R.I.P. Albert Hofmann

[garybeck]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Albert Hofmann, father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery grew into a notorious "problem child," died Tuesday. He was 102.

Hofmann died of a heart attack at his home in Basel, Switzerland, according to Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, in a statement posted on the association's Web site.

Hofmann's hallucinogen inspired -- and arguably corrupted -- millions in the 1960's hippie generation. For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he said.

The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.

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 April 16, 1943.

The U.S. government banned LSD in 1966, and other countries followed suit.

Hofmann maintained that this was unfair, arguing that the drug was not addictive. He repeatedly said the ban should be lifted to allow LSD to be used in medical research.

He himself took the drug -- purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest -- for several decades.

"LSD can help open your eyes," he once said. "But there are other ways: meditation, dance, music, fasting."

Even so, the self-described "father" of LSD readily agreed that the drug was dangerous if in the wrong hands. This was reflected by the title of his 1979 book: "LSD: My Problem Child."

Hofmann retired from Sandoz in 1971. He devoted his time to travel, writing and lectures, which often reflected his growing interest with philosophy and religious questions.

[mcctatas]

1. Wow...

if I hadn't thought he was dead for the last 10 years, this would be really sad! (actually it is really sad, but I really did think he was already deceased).....

Godspeed Mr. Hoffman!

[John Q. Citizen]

2. I will always have a mental picture of him riding home from the lab on his bicycle.

[Fenris]

3. I hope he had one last bicycle ride.

RIP

[garybeck]

6. He took the big bicycle ride into the sky :)

n/t

[EFerrari]

4. Or, whatever ups your pleasure.

:toast:

[dubient]

5. He lived a long life

I read his book "LSD:My Problem child." It's very interesting. Hoffmann saw the benefits of LSD as a facilitator of self discovery, but at the same time was disturbed by the use of the drug as an inebriant.

[L. Coyote]

7. Scientists cannot always foresee the impact of their research. Dr. Hofmann impacted global culture.

There was no going back to ignorance of psychoactive agents in his case.
And, to think, he only had his own invention to blame!!
He was working with ergot compounds because of known bioactivity.
His bicycle moment was important scientifically from another perspective,
discovery of how miniscule an amount of something could have that much impact.

[lildreamer316]

8. Recommend. Kick.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. The Formula to make LSD

http://www.matarese.com/matarese-files/4444/make/index.html


Now that link I gave you has some truths in it but
it is not a formula.

You need to go to the 9th page of the link to the

number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number
9number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number
9number 9 number 9 number 9

http...........


Rest in PEACE Mr. bike rider,
of discovery, that brought many
on the road of recovery.

thank you

Ride My Seesaw, because Timothy Leary Dead
Sitting next to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

[gatorboy]

10. That'll teach those that say drugs will shorten your life span. 102!!!

[orleans]

11. albert hofmann? i thought timothy leary discovered lsd. silly me. n/t

[garybeck]

19. na, he just administered and used it a lot :) n/t

[LaPera]

12. LSD-It worked perfectly for me & for so many others! The best...Only if one is ready.....

But, don't put it down cuz one is simply afraid or because one finds it a fad...."LSD can help open your eyes" - The voluntarily blind will always continue to insist otherwise, and will ignorantly condemn it as the republican media has told them to do......

Cheers to Albert Hoffman, enlightened & realistic father...Further!!

[eShirl]

13. k&r

[Echo In Light]

14. Nobel Prize genius Francis Crick on LSD upon discovering double helix DNA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3225874#3225919

[kwassa]

15. Now if you're tired or a bit run down,

Now if you're tired or a bit run down,
Can't seem to getcha feet off the ground,
Maybe you oughta try a little bit of L.S.D.

Only if you want to

Shake your head and rattle your brain,
Make you act just a bit insane,
Give you all the psychic energy you need —

Eat flowers and kiss babies
L.S.D.
For you and me!

"Acid Commercial", Country Joe and the Fish

[Bandit]

16. If onmly some of that good LSD from the sixties could be dumped into

the water supply of Washington DC. The world might become a much better place. The very last thing anyone experiencing LSD wants is war...

[L. Coyote]

23. LSD, administered surreptitiously, is a biological weapon, and the unwitting

subject is likely to do the insane without ingight into the state of mind prevailed upon them.

This is what MK-ULTRA was all about. Kesey was a subject of studies to find better psy-op tools for covert war.

Set and setting, set and setting, determine the effect.

[Fly by night]

17. My acid summer ....

Like many in my generation (coming of age in the 60s), acid was just one of many drugs available for the choosing. But it was one that I avoided, in part because two acid-loving friends in college took their final breaths after jumping from one of the high-rise dorms at Vanderbilt. I also occasionally was accosted by tripsters at concerts; and their loud, clumsy and wild-eyed antics just weren't very attractive.

