD can reduce anxiety," the study concludes, "suggesting that larger controlled studies are warranted."[24][25]

Resistance and prohibition

 
LSD blotter
See also: Prohibition (drugs), Controlled Substances Act, and Convention on Psychotropic Substances

By the mid-1960s the backlash against the use of LSD and its perceived corrosive effects on cultural values resulted in governmental action to restrict the availability of the drug by making use of it illegal.[26] LSD was declared a "Schedule I" substance, legally designating that the drug has a "high potential for abuse" and is without any "currently accepted medical use in treatment." LSD was removed from legal circulation. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration claimed:

Although the initial observations on the benefits of LSD were highly optimistic, empirical data developed subsequently proved less promising ... Its use in scientific research has been extensive and its use has been widespread. Although the study of LSD and other hallucinogens increased the awareness of how chemicals could affect the mind, its use in psychotherapy largely has been debunked. It produces no aphrodisiac effects, does not increase creativity, has no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics or criminals, does not produce a 'model psychosis', and does not generate immediate personality change.

However, drug studies have confirmed that the powerful hallucinogenic effects of this drug can produce profound adverse reactions, such as acute panic reactions, psychotic crises, and "flashbacks", especially in users ill-equipped to deal with such trauma.[27]

The governors of Nevada and California each signed bills into law on May 30, 1966, that make them the first two American states to outlaw the manufacture, sale, and possession of the drug. The law went into effect immediately in Nevada,[28] and on October 6, 1966, in California.[citation needed] Other U.S. states and many other countries soon followed with similar bans.[clarification needed]

Influential individuals

Aldous Huxley

Renowned British intellectual Aldous Huxley was one of the most important figures in the early history of LSD. He was a figure of high repute in the world of letters and had become internationally famous through his novels Crome Yellow, Antic Hay and his dystopian novel Brave New World. His experiments with psychedelic drugs (initially mescaline) and his descriptions of them in his writings did much to spread awareness of psychedelic drugs to the general public and arguably helped to glamorize their recreational use, although Huxley himself treated them very seriously.

Huxley was introduced to psychedelic drugs in 1953 by a friend, psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. Osmond had become interested in hallucinogens and their relationship to mental illness in the 1940s. During the 1950s, he completed extensive studies of a number of drugs, including mescaline and LSD. As noted above, Osmond had some remarkable success in treating alcoholics with LSD.

In May 1953 Osmond gave Huxley his first dose of mescaline at the Huxley home. In 1954 Huxley recorded his experiences in the landmark book The Doors of Perception; the title was drawn from a quotation by British artist and poet William Blake. Huxley tried LSD for the first time in 1955, obtained from "Captain" Al Hubbard.

Alfred Hubbard

Alfred Matthew Hubbard is reputed to have introduced more than 6,000 people to LSD, including scientists, politicians, intelligence officials, diplomats, and church figures. He became known as the original "Captain Trips", travelling about with a leather case containing pharmaceutically pure LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. He became a 'freelance' apostle for LSD in the early 1950s after supposedly receiving an angelic vision telling him that something important to the future of mankind would soon be coming.[29] When he read about LSD the next year, he immediately sought and acquired LSD, which he tried for himself in 1951.

Although he had no medical training, Hubbard collaborated on running psychedelic sessions with LSD with Ross McLean at Vancouver's Hollywood Hospital, with psychiatrists Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond; with Myron Stolaroff at the International Federation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park, California; and with Willis Harman at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). At various times over the next 20 years, Hubbard also reportedly worked for the Canadian Special Services, the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. It is also rumored that he was involved with the CIA's MK-ULTRA project. How his government positions actually interacted with his work with LSD is unknown.

Harold A. Abramson

In 1955, Time magazine reported:

"In Manhattan, Psychiatrist Harold A. Abramson of the Cold Spring Harbor Biological Laboratory has developed a technique of serving dinner to a group of subjects, topping off the meal with a liqueur glass containing 40 micrograms of LSD."[30]

This mention in America's most popular newsweekly is noteworthy because Abramson was not a psychiatrist or even a psychologist, but was an allergist who was a key participant in the CIA MK-ULTRA mind-control program.

R. Gordon Wasson

In 1957, R. Gordon Wasson, the vice president of J.P. Morgan, published an article in Life magazine extolling the virtues of magic mushrooms.[31] This prompted Albert Hofmann to isolate psilocybin in 1958 for distribution by Sandoz with its product LSD in the U.S., further raising interest in LSD in the mass media.[32] Following Wasson's report, Timothy Leary visited Mexico to experience the mushrooms.

Timothy Leary

 
DEA agents Howard Safir (left) and Don Strange (right) with Leary in custody (1972)

Dr. Timothy Leary, a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University, was the most prominent pro-LSD researcher. Leary claimed that using LSD with the right dosage, set (one's emotional mindset at time of ingestion), and setting, preferably with the guidance of professionals, could alter behavior in dramatic and beneficial ways. Leary began conducting experiments with psilocybin in 1960 on himself and a number of Harvard graduate students after trying hallucinogenic mushrooms used in Native American religious rituals while visiting Mexico. His group began conducting experiments on state prisoners, where they claimed a 90% success rate preventing repeat offenses.[citation needed]

Later reexamination of Leary's data reveals his results to be skewed, whether intentionally or not; the percent of men in the study who ended up back in prison later in life was approximately 2% lower than the usual rate.[citation needed] Leary was later introduced to LSD, and he then incorporated that drug into his research as his mental catalyst of choice. Leary claimed that his experiments produced no murders, suicides, psychotic breaks, or bad trips. Almost all of Leary's participants reported profound mystical experiences which they felt had a tremendously positive effect on their lives. While it is true that Leary's experiments did not lead to any murders, he willfully chose to ignore the bad trips which occurred, as well as the attempted suicide of a woman the day after she was given mescaline by Leary.[citation needed]

By 1962, the Harvard faculty's disapproval with Leary's experiments reached critical mass. Leary was informed that the CIA was monitoring his research (see Government experiments below). Many of the other faculty members had harbored reservations about Leary's research, and parents began complaining to the university about Leary's distribution of hallucinogenic drugs to their children. Further, many undergraduate students who were not part of Leary's research program heard of the profound experiences other students had undergone and began taking LSD for recreational purposes, which was not illegal at the time .[citation needed] Leary described LSD as a potent aphrodisiac in an interview with Playboy magazine. Leary left the university for an extended amount of time during the spring semester, thus failing to fulfill his duties as professor. Leary and another Harvard psychologist, Richard Alpert, were dismissed from the university in 1963.

In 1964, they published The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which argued that the psychedelic experience paralleled the death/rebirth experience described in the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead).[33] Leary and Alpert, unfazed by their dismissals, relocated first to Mexico, but were expelled from the country by the Mexican government. They then set up at a large private mansion owned by William Hitchcock, named after the small town in New York State where it is located, Millbrook, where they continued their experiments. Their research lost its controlled scientific character as the experiments transformed into LSD parties. Leary later wrote, "We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the twenty-first century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the Dark Ages of the 1960s. On this space colony, we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art."

