The Father of LSD Dead At 102

Bloomberg April 30th, 2008

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who
created the hallucinogenic drug LSD and advocated its benefits
before unwittingly becoming an icon of the 1960s counterculture,
died yesterday at his home near Basel. He was 102.

Hofmann died of a heart attack, the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies said in a statement on its Web
site. The California-based group had republished his book ``LSD:
My Problem Child.''

Hofmann's pharmaceutical cocktail was prescribed legally in
psychoanalysis for more than a decade before mainstream usage
caused it to be outlawed in the U.S. in 1967. The father of
lysergic acid diethylamide promoted it as a controlled substance
for medical purposes and viewed its recreational abuse as
dangerous. As an illicit drug, LSD inspired musicians from the
Beatles to Bob Dylan with its psychedelic effects and taking
``acid'' became a rite of passage for many in the Woodstock
generation.

``In human evolution it has never been as necessary to have
this substance LSD,'' Hofmann said. ``It is just a tool to turn
us into what we are supposed to be.''

A tiny dose of LSD could produce varied effects, ranging
from feelings of heightened awareness and sensory perceptions to
visual illusions and fantasies, for more than 12 hours.
Outspoken exponents, including Harvard University academic
Timothy Leary and writer Ken Kesey, claimed the synthetic
compound offered an enlightening human experience, while its
detractors said the drug caused brain damage and mental illness.

LSD Tests

After World War II, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
and its U.K. counterpart MI6 conducted LSD tests on soldiers and
volunteers in search of a ``truth drug'' for interrogation and
brainwashing. The research was abandoned and government
authorities turned their backs on the drug as the ``flower
power'' peace movement embraced it.

In 1966, Charles W. Sandman, the chairman of the New Jersey
Narcotic Drug Study Commission called LSD ``the greatest threat
facing the country'' and ``more dangerous than the Vietnam War.''

Hofmann's self-described ``problem child'' had its heyday
in the 1960s as its availability increased because of mass
production by underground chemists such as Augustus Owsley
Stanley in San Francisco. The Beatles' albums ``Revolver'' and
``Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' included songs
that fans cited as evidence of the group's LSD use.

English novelist Aldous Huxley hailed its qualities and
took the drug on his deathbed, before countless rock groups and
stars, such as the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and
the Grateful Dead, experimented with the hallucinogen. As early
as 1959, actor Cary Grant claimed to be ``born again'' after
taking LSD during psychoanalysis sessions. Hofmann described
Grant as ``one of the biggest promoters'' of his drug.

Childhood Epiphany

Hofmann was born Jan. 11, 1906, in Baden, Switzerland. As a
young boy in the hills around his hometown, he had an epiphany
one day as he marveled at nature's beauty, later citing the
moment as a harbinger of his LSD experiences.

He studied chemistry at Zurich University, focusing on
plants and animals, and completed a doctorate on the chemical
makeup of chitin, a protective substance found in fungi and
certain animals. Hofmann then accepted a job at pharmaceutical
company Sandoz Laboratories, now part of Novartis AG, in Basel,
Switzerland.

Assigned to identify and synthesize active compounds in
plants, Hofmann studied the poisonous ergot fungus, used for
centuries to induce childbirth. After U.S. chemists isolated
lysergic acid as the active ingredient, Hofmann experimented
with other compounds of the drug, including LSD-25, which he
created in 1938. Five years later, as he returned to conduct
tests on the same compound, he stumbled onto the drug's
psychedelic potential.

World's First `Trip'

Absorbing a minuscule amount through his fingers in April
1943, Hofmann experienced the effects of the drug for the first
time. Three days later, he took 250 millionths of a gram of LSD
before riding his bicycle home on the world's first ``acid trip.''

``Everything in my field of vision wavered and was
distorted as if seen in a curved mirror,'' he said in his book
``LSD: My Problem Child.'' ``I also had the sensation of being
unable to move from the spot.'' By the time he arrived home, the
experience had turned sour and he summoned the family doctor and
asked for milk from his neighbor as a possible antidote for
poisoning.

In 1958, Hofmann followed up his LSD research by isolating
psilocybin, one of the active ingredients in Mexican plants
known as ``magic mushrooms.'' He traveled with his wife, Anita,
to Mexico in 1962 to collect plant specimens and meet former
J.P. Morgan & Co. vice president and amateur botanist R. Gordon
Wasson, after whom Hofmann named two species of mushroom.

Mystic and Scientist

Hofmann explained the explosion of public interest in his
drug during the 1960s as a remedy to counter ``alienation from
nature'' and the ``lack of satisfaction in professional
employment in a mechanized, lifeless working world.'' He claimed
it was necessary to be a mystic in order to be a real natural
scientist and to understand the true meaning of nature to the
human senses.

``The goal is not to deny the validity of the natural
scientific view of life and to downplay the value of the
measuring sciences,'' he said in his book ``Insight Outlook.''
``We are only talking about recognizing their titanic myopia.''

The Swiss chemist became head of pharmaceutical and
chemical research at Sandoz. He was also a member of the Nobel
Prize Committee and a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences.
In January 2006, about 2,000 scientists, researchers and other
academics joined then Swiss President Moritz Leuenberger at an
international symposium in Basel to celebrate Hofmann's 100th
birthday.

``I see the true importance of LSD in the possibility of
providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical
experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality,'' Hofmann said.
``Such a use accords entirely with the essence and working
character of LSD as a sacred drug.''

To contact the reporter on this story:
David Henry in Frankfurt at
[email protected].

Last Updated: April 30, 2008 00:46 EDT

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