<story><title>Albert Hofmann discovers the effects of LSD (1943)</title><url>http://laphamsquarterly.org/intoxication/exploring-alternate-universe</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>vonklaus</author><text>Being in the throws of a rather intense hallucinogenic event can create significant stress and disorientation. A contemporary user can certainly combat these feelings by the comforting information that LSD is a widely used, and well studied chemical, and the effects are non-lethal and presenting in their proper manifestations.&lt;p&gt;For Hofman, this was not the case. It must have been extremely concerning to be without this information. The complete alteration of the perception of all of his senses, no information about the duration or magnitude of the event, and unsure if he had been fatally poisoned.&lt;p&gt;Given his initial experience, it is amazing that he persisted the way he did.</text></comment>
<story><title>Albert Hofmann discovers the effects of LSD (1943)</title><url>http://laphamsquarterly.org/intoxication/exploring-alternate-universe</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>MichaelGG</author><text>I read &lt;i&gt;LSD: My Problem Child&lt;/i&gt;. Interesting, short, book. At one point, Sandoz was giving out samples to anyone who asked, as they were hoping someone would find a good commercial use. Timothy Leary went and ordered 10 grams (which is 100,000 x 100ug doses), but apparently Princeton(?) didn&amp;#x27;t back him up or there was some importing issue, and by that time Sandoz started getting suspicious and stopped sending out samples. Oops.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s probably due to the reckless behaviour of early users that LSD got such a bad rap and banned so hard. Not that they should have had to been responsible -- they shouldn&amp;#x27;t be blamed for stupid government actions -- it&amp;#x27;s just an unfortunate thing. And early proponents weren&amp;#x27;t very rigorous and came up with fantastical claims, greatly exaggerating LSD&amp;#x27;s capabilities. It&amp;#x27;s still great stuff, just not quite a magical cure-all. Also I&amp;#x27;m guessing most ethics systems would have issues with dosing people without their knowledge&amp;#x2F;consent.&lt;p&gt;The book also talks of later trips to Mexico where they did mescaline I believe. And how the images they saw, the shapes and patterns, looked exactly like Aztec art.</text></comment>