A judge who expressed dislike for Leary's books sentenced him to 30 years in prison for possession of half a marijuana cigarette in violation of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. However, this decision was reversed in the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case Timothy Leary v. United States (395 U.S. 6) on the grounds that the Act required self-incrimination, thus violating the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Publicity surrounding the case further cemented Leary's growing reputation as a counter cultural guru. Around this time, President Richard Nixon described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America." Repeated FBI raids instigated the end of the Millbrook experiment. Leary refocused his efforts towards countering the tremendous amount of anti-LSD propaganda then being issued by the United States government, popularizing the slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Many experts blame Leary and his activism for the near-total suppression of psychedelic research over the next 35 years.[34][35]

Owsley Stanley

Historically, LSD was distributed not for profit, but because those who made and distributed it truly believed that the psychedelic experience could be beneficial for humanity. A limited number of chemists, probably fewer than a dozen, are believed to have manufactured nearly all of the illicit LSD available in the United States. The best known of these is undoubtedly Augustus Owsley Stanley III, usually known simply as Owsley or Bear. The former chemistry student set up a private LSD lab in the mid-60s in San Francisco and supplied the LSD consumed at the famous Acid Test parties held by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, as well as the Human Be-In in San Francisco in January 1967[36] and the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967.[37] He also had close social connections with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and The Holding Company, regularly supplying them with LSD and working as their live sound engineer, creating many tapes of these groups in concert. Owsley's LSD activities—immortalized by Steely Dan in their song "Kid Charlemagne"—ended with his arrest at the end of 1967, but some other manufacturers most likely operated continuously for 30 years or more. Announcing Owsley's first bust in 1966, The San Francisco Chronicle's headline "LSD Millionaire Arrested" inspired the rare Grateful Dead song "Alice D. Millionaire".[38]

Owsley associated with other early LSD producers, Tim Scully and Nicholas Sand.

Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey was born in 1935 in La Junta, Colorado to dairy farmers Frederick A. Kesey and Ginevra Smith.[39] In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon.[40] A champion wrestler in both high school and college, he graduated from Springfield High School in 1953.[40]

Kesey attended the University of Oregon's School of Journalism, where he received a degree in speech and communication in 1957, where he was also a brother of Beta Theta Pi. He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship in 1958 to enroll in the creative writing program at Stanford University, which he did the following year.[40] While at Stanford, he studied under Wallace Stegner and began the manuscript that would become One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

At Stanford in 1959, Kesey volunteered to take part in a CIA-financed study named Project MKULTRA at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital. The project studied the effects on the patients of psychoactive drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, AMT, and DMT.[40] Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the Project MKULTRA study and in the years of private experimentation that followed. Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig inspired him to write the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962. The success of the book, as well as the sale of his residence at Stanford, allowed him to move to La Honda, California in the mountains west of Stanford University. He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called "Acid Tests" involving music (such as Kesey's favorite band, The Warlocks, later known as the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobes and other "psychedelic" effects, and, of course, LSD. These parties were noted in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and are also described in the books The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson, and Freewheelin Frank, Secretary of the Hell's Angels by Frank Reynolds. Ken Kesey was also said to have experimented with LSD with Ringo Starr in 1965 and that he influenced the setup for future performances with The Beatles in the UK.[citation needed]

In the summer of 1964, Kesey's Merry Pranksters customized a bus named "Furthur" and set out on a tour to propagate LSD use.

Sidney Cohen

Sidney Cohen was a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist. His work focused on the effects of psychedelics, primarily LSD. Cohen published 13 books in his life, all of them based on drugs and substance abuse. He began working with LSD in the 1950s. One of his earlier works is a video of an experiment that shows Cohen interviewing a woman before and after administering her LSD.[41] In the later part of the 1960s he worked as a director for the National Institute of Mental Health in their Division of Narcotic Addiction and Drug Abuse.[42] He has been open about having taken LSD many times himself, but was always opposed to the growing use of LSD amongst members of the counterculture movement.[43] Cohen thought LSD was safe only if used under medical supervision and that the average person was not equipped with the ability to handle the drug safely.[44] Through his work he had become known as one of the leading experts in LSD research.[45]

William Leonard Pickard

William Leonard Pickard earned a scholarship to Princeton University but dropped out after one term, instead preferring to hang out at Greenwich Village jazz clubs in New York City. In 1971, he got a job as a research manager at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, a job he held until 1974.

In December 1988, a neighbor reported a strange chemical odor coming from an architectural shop at a Mountain View, California industrial park. Federal agents arrived to find 200,000 doses of LSD and William Pickard inside. Pickard was charged with manufacturing LSD and served five years in prison.

By 1994, Pickard had enrolled at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His studies focused on drug abuse in the former Soviet Union, where he theorized that the booming black market and many unemployed chemists could lead to a flood of the drug market.

In 2000, Pickard was arrested for manufacturing LSD in Kansas and was serving two life sentences at United States Penitentiary, Tucson. On July 27, 2020, Pickard was granted Compassionate Release from federal prison after serving 17 years of his sentence.[46]

Secret government research

See also: Project MKULTRA and Edgewood Arsenal human experiments
'Effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) on Troops Marching' - 16mm film produced by the United States military circa 1958

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) became interested in LSD when they read reports alleging that American prisoners during the Korean War were being brainwashed with the use of some sort of drug or "lie serum". LSD was the original centerpiece of the top secret MKULTRA project, an ambitious undertaking conducted from the 1950s through the 70s designed to explore the possibilities of pharmaceutical mind control. Hundreds of participants, including CIA agents, government employees, military personnel, prostitutes, members of the general public, and mental patients were given LSD, many without their knowledge or consent. The experiments often involved severe psychological torture. To guard against outward reactions, doctors conducted experiments in clinics and laboratories where subjects were monitored by EEG machines and had their words recorded.[47] Some studies investigated whether drugs, stress or specific environmental conditions could be used to break prisoners or to induce confessions.

The CIA also created The Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, which was a CIA funding front which provided grants to social scientists and medical researchers investigating questions of interest related to the MKULTRA program. Between 1960 and 1963, the CIA gave $856,782 worth of grants to different organizations.[47] The researchers eventually concluded that LSD's effects were too varied and uncontrollable to make it of any practical use as a truth drug, and the project moved on to other substances. It would be decades before the U.S. government admitted the existence of the project and offered apologies to the families of those who were forced to participate in the experiments.[citation needed] During this time period, the use of LSD for psychochemical warfare was under consideration and testing, among other substances. Looking to replicate the effects of nerve gas created by the Germans during World War II without the toxicity, LSD was sought for use under the pretense that it could induce hysteria and psychoses, or at least an inability to fight without wholesale destruction of the enemy and their properties. Thousands of tests on willing research subjects took place at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, with the ultimate conclusion being that LSD was too unpredictable and uncontrollable for any tactical use.[citation needed]

Recreational use

See also: Psychedelic music, Psychedelic rock, and Psychedelic art

From 1960 to 1980

 
Estimated annual numbers of first-time LSD use in the United States among persons aged 12 or older: 1967–2008

LSD began to be used recreationally in certain (primarily medical) circles. Mainly academics and medical professionals, who became acquainted with LSD in their work, began using it themselves and sharing it with friends and associates. Among the first to do so was British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond.

Psychedelic subculture goes mainstream

LSD historian Jay Stevens, author of the 1987[48] book Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream, has said that in the early days of its recreational use, LSD users (who were at that time mostly academics and medical professionals) fell into two broadly delineated groups. The first group, which was essentially conservative and exemplified by Aldous Huxley, felt that LSD was too powerful and too dangerous to allow its immediate and widespread introduction, and that its use ought to be restricted to the 'elite' members of society—artists, writers, scientists—who could mediate its gradual distribution throughout society. The second and more radical group, typified by Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary, felt that LSD had the power to revolutionize society and that it should be spread as widely as possible and be available to all.

During the 1960s, this second 'group' of casual LSD users evolved and expanded into a subculture that extolled the mystical and religious symbolism often engendered by the drug's powerful effects, and advocated its use as a method of raising consciousness. The personalities associated with the subculture included spiritual gurus such as Dr. Timothy Leary and psychedelic rock musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles, and soon attracted a great deal of publicity, generating further interest in LSD.

The popularization of LSD outside of the medical world was hastened when individuals such as author Ken Kesey participated in drug trials and liked what they saw. Tom Wolfe wrote a widely read account of the early days of LSD's entrance into the non-academic world in his book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, which documented the cross-country, acid-fueled voyage of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on the psychedelic bus "Furthur" and the Pranksters' later 'Acid Test' LSD parties.