I had always said that I would never use heroin or acid. But then in my late 20s, an undercover cop gave me a heroin-laced joint in Tyler, Texas (a small-town drug-cops-out-of-control situation dramatized in the movie "Rush"). So that cherry was busted, with the experience vivid (and uncomfortable) enough for me never to want to repeat it.

Then, in my early 30s, I returned to my farm in middle Tennessee to find that, in my absence, a tight community of merry pranksters had moved into the area to settle down. For my first few months home, I avoided the acid-laced wine bottle when it was passed around at parties and usually left when the energies unleashed by that bottle began to dance around the bonfire. But I did feel left out and more curious than I had been about this drug. Plus, unlike my college days, these acid-heads were all hard-working, pleasant, inquisitive, honorable and healthy.

So, on my next trip to DC, I had an acquaintance (who was the legal counsel to a House committee) give me five hits, with the assurance that it was "strong and clean". Those five hits allowed me and a few friends to have a pretty trippy summer. Two of the trips were extremely visual -- floating around a springtime lake watching the female bass swim languid, choreographed circles around their nests in the shallows; following chipmunks along the dirt banks of my driveway like they were costumed Dineh scampering among the cliff dwellings of Arizona. Trips that were so amazing that I can still "see" them now as I type this note.

But then there were the not-so-pleasant experiences caused by my naively thinking that acid was just strong pot. I dosed one evening before a date and then had the highway to my girlfriend's house turn into a ribbon floating skyward. I had to pull over to make sure my truck wouldn't fall off that undulating ribbon. Then I dosed again and went to the wedding party of people I did not know, where I monopolized the bride with conversations that were definitely fueled by something other than the punch. The last time I dosed (again at a bonfire with friends), I had to have someone drive me home because I didn't want to risk it. All the way home, I kept turning around and saying nervously "Someone is following us!!", even though my friend kept reminding me that his girlfriend was driving behind us to take him back to the party. That was enough for me.

Do I regret taking acid during that summer? Certainly not. But I also don't regret my decision to leave this particular drug alone. There are a number of drugs that are meant for more important things than partying hard. Acid (and psychedelic mushrooms IMHO) are two of those -- as are pharmaceutical opiates and amphetamines. But the restrictions that governments place on drugs seem to be there for two main reasons -- as an opportunity for social control and as a serious money-making venture for cops, prohibitionists, preachers and pushers (who sometimes are the same people).

RIP, Dr. Hofmann. You made my life more colorful, more informed and more respectful of my own limits. That's all good. Gary, thanks for this OP. Now to the Garden to get my springtime jollies among the broccoli and tomatoes. I only wish I had the fourth sacred plant (cannabis) growing along with the corn, beans and squash in my Garden. But then, that would be wrong (in the eyes of the "law" (sic)), and likely to give me another single bed in a dorm full of felonious strangers. That is another hallucinogenic experience I don't intend to repeat. (The last one lasted eighteen months and, unfortunately, changed my life forever (and not for the good).)

"When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the Garden." Minnie Aumonier

[garybeck]

21. balcony jumping

wow, i'm sorry about the loss of your friends. to be honest I always have thought that the stories of suicide, invulnerability, murders, etc,... were mostly propaganda. as you know, the same things have been said about marijuana (see the movie Reefer Madness if you ever want a laugh!). I've been around it quite a bit and found it to be peaceful, enlightening, etc... the only problems i've ever seen is when people take too much but even then, they just tend to get confused, maybe worried, but never anything close to what your friends did. however I can't say we were ever standing on a balcony. Maybe that would have been a little too "inviting."

On the other hand, I have seen first hand the evils of other drugs, especially the white powders. I have NEVER in my life taken any of them - coke, crack, heroin... and the reason is because I've just seen what it does to people. I've seen best friends steal from each other... I've seen people do very stupid things and I've seen people get in fights, even lose a limb. Not to mention the lives that have been destroyed in other ways, like loss of job, splitting up of families... So I have stayed far away from all those white powders.

I agree with Hoffman's assessment that his substance is not addictive and if taken in the right dose it is generally harmless. Still it's sad to hear the story of your friends.

peace

[Fly by night]

22. I agree w/ your assessment: "white" drugs are wack -- give me green any time.

Thanks again for your OP. My two suicidal friends might have completed their act without acid, but one of them (fighting with his roommate who tried to keep him from jumping) kept yelling "I can fly" just before he jumped from his 14th floor window and discovered he couldn't.

Again, I don't regret my acid summer at all. I learned a lot and had some pretty vivid afternoons that are still with me. But right now, a big blunt would be the "pause that refreshes."

Lacking same, it's back to work.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Albert, thanks for everything

102. Good for him, good for us.

[livetohike]

20. RIP Dr. Hoffman, from one of the happily corrupted

:-)

[uppityperson]

24. RIP and thank you for your work.