In 1965, Sandoz laboratories stopped its still legal shipments of LSD to the United States for research and psychiatric use, after a request from the U.S. government concerned about its use. By April 1966, LSD use had become so widespread that Time magazine warned about its dangers.[49]

In December 1966, the exploitation film Hallucination Generation was released.[50] This was followed by the films The Trip in 1967 and Psych-Out in 1968.

Musicians and LSD

On March 27, 1965, Beatles members John Lennon and George Harrison (and their wives) were dosed with LSD without their permission by their dentist, Dr. John Riley. John Lennon mentioned the incident in his famous 1970 Rolling Stone interview, but the name of the dentist was revealed only in 2006.[51] On August 24, 1965,[52] Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr took their second trip on LSD.[53] Actor Peter Fonda repeatedly said "I know what it's like to be dead" to John Lennon during an LSD trip. John Lennon wrote "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a fanciful song which many assumed referred to LSD, although he always denied the connection as coincidence. The songs "She Said She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" from the Beatles' Revolver album explicitly reference LSD trips, and many lines of "Tomorrow Never Knows" were borrowed from Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience. Around the same time, bands such as Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead helped give birth to a genre known as "psychedelic rock" or acid rock. In 1965, The Pretty Things released an album called Get the Picture? which included a track titled "L.S.D."

LSD became a headline item in early 1967, and the Beatles admitted to having been under the influence of LSD. Earlier in the year, British tabloid News of the World ran a sensational three-week series on 'drug parties' hosted by rock group The Moody Blues and attended by leading stars including Donovan, The Who's Pete Townshend and Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Largely as a result of collusion between News of the World journalists and the London Drug Squad, many pop stars including Donovan and Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were arrested for drug possession, although none of the arrests involved LSD.

The FBI suggested in now declassified documents that the Grateful Dead were responsible for introducing LSD to the U.S.[54] The Grateful Dead were the "house band" at Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' Acid Tests. These free-form parties introduced many people on the West Coast to LSD for the first time, as documented in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Phil Lesh's Searching for the Sound. Acid historian Jesse Jarnow describes how Grateful Dead concerts served as the United States' primary distribution network for LSD in the second half of the twentieth century.[55]

In 1992, Mike Dirnt of Green Day wrote the famous "Longview" bass line while under the influence of LSD. In an interview, Green Day lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong recalled that he arrived at their house and saw Mike sitting on the floor with highly dilated pupils, holding his bass guitar. Mike looked up at Billie and exclaimed, "Listen to this!"

LSD in Australia

LSD was evidently in limited recreational use in Australia in the early 1960s, but is believed to have been initially restricted to those with connections to the scientific and the medical communities. LSD overdose was suggested as a possible cause of the January 2, 1962 deaths of CSIRO scientists Dr. Gilbert Bogle and his lover Dr. Margaret Chandler, but is very unlikely as there are no known cases of a LSD fatal overdose and other more likely causes of death have been suggested. Large quantities of LSD began to appear in Australia around 1968, and soon permeated the music scene and youth culture in general, especially in the capital cities. The major source of supply during this period is believed to have been American servicemen visiting Australia (mainly Sydney) from Vietnam on 'rest and recreation' (R&R) leave, although the growing connections between American and Australian organized crime in the late 1960s may also have facilitated its importation.[citation needed] Recreational LSD use among young people was on a par with that in other countries in Australia by the early 1970s and continued until late in the decade. LSD is not believed to have been manufactured locally in a significant quantity (if at all) and most if not all supplies were sourced from overseas.

Production of LSD

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the drug culture adopted LSD as the psychedelic drug of choice, particularly amongst the hippie community. However, LSD dramatically decreased in popularity in the mid-1970s.[citation needed] This decline was due to negative publicity centred on side-effects of LSD use, its criminalization, and the increasing effectiveness of drug law enforcement efforts, rather than new medical information. The last country to produce LSD legally (until 1975) was Czechoslovakia;[citation needed] during the 1960s, high-quality LSD was imported from the communist country to California, a fact appreciated by Leary in The Politics of Ecstasy.

Victor James Kapur had the first known home grown UK 'acid lab'. Up to then, all LSD had been imported from the U.S. or was remnant produce of Sandoz before it stopped producing LSD. In 1967, Kapur was caught distributing 19 grams of crystalline LSD and subsequently the police raided both of his laboratories. One was in the back room of Kapur's chemist shop and another, larger one, was in a garage he rented from a friend of his brother-in-law.[56]

A second group was busted in 1969. A lab in Kent, and a flat in London were raided simultaneously and quantities of equipment and LSD seized along with the two men who had been making the LSD, Quentin Theobald and Peter Simmons.[56]

The availability of LSD had been drastically reduced by the late 1970s due to a combination of governmental controls and law enforcement. The supply of constituent chemicals including lysergic acid, which was used for production of LSD in the 1960s, and ergotamine tartrate, which was used for production in the 1970s, were placed under tight surveillance and government funding for LSD research was almost eliminated. These efforts were augmented by a series of major busts in England and Europe. One of the most famous was "Operation Julie" in Britain in 1978, named after the first name of the female drug squad officer involved; it broke up one of the largest LSD manufacturing and distribution operations in the world at that time, headed by chemist Richard Kemp. The group targeted by the Julie task force were reputed to have had links to the mysterious The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and to Ronald Stark.

Modern times

LSD made a comeback in the 1980s accompanying the advent of recreational MDMA use, first in the punk and gothic subcultures through dance clubs, then in the 1990s through the acid house scene and rave subculture. LSD use and availability declined sharply following a raid of a large scale LSD lab in 2000 (see LSD in the United States). The lab was run by William Leonard Pickard (who served 17 years of a two lifetime sentence in US federal prison in Tucson, AZ) and Clyde Apperson (now serving 30 years in prison). Gordon Todd Skinner, who owned the property the large scale lab had been operating on, came to the DEA looking to work as an informant. He and his then-girlfriend Krystle Cole were intimately involved in the case, but were not charged in the bust. The lab was allegedly producing a kilogram of LSD every five weeks, and the U.S. government contends that LSD supply dropped by 90% following the bust. In the decade after the bust, LSD availability and use has gradually risen. Since the late 1980s, there has also been a revival of hallucinogen research more broadly, which, in recent years, has included preclinical and clinical studies involving LSD and other compounds such as members of the 2C family compounds and psilocybin.[57][58][59] In particular, a study released in 2012 highlighted the extraordinary effectiveness of LSD in treating alcoholism.[60]

In November 2015, Rolling Stone magazine reported on an increasing number of young professionals, particularly in the San Francisco area, who were using "microdosing" (around 10 micrograms) of LSD in an effort to "work through technical problems and become more innovative."[61] In 2018, the book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan became a No. 1 New York Times best-seller, and How to Change Your Mind, a four-part documentary film adaptation of the book, was released in 2022.[62] In 2020, Oregon became the first U.S. state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of LSD.[63]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dr. Hofmann asked Roberts why he had called it Bicycle Day instead of LSD Day: "I told him that the bicycle was a more concrete image than a chemical structure, and in America there is a famous poem that marks the start of our revolution in 1775 that makes a parallel with his ride..."[12]

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Further reading

March 10, 2023
history, lysergic, acid, diethylamide, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scho. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources History of lysergic acid diethylamide news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2014 Learn how and when to remove this template message The psychedelic drug or entheogen lysergic acid diethylamide LSD was first synthesized on November 16 1938 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz now Novartis laboratories in Basel Switzerland 1 It was not until five years later on April 19 1943 that the psychedelic properties were found 2 LSD blotter paper Contents 1 Discovery 1 1 Bicycle Day 2 Psychiatric use 3 Resistance and prohibition 4 Influential individuals 4 1 Aldous Huxley 4 2 Alfred Hubbard 4 3 Harold A Abramson 4 4 R Gordon Wasson 4 5 Timothy Leary 4 6 Owsley Stanley 4 7 Ken Kesey 4 8 Sidney Cohen 4 9 William Leonard Pickard 5 Secret government research 6 Recreational use 6 1 From 1960 to 1980 6 1 1 Psychedelic subculture goes mainstream 6 1 2 Musicians and LSD 6 1 3 LSD in Australia 6 1 4 Production of LSD 6 2 Modern times 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 9 1 Further readingDiscovery EditAlbert Hofmann born in Switzerland joined the pharmaceutical chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories located in Basel as a co worker with professor Arthur Stoll founder and director of the pharmaceutical department 3 He began studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals His main contribution was to elucidate the chemical structure of the common nucleus of Scilla glycosides an active principle of Mediterranean squill 3 While researching lysergic acid derivatives Hofmann first synthesized LSD on November 16 1938 1 The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant an analeptic It was set aside for five years until April 16 1943 when Hofmann decided to take a second look at it While re synthesizing LSD he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug and discovered its powerful effects 4 5 He described what he felt as being affected by a remarkable restlessness combined with a slight dizziness At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated like condition characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination In a dreamlike state with eyes closed I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures extraordinary shapes with intense kaleidoscopic play of colors After about two hours this condition faded away 6 Bicycle Day Edit Not to be confused with the United Nations designated World Bicycle Day Bicycle Day LSD blotter commemorating Bicycle DayTypeSecularCelebrationsConsumption of lysergic acid diethylamide LSD ObservancesHonors the anniversary of the first ever acid trip undergone by Swiss chemist Dr Albert Hofmann on April 19 1943 in Basel Switzerland DateApril 19Next time19 April 2023 2023 04 19 FrequencyAnnualOn April 19 1943 Hofmann ingested 0 25 milligrams 250 micrograms of the substance Less than one hour later Hofmann experienced sudden and intense changes in perception He asked his laboratory assistant to escort him home As was customary in Basel they made the journey by bicycle On the way Hofmann s condition rapidly deteriorated as he struggled with feelings of anxiety alternating in his beliefs that the next door neighbor was a malevolent witch that he was going insane and that the LSD had poisoned him When the house doctor arrived however he could detect no physical abnormalities save for a pair of widely dilated pupils Hofmann was reassured and soon his terror began to give way to a sense of good fortune and enjoyment as he later wrote Little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes Kaleidoscopic fantastic images surged in on me alternating variegated opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals exploding in colored fountains rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux The events of the first LSD trip now known as Bicycle Day after the bicycle ride home proved to Hofmann that he had indeed made a significant discovery a psychoactive substance with extraordinary potency capable of causing significant shifts of consciousness in incredibly low doses The term trip was first coined by US Army scientists during the 1950s when they were experimenting with LSD 7 Hofmann foresaw the drug as a powerful psychiatric tool because of its intense and introspective nature he could not imagine anyone using it recreationally 8 Bicycle Day is increasingly observed in psychedelic communities as a day to celebrate the discovery of LSD 9 10 11 The celebration of Bicycle Day originated in DeKalb Illinois in 1985 when Thomas B Roberts then a professor at Northern Illinois University invented the name Bicycle Day a when he founded the first celebration at his home 12 Several years later he sent an announcement made by one of his students to friends and Internet lists thus propagating the idea and the celebration His original intent was to commemorate Hofmann s original accidental exposure on April 16 but that date fell midweek and was not a good time for the party so he chose the 19th to honor Hofmann s first intentional exposure 12 13 14 Psychiatric use EditSee also Psychedelic therapy LSD was introduced as a commercial medication under the trade name Delysid for various psychiatric uses in 1947 15 LSD was brought to the attention of the United States in 1949 by Sandoz Laboratories because they believed LSD might have clinical applications 16 Throughout the 1950s mainstream media reported on research into LSD and its growing use in psychiatry and undergraduate psychology students taking LSD as part of their education described the effects of the drug Time magazine published six positive reports on LSD between 1954 and 1959 17 LSD was originally perceived as a psychotomimetic capable of producing model psychosis 16 18 By the mid 1950s LSD research was being conducted in major American medical centers where researchers used LSD as a means of temporarily replicating the effects of mental illness One of the leading authorities on LSD during the 1950s in the United States was the psychoanalyst Sidney Cohen Cohen first took the drug on October 12 1955 and expected to have an unpleasant trip but was surprised when he experienced no confused disoriented delirium 16 He reported that the problems and strivings the worries and frustrations of everyday life vanished in their place was a majestic sunlit heavenly inner quietude 16 Cohen immediately began his own experiments with LSD with the help of Aldous Huxley whom he had met in 1955 In 1957 with the help of psychologist Betty Eisner Cohen began experimenting on whether or not LSD might have a helpful effect in facilitating psychotherapy curing alcoholism and enhancing creativity 16 Between 1957 and 1958 they treated 22 patients who had minor personality disorders 16 LSD was also given to artists in order to track their mental deterioration 16 but Huxley believed LSD might enhance their creativity Between 1958 and 1962 psychiatrist Oscar Janiger tested LSD on more than 100 painters writers and composers In one study in the late 1950s Dr Humphry Osmond gave LSD to alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous who had failed to quit drinking 19 After one year around 50 of the study group had not had a drink a success rate that has never been duplicated by any other means 20 Bill Wilson the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous participated in medically supervised experiments on the effects of LSD on alcoholism and believed LSD could be used to cure alcoholics 21 In the United Kingdom the use of LSD was pioneered by Dr Ronald A Sandison in 1952 at Powick Hospital Worcestershire A special LSD unit was set up in 1958 After Sandison left the hospital in 1964 medical superintendent Arthur Spencer took over and continued the clinical use of the drug until it was withdrawn in 1965 In all 683 patients were treated with LSD in 13 785 separate sessions at Powick but Spencer was the last member of the medical staff to use it 22 From the late 1940s through the mid 1970s extensive research and testing was conducted on LSD During a 15 year period beginning in 1950 research on LSD and other hallucinogens generated over 1 000 scientific papers several dozen books and six international conferences Overall LSD was prescribed as treatment to over 40 000 patients Film star Cary Grant was one of many men during the 1950s and 1960s who were given LSD in concert with psychotherapy Many psychiatrists began taking the drug recreationally and sharing it with friends Dr Leary s experiments see Timothy Leary below spread LSD usage to a much wider segment of the general populace Sandoz halted LSD production in August 1965 after growing governmental protests at its proliferation among the general populace The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States distributed LSD on a limited basis for scientific research Scientific study of LSD largely ceased by about 1980 as research funding declined and governments became wary of permitting such research fearing that the results of the research might encourage illicit LSD use By the end of the 20th century there were few authorized researchers left and their efforts were mostly directed towards establishing approved protocols for further work with LSD in easing the suffering of the dying and with drug addicts and alcoholics A 2014 study showed evidence that LSD can have therapeutic benefits in treating anxiety associated with life threatening diseases Rick Doblin an American drug researcher described the work as a proof of concept that he hoped would break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance 23 Eight subjects received a full 200 microgram dose of LSD while four others received one tenth as much Participants then took part in two LSD assisted therapy sessions two to three weeks apart Subjects who took the full dose experienced reductions in anxiety averaging 20 per cent while those given the low dose reported becoming more anxious When subjects taking the low dose were switched to the full dose they too showed reduced anxiety with the positive effects lasting for up to a year The effects of the drug itself lasted for up to 10 hours with participants talking to Dr Gasser throughout the experience These results indicate that when administered safely in a methodologically rigorous medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting LSD can reduce anxiety the study concludes suggesting that larger controlled studies are warranted 24 25 Resistance and prohibition Edit LSD blotter See also Prohibition drugs Controlled Substances Act and Convention on Psychotropic Substances By the mid 1960s the backlash against the use of LSD and its perceived corrosive effects on cultural values resulted in governmental action to restrict the availability of the drug by making use of it illegal 26 LSD was declared a Schedule I substance legally designating that the drug has a high potential for abuse and is without any currently accepted medical use in treatment LSD was removed from legal circulation The United States Drug Enforcement Administration claimed Although the initial observations on the benefits of LSD were highly optimistic empirical data developed subsequently proved less promising Its use in scientific research has been extensive and its use has been widespread Although the study of LSD and other hallucinogens increased the awareness of how chemicals could affect the mind its use in psychotherapy largely has been debunked It produces no aphrodisiac effects does not increase creativity has no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics or criminals does not produce a model psychosis and does not generate immediate personality change However drug studies have confirmed that the powerful hallucinogenic effects of this drug can produce profound adverse reactions such as acute panic reactions psychotic crises and flashbacks especially in users ill equipped to deal with such trauma 27 The governors of Nevada and California each signed bills into law on May 30 1966 that make them the first two American states to outlaw the manufacture sale and possession of the drug The law went into effect immediately in Nevada 28 and on October 6 1966 in California citation needed Other U S states and many other countries soon followed with similar bans clarification needed Influential individuals EditAldous Huxley Edit Renowned British intellectual Aldous Huxley was one of the most important figures in the early history of LSD He was a figure of high repute in the world of letters and had become internationally famous through his novels Crome Yellow Antic Hay and his dystopian novel Brave New World His experiments with psychedelic drugs initially mescaline and his descriptions of them in his writings did much to spread awareness of psychedelic drugs to the general public and arguably helped to glamorize their recreational use although Huxley himself treated them very seriously Huxley was introduced to psychedelic drugs in 1953 by a friend psychiatrist Humphry Osmond Osmond had become interested in hallucinogens and their relationship to mental illness in the 1940s During the 1950s he completed extensive studies of a number of drugs including mescaline and LSD As noted above Osmond had some remarkable success in treating alcoholics with LSD In May 1953 Osmond gave Huxley his first dose of mescaline at the Huxley home In 1954 Huxley recorded his experiences in the landmark book The Doors of Perception the title was drawn from a quotation by British artist and poet William Blake Huxley tried LSD for the first time in 1955 obtained from Captain Al Hubbard Alfred Hubbard Edit Alfred Matthew Hubbard is reputed to have introduced more than 6 000 people to LSD including scientists politicians intelligence officials diplomats and church figures He became known as the original Captain Trips travelling about with a leather case containing pharmaceutically pure LSD mescaline and psilocybin He became a freelance apostle for LSD in the early 1950s after supposedly receiving an angelic vision telling him that something important to the future of mankind would soon be coming 29 When he read about LSD the next year he immediately sought and acquired LSD which he tried for himself in 1951 Although he had no medical training Hubbard collaborated on running psychedelic sessions with LSD with Ross McLean at Vancouver s Hollywood Hospital with psychiatrists Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond with Myron Stolaroff at the International Federation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park California and with Willis Harman at the Stanford Research Institute SRI At various times over the next 20 years Hubbard also reportedly worked for the Canadian Special Services the U S Justice Department and the U S Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco amp Firearms It is also rumored that he was involved with the CIA s MK ULTRA project How his government positions actually interacted with his work with LSD is unknown Harold A Abramson Edit In 1955 Time magazine reported In Manhattan Psychiatrist Harold A Abramson of the Cold Spring Harbor Biological Laboratory has developed a technique of serving dinner to a group of subjects topping off the meal with a liqueur glass containing 40 micrograms of LSD 30 This mention in America s most popular newsweekly is noteworthy because Abramson was not a psychiatrist or even a psychologist but was an allergist who was a key participant in the CIA MK ULTRA mind control program R Gordon Wasson Edit In 1957 R Gordon Wasson the vice president of J P Morgan published an article in Life magazine extolling the virtues of magic mushrooms 31 This prompted Albert Hofmann to isolate psilocybin in 1958 for distribution by Sandoz with its product LSD in the U S further raising interest in LSD in the mass media 32 Following Wasson s report Timothy Leary visited Mexico to experience the mushrooms Timothy Leary Edit DEA agents Howard Safir left and Don Strange right with Leary in custody 1972 Dr Timothy Leary a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University was the most prominent pro LSD researcher Leary claimed that using LSD with the right dosage set one s emotional mindset at time of ingestion and setting preferably with the guidance of professionals could alter behavior in dramatic and beneficial ways Leary began conducting experiments with psilocybin in 1960 on himself and a number of Harvard graduate students after trying hallucinogenic mushrooms used in Native American religious rituals while visiting Mexico His group began conducting experiments on state prisoners where they claimed a 90 success rate preventing repeat offenses citation needed Later reexamination of Leary s data reveals his results to be skewed whether intentionally or not the percent of men in the study who ended up back in prison later in life was approximately 2 lower than the usual rate citation needed Leary was later introduced to LSD and he then incorporated that drug into his research as his mental catalyst of choice Leary claimed that his experiments produced no murders suicides psychotic breaks or bad trips Almost all of Leary s participants reported profound mystical experiences which they felt had a tremendously positive effect on their lives While it is true that Leary s experiments did not lead to any murders he willfully chose to ignore the bad trips which occurred as well as the attempted suicide of a woman the day after she was given mescaline by Leary citation needed By 1962 the Harvard faculty s disapproval with Leary s experiments reached critical mass Leary was informed that the CIA was monitoring his research see Government experiments below Many of the other faculty members had harbored reservations about Leary s research and parents began complaining to the university about Leary s distribution of hallucinogenic drugs to their children Further many undergraduate students who were not part of Leary s research program heard of the profound experiences other students had undergone and began taking LSD for recreational purposes which was not illegal at the time citation needed Leary described LSD as a potent aphrodisiac in an interview with Playboy magazine Leary left the university for an extended amount of time during the spring semester thus failing to fulfill his duties as professor Leary and another Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert were dismissed from the university in 1963 In 1964 they published The Psychedelic Experience A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead which argued that the psychedelic experience paralleled the death rebirth experience described in the Bardo Thodol Tibetan Book of the Dead 33 Leary and Alpert unfazed by their dismissals relocated first to Mexico but were expelled from the country by the Mexican government They then set up at a large private mansion owned by William Hitchcock named after the small town in New York State where it is located Millbrook where they continued their experiments Their research lost its controlled scientific character as the experiments transformed into LSD parties Leary later wrote We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the twenty first century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the Dark Ages of the 1960s On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art A judge who expressed dislike for Leary s books sentenced him to 30 years in prison for possession of half a marijuana cigarette in violation of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 However this decision was reversed in the 1969 U S Supreme Court case Timothy Leary v United States 395 U S 6 on the grounds that the Act required self incrimination thus violating the Fifth Amendment of the U S Constitution Publicity surrounding the case further cemented Leary s growing reputation as a counter cultural guru Around this time President Richard Nixon described Leary as the most dangerous man in America Repeated FBI raids instigated the end of the Millbrook experiment Leary refocused his efforts towards countering the tremendous amount of anti LSD propaganda then being issued by the United States government popularizing the slogan Turn on tune in drop out Many experts blame Leary and his activism for the near total suppression of psychedelic research over the next 35 years 34 35 Owsley Stanley Edit Historically LSD was distributed not for profit but because those who made and distributed it truly believed that the psychedelic experience could be beneficial for humanity A limited number of chemists probably fewer than a dozen are believed to have manufactured nearly all of the illicit LSD available in the United States The best known of these is undoubtedly Augustus Owsley Stanley III usually known simply as Owsley or Bear The former chemistry student set up a private LSD lab in the mid 60s in San Francisco and supplied the LSD consumed at the famous Acid Test parties held by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters as well as the Human Be In in San Francisco in January 1967 36 and the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967 37 He also had close social connections with the Grateful Dead Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and The Holding Company regularly supplying them with LSD and working as their live sound engineer creating many tapes of these groups in concert Owsley s LSD activities immortalized by Steely Dan in their song Kid Charlemagne ended with his arrest at the end of 1967 but some other manufacturers most likely operated continuously for 30 years or more Announcing Owsley s first bust in 1966 The San Francisco Chronicle s headline LSD Millionaire Arrested inspired the rare Grateful Dead song Alice D Millionaire 38 Owsley associated with other early LSD producers Tim Scully and Nicholas Sand Ken Kesey Edit Ken Kesey was born in 1935 in La Junta Colorado to dairy farmers Frederick A Kesey and Ginevra Smith 39 In 1946 the family moved to Springfield Oregon 40 A champion wrestler in both high school and college he graduated from Springfield High School in 1953 40 Kesey attended the University of Oregon s School of Journalism where he received a degree in speech and communication in 1957 where he was also a brother of Beta Theta Pi He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship in 1958 to enroll in the creative writing program at Stanford University which he did the following year 40 While at Stanford he studied under Wallace Stegner and began the manuscript that would become One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest At Stanford in 1959 Kesey volunteered to take part in a CIA financed study named Project MKULTRA at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital The project studied the effects on the patients of psychoactive drugs particularly LSD psilocybin mescaline cocaine AMT and DMT 40 Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs both during the Project MKULTRA study and in the years of private experimentation that followed Kesey s role as a medical guinea pig inspired him to write the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest in 1962 The success of the book as well as the sale of his residence at Stanford allowed him to move to La Honda California in the mountains west of Stanford University He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called Acid Tests involving music such as Kesey s favorite band The Warlocks later known as the Grateful Dead black lights fluorescent paint strobes and other psychedelic effects and of course LSD These parties were noted in some of Allen Ginsberg s poems and are also described in the books The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe Hell s Angels The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S Thompson and Freewheelin Frank Secretary of the Hell s Angels by Frank Reynolds Ken Kesey was also said to have experimented with LSD with Ringo Starr in 1965 and that he influenced the setup for future performances with The Beatles in the UK citation needed In the summer of 1964 Kesey s Merry Pranksters customized a bus named Furthur and set out on a tour to propagate LSD use Sidney Cohen Edit Sidney Cohen was a Los Angeles based psychiatrist His work focused on the effects of psychedelics primarily LSD Cohen published 13 books in his life all of them based on drugs and substance abuse He began working with LSD in the 1950s One of his earlier works is a video of an experiment that shows Cohen interviewing a woman before and after administering her LSD 41 In the later part of the 1960s he worked as a director for the National Institute of Mental Health in their Division of Narcotic Addiction and Drug Abuse 42 He has been open about having taken LSD many times himself but was always opposed to the growing use of LSD amongst members of the counterculture movement 43 Cohen thought LSD was safe only if used under medical supervision and that the average person was not equipped with the ability to handle the drug safely 44 Through his work he had become known as one of the leading experts in LSD research 45 William Leonard Pickard Edit William Leonard Pickard earned a scholarship to Princeton University but dropped out after one term instead preferring to hang out at Greenwich Village jazz clubs in New York City In 1971 he got a job as a research manager at the University of California Berkeley in the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology a job he held until 1974 In December 1988 a neighbor reported a strange chemical odor coming from an architectural shop at a Mountain View California industrial park Federal agents arrived to find 200 000 doses of LSD and William Pickard inside Pickard was charged with manufacturing LSD and served five years in prison By 1994 Pickard had enrolled at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University His studies focused on drug abuse in the former Soviet Union where he theorized that the booming black market and many unemployed chemists could lead to a flood of the drug market In 2000 Pickard was arrested for manufacturing LSD in Kansas and was serving two life sentences at United States Penitentiary Tucson On July 27 2020 Pickard was granted Compassionate Release from federal prison after serving 17 years of his sentence 46 Secret government research EditSee also Project MKULTRA and Edgewood Arsenal human experiments source source source source source source source source source source source source source source Effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide LSD on Troops Marching 16mm film produced by the United States military circa 1958 The U S Central Intelligence Agency CIA became interested in LSD when they read reports alleging that American prisoners during the Korean War were being brainwashed with the use of some sort of drug or lie serum LSD was the original centerpiece of the top secret MKULTRA project an ambitious undertaking conducted from the 1950s through the 70s designed to explore the possibilities of pharmaceutical mind control Hundreds of participants including CIA agents government employees military personnel prostitutes members of the general public and mental patients were given LSD many without their knowledge or consent The experiments often involved severe psychological torture To guard against outward reactions doctors conducted experiments in clinics and laboratories where subjects were monitored by EEG machines and had their words recorded 47 Some studies investigated whether drugs stress or specific environmental conditions could be used to break prisoners or to induce confessions The CIA also created The Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology which was a CIA funding front which provided grants to social scientists and medical researchers investigating questions of interest related to the MKULTRA program Between 1960 and 1963 the CIA gave 856 782 worth of grants to different organizations 47 The researchers eventually concluded that LSD s effects were too varied and uncontrollable to make it of any practical use as a truth drug and the project moved on to other substances It would be decades before the U S government admitted the existence of the project and offered apologies to the families of those who were forced to participate in the experiments citation needed During this time period the use of LSD for psychochemical warfare was under consideration and testing among other substances Looking to replicate the effects of nerve gas created by the Germans during World War II without the toxicity LSD was sought for use under the pretense that it could induce hysteria and psychoses or at least an inability to fight without wholesale destruction of the enemy and their properties Thousands of tests on willing research subjects took place at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland with the ultimate conclusion being that LSD was too unpredictable and uncontrollable for any tactical use citation needed Recreational use EditSee also Psychedelic music Psychedelic rock and Psychedelic art From 1960 to 1980 Edit Estimated annual numbers of first time LSD use in the United States among persons aged 12 or older 1967 2008 LSD began to be used recreationally in certain primarily medical circles Mainly academics and medical professionals who became acquainted with LSD in their work began using it themselves and sharing it with friends and associates Among the first to do so was British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond Psychedelic subculture goes mainstream Edit LSD historian Jay Stevens author of the 1987 48 book Storming Heaven LSD and the American Dream has said that in the early days of its recreational use LSD users who were at that time mostly academics and medical professionals fell into two broadly delineated groups The first group which was essentially conservative and exemplified by Aldous Huxley felt that LSD was too powerful and too dangerous to allow its immediate and widespread introduction and that its use ought to be restricted to the elite members of society artists writers scientists who could mediate its gradual distribution throughout society The second and more radical group typified by Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary felt that LSD had the power to revolutionize society and that it should be spread as widely as possible and be available to all During the 1960s this second group of casual LSD users evolved and expanded into a subculture that extolled the mystical and religious symbolism often engendered by the drug s powerful effects and advocated its use as a method of raising consciousness The personalities associated with the subculture included spiritual gurus such as Dr Timothy Leary and psychedelic rock musicians such as the Grateful Dead Jimi Hendrix Pink Floyd Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles and soon attracted a great deal of publicity generating further interest in LSD The popularization of LSD outside of the medical world was hastened when individuals such as author Ken Kesey participated in drug trials and liked what they saw Tom Wolfe wrote a widely read account of the early days of LSD s entrance into the non academic world in his book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test which documented the cross country acid fueled voyage of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on the psychedelic bus Furthur and the Pranksters later Acid Test LSD parties In 1965 Sandoz laboratories stopped its still legal shipments of LSD to the United States for research and psychiatric use after a request from the U S government concerned about its use By April 1966 LSD use had become so widespread that Time magazine warned about its dangers 49 In December 1966 the exploitation film Hallucination Generation was released 50 This was followed by the films The Trip in 1967 and Psych Out in 1968 Musicians and LSD Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message On March 27 1965 Beatles members John Lennon and George Harrison and their wives were dosed with LSD without their permission by their dentist Dr John Riley John Lennon mentioned the incident in his famous 1970 Rolling Stone interview but the name of the dentist was revealed only in 2006 51 On August 24 1965 52 Lennon Harrison and Ringo Starr took their second trip on LSD 53 Actor Peter Fonda repeatedly said I know what it s like to be dead to John Lennon during an LSD trip John Lennon wrote Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds a fanciful song which many assumed referred to LSD although he always denied the connection as coincidence The songs She Said She Said and Tomorrow Never Knows from the Beatles Revolver album explicitly reference LSD trips and many lines of Tomorrow Never Knows were borrowed from Timothy Leary s book The Psychedelic Experience Around the same time bands such as Pink Floyd Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead helped give birth to a genre known as psychedelic rock or acid rock In 1965 The Pretty Things released an album called Get the Picture which included a track titled L S D LSD became a headline item in early 1967 and the Beatles admitted to having been under the influence of LSD Earlier in the year British tabloid News of the World ran a sensational three week series on drug parties hosted by rock group The Moody Blues and attended by leading stars including Donovan The Who s Pete Townshend and Cream drummer Ginger Baker Largely as a result of collusion between News of the World journalists and the London Drug Squad many pop stars including Donovan and Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were arrested for drug possession although none of the arrests involved LSD The FBI suggested in now declassified documents that the Grateful Dead were responsible for introducing LSD to the U S 54 The Grateful Dead were the house band at Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters Acid Tests These free form parties introduced many people on the West Coast to LSD for the first time as documented in Tom Wolfe s The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and Phil Lesh s Searching for the Sound Acid historian Jesse Jarnow describes how Grateful Dead concerts served as the United States primary distribution network for LSD in the second half of the twentieth century 55 In 1992 Mike Dirnt of Green Day wrote the famous Longview bass line while under the influence of LSD In an interview Green Day lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong recalled that he arrived at their house and saw Mike sitting on the floor with highly dilated pupils holding his bass guitar Mike looked up at Billie and exclaimed Listen to this LSD in Australia Edit LSD was evidently in limited recreational use in Australia in the early 1960s but is believed to have been initially restricted to those with connections to the scientific and the medical communities LSD overdose was suggested as a possible cause of the January 2 1962 deaths of CSIRO scientists Dr Gilbert Bogle and his lover Dr Margaret Chandler but is very unlikely as there are no known cases of a LSD fatal overdose and other more likely causes of death have been suggested Large quantities of LSD began to appear in Australia around 1968 and soon permeated the music scene and youth culture in general especially in the capital cities The major source of supply during this period is believed to have been American servicemen visiting Australia mainly Sydney from Vietnam on rest and recreation R amp R leave although the growing connections between American and Australian organized crime in the late 1960s may also have facilitated its importation citation needed Recreational LSD use among young people was on a par with that in other countries in Australia by the early 1970s and continued until late in the decade LSD is not believed to have been manufactured locally in a significant quantity if at all and most if not all supplies were sourced from overseas Production of LSD Edit During the 1960s and early 1970s the drug culture adopted LSD as the psychedelic drug of choice particularly amongst the hippie community However LSD dramatically decreased in popularity in the mid 1970s citation needed This decline was due to negative publicity centred on side effects of LSD use its criminalization and the increasing effectiveness of drug law enforcement efforts rather than new medical information The last country to produce LSD legally until 1975 was Czechoslovakia citation needed during the 1960s high quality LSD was imported from the communist country to California a fact appreciated by Leary in The Politics of Ecstasy Victor James Kapur had the first known home grown UK acid lab Up to then all LSD had been imported from the U S or was remnant produce of Sandoz before it stopped producing LSD In 1967 Kapur was caught distributing 19 grams of crystalline LSD and subsequently the police raided both of his laboratories One was in the back room of Kapur s chemist shop and another larger one was in a garage he rented from a friend of his brother in law 56 A second group was busted in 1969 A lab in Kent and a flat in London were raided simultaneously and quantities of equipment and LSD seized along with the two men who had been making the LSD Quentin Theobald and Peter Simmons 56 The availability of LSD had been drastically reduced by the late 1970s due to a combination of governmental controls and law enforcement The supply of constituent chemicals including lysergic acid which was used for production of LSD in the 1960s and ergotamine tartrate which was used for production in the 1970s were placed under tight surveillance and government funding for LSD research was almost eliminated These efforts were augmented by a series of major busts in England and Europe One of the most famous was Operation Julie in Britain in 1978 named after the first name of the female drug squad officer involved it broke up one of the largest LSD manufacturing and distribution operations in the world at that time headed by chemist Richard Kemp The group targeted by the Julie task force were reputed to have had links to the mysterious The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and to Ronald Stark Modern times Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed May 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message LSD made a comeback in the 1980s accompanying the advent of recreational MDMA use first in the punk and gothic subcultures through dance clubs then in the 1990s through the acid house scene and rave subculture LSD use and availability declined sharply following a raid of a large scale LSD lab in 2000 see LSD in the United States The lab was run by William Leonard Pickard who served 17 years of a two lifetime sentence in US federal prison in Tucson AZ and Clyde Apperson now serving 30 years in prison Gordon Todd Skinner who owned the property the large scale lab had been operating on came to the DEA looking to work as an informant He and his then girlfriend Krystle Cole were intimately involved in the case but were not charged in the bust The lab was allegedly producing a kilogram of LSD every five weeks and the U S government contends that LSD supply dropped by 90 following the bust In the decade after the bust LSD availability and use has gradually risen Since the late 1980s there has also been a revival of hallucinogen research more broadly which in recent years has included preclinical and clinical studies involving LSD and other compounds such as members of the 2C family compounds and psilocybin 57 58 59 In particular a study released in 2012 highlighted the extraordinary effectiveness of LSD in treating alcoholism 60 In November 2015 Rolling Stone magazine reported on an increasing number of young professionals particularly in the San Francisco area who were using microdosing around 10 micrograms of LSD in an effort to work through technical problems and become more innovative 61 In 2018 the book How to Change Your Mind What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness Dying Addiction Depression and Transcendence by Michael Pollan became a No 1 New York Times best seller and How to Change Your Mind a four part documentary film adaptation of the book was released in 2022 62 In 2020 Oregon became the first U S state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of LSD 63 See also EditUrban legends about LSD LSD art Psychedelic therapy Counterculture of the 1960s Casey William Hardison William Leonard Pickard Psychonautics The Sunshine Makers Owsley Stanley Tim Scully Nicholas Sand The Brotherhood of Eternal LoveNotes Edit Dr Hofmann asked Roberts why he had called it Bicycle Day instead of LSD Day I told him that the bicycle was a more concrete image than a chemical structure and in America there is a famous poem that marks the start of our revolution in 1775 that makes a parallel with his ride 12 References Edit a b Albert Hofmann translated from the original German LSD Ganz Personlich by J Ott MAPS Volume 6 Number 69 Summer 1969 Hallucinogenic effects of LSD discovered The History Channel a b Freedom of speech use it or lose it Flashback se Archived from the original on 2010 03 11 Retrieved 2009 11 16 Roberts Jacob 2017 High Times Distillations 2 4 36 39 Retrieved 22 March 2018 Europe LSD inventor Albert Hofmann dies BBC News 2008 04 30 Retrieved 2010 04 20 Hofmann 1980 p 15 Lee Martin A 1985 Acid Dreams The Complete Social History of LSD The CIA The Sixties and Beyond Grove Press p 39 ISBN 0 802 13062 3 LSD Discovery Albert Hofmann Hofmann at 99 years Skeptically org Archived from the original on January 8 2009 Retrieved 2009 11 16 DeAngelo Andrew Bicycle Day Honoring The Onset Of The Psychedelic Revolution As It Zooms Across The Globe Forbes Retrieved 2022 04 19 Bicycle Day Returns to San Francisco April 19th Feat Emancipator Desert Dwellers amp Many Others CULTR 2022 04 04 Retrieved 2022 04 19 Smith Darren HarpDaddy Tuesday is 420 but today is Bicycle Day The Anchorage Press Retrieved 2022 04 19 a b c McMillan Trisha 30 March 2013 Bicycle Day Catalyst Magazine Calderon Trina 19 April 2018 Flashback LSD Creator Albert Hofmann Drops Acid for the First Time Rolling Stone Thomas B Roberts Bicycle Day April 19th Retrieved 2015 04 17 Arthur Stoll and Albert Hofmann LSD Patent April 30 1943 in Switzerland and March 23 1948 in the United States a b c d e f g Novak J Steven LSD before Leary Sidney Cohen s Critique of 1950s Psychedelic Drug Research Isis Vol 88 No 1 pp 87 110 LSD TIME Magazine search results Time 1944 04 03 Archived from the original on 2016 01 30 Retrieved 2010 05 04 Langlitz N BioSocieties 2006 1 159 https doi org 10 1017 S174585520605023X Dyck Erika Psychedelic Psychiatry LSD From Clinic to Campus The Johns Hopkins University Press 2008 Maclean J R Macdonald D C Ogden F Wilby E LSD 25 and mescaline as therapeutic adjuvants In Abramson H Ed The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy and Alcoholism Bobbs Merrill New York 1967 pp 407 426 Ditman K S Bailey J J Evaluating LSD as a psychotherapeutic agent pp 74 80 Hoffer A A program for the treatment of alcoholism LSD malvaria and nicotinic acid pp 353 402 Hill Amelia 2012 08 23 LSD could help alcoholics stop drinking AA founder believed The Guardian Retrieved 2020 12 27 Patients urged to tell of LSD therapy Newsquest Media Group Archived from the original on 2009 02 21 Retrieved 2007 10 01 Benedict Carey March 14 2014 LSD Reconsidered for Therapy New York Times p D3 behind paywall Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2014 06 24 Retrieved 2014 07 17 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Vincent James 6 March 2014 First scientific study of LSD in 40 years shows positive therapeutic results The Independent United States Congress House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare 1968 Increased Controls Over Hallucinogens and Other Dangerous Drugs U S Government Printing Office DEA Public Affairs 2001 11 16 DEA Publications LSD in the US The Drug Web petabox bibalex org Archived from the original on 1999 04 27 Retrieved 2010 04 20 CCS May 31 1966 Control Law Set On LSD The Desert Sun Vol 39 no 256 p 14 Archived from the original on 18 October 2016 Retrieved 14 October 2016 via California Digital Newspaper Collection Fahey Todd and Lisa The Original Captain Trips fargonebooks com Retrieved 2016 12 18 Medicine Artificial Psychoses TIME 1955 12 19 Archived from the original on November 5 2012 Retrieved 2010 04 20 Joaquim Tarinas ROBERT GORDON WASSON Seeking the Magic Mushroom Imaginaria org Retrieved 2010 04 20 Medicine Mushroom Madness TIME 1958 06 16 Archived from the original on July 15 2009 Retrieved 2010 04 20 Leary Timothy Metzner Ralph Alpert Richard 1964 THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE A manual based on THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD pg 12 PDF Hofmann Albert 1980 From Remedy to Inebriant LSD My Problem Child New York McGraw Hill p 29 ISBN 978 0 07 029325 0 Archived from the original on 2008 03 02 Retrieved 2007 03 11 The evolution of LSD from remedy to inebriating drug was however primarily promoted by the activities of Dr Timothy Leary and Dr Richard Alpert of Harvard University Cohen Sidney 1965 Drugs of hallucination The uses and misuses of lysergic acid diethylamide London Secker amp Warburg pp 224 225 Bad research is worse than no research for it takes much tedious repetition to correct it As research it conveys an aura of reliability and eventually it comes to be quoted and requited in publications as established fact It is the curse of every science especially the behavioural sciences Greenfield Robert 2006 Timothy Leary A Biography Orlando FL Harcourt Books p 331 ISBN 978 0151005000 Retrieved 2014 06 27 owsley white lightning human be in Greenfield Robert Mar 14 2011 Owsley Stanley The King of LSD Rolling Stone Retrieved 2014 06 27 Selvin Joel 2007 07 12 For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD long strange trip winds back to Bay Area San Francisco Chronicle p A 1 Retrieved 2008 02 01 Lehmann Haupt Christopher Ken Kesey Author of Cuckoo s Nest Who Defined the Psychedelic Era Dies at 66 The New York Times November 11 2001 Retrieved on February 21 2008 a b c d Baker Jeff November 11 2001 All times a great artist Ken Kesey is dead at age 66 The Oregonian pp A1 Braiker Brian January 18 2011 Learning From a 50 s Housewife on Acid ABC News Dr Sidney Cohen 76 Dead Studied Mood Altering Drugs The New York Times May 17 1987 Psychiatry An Epidemic of Acid Heads Time Magazine March 11 1966 Novak SJ 1997 LSD before Leary Sidney Cohen s Critique of 1950 s Psychedelic Drug Research Isis an International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health 88 1 87 110 doi 10 1086 383628 PMID 9154737 S2CID 25764062 LSD Expert Dr Sidney Cohen To Lecture Here April 12 in LT The Corsair March 30 1966 Hampton Justin 2020 07 25 LSD Chemist And Psychedelic Icon William Leonard Pickard To Be Released From Prison Lucid News Retrieved 2023 01 16 a b Price H David 2007 Buying a Piece of Anthrology Part 1 Human Ecology and Unwitting Anthropological Research for the CIA Anthropology Today 23 3 8 13 doi 10 1111 j 1467 8322 2007 00510 x WebVoyage Record View 1 Drugs The Dangers of LSD TIME 1966 04 22 Archived from the original on January 27 2008 Retrieved 2010 04 20 Hallucination Generation IMDb December 1966 Herbert Ian 9 September 2006 Revealed Dentist who introduced Beatles to LSD The Independent London Archived from the original on 21 March 2015 Miles 1998 p 169 sfn error no target CITEREFMiles1998 help Brown amp Gaines 2002 pp 171 172 sfn error no target CITEREFBrownGaines2002 help LSD in the FBI Vault countyourculture archived from the original on 2012 03 16 retrieved 2012 03 20 Jarnow Jesse 2016 Heads A Biography of Psychedelic America Da Capo Press a b Andy Roberts Albion Dreaming A Popular History of LSD in Britain Archived from the original on 2014 09 15 Retrieved 2017 09 09 Lim HK Andrenyak D Francom P Foltz RL Jones RT 1988 Quantification of LSD and N demethyl LSD in urine by gas chromatography resonance electron capture ionization mass spectrometry Analytical Chemistry 60 14 1420 5 doi 10 1021 ac00165a015 PMID 3218752 Langlitz Nicolas The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain Ph D thesis University of California Berkeley 2007 Langlitz Nicolas 2010 The Persistence of the Subjective in Neuropsychopharmacology Observations of Contemporary Hallucinogen Research History of the Human Sciences 23 1 37 57 doi 10 1177 0952695109352413 PMID 20518152 S2CID 41205793 Krebs Teri 2012 Lysergic acid diethylamide LSD for alcoholism meta analysis of randomized controlled trials Journal of Psychopharmacology 26 7 994 1002 doi 10 1177 0269881112439253 PMID 22406913 S2CID 10677273 Andrew Leonard 20 November 2015 How LSD Microdosing Became the Hot New Business Trip Rolling Stone Heritage Stuart 2022 07 12 How to Change Your Mind the documentary that wants you to think again about LSD The Guardian Retrieved 2022 07 15 Oregon becomes first state to legalize magic mushrooms as more states ease drug laws in psychedelic renaissance CNBC 4 November 2020 Further reading Edit Lee Martin A Shlain Bruce 1992 Acid Dreams The complete social history of LSD The CIA the sixties and beyond Grove Weidenfeld ISBN 978 0 8021 3062 4 Stephenson Scott 2014 LSD and the American Counterculture Burgmann Journal vol 3 pp 41 46 PDF Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title History of lysergic acid diethylamide amp oldid 1134003974, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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