Mon 9 Jan 2006
LSD inventor laments 'betrayal' of medicinal drug hijacked by hippies
NICK PISA IN ROME
THE chemist who invented the hallucinogenic drug LSD yesterday accused the hippie movement of betraying him.
Dr Albert Hofmann, whose accidental discovery of LSD 55 years ago sparked a generation of psychedelic music and art, spoke out on the eve of his 100th birthday.
In an interview with an Italian newspaper Dr Hofmann, who lives near Basle, Switzerland, said: "The idea was for it to be of help to the medical world but instead it was hijacked by the hippie movement.
"They betrayed me. It should have only been given to people who have a certain sense of stability - the way it is administered now is a crime."
Dr Hofmann stumbled on LSD - lysergic acid diethylamide - while researching for a headache cure.
He took small doses of the chemical as he carried out his research and he later revealed how he had his first "trip" as he cycled home from work one Friday afternoon.
Dr Hofmann said he "experienced unusual sensations" and went home to lie down, where he said he entered a "dreamlike state".
In a report to assistants, he said: "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 colours."
Dr Hofmann added: "The only other person who tried it in my family was my wife."
The drug later was seized upon by the hippie culture of the Sixties and Seventies and was even said to have been the inspiration for the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, a claim the group denied.
Dr Hofmann admitted LSD could be dangerous and called its distribution by Professor Timothy Leary and others a crime. He argued: "It should be a controlled substance with the same status as morphine."
However while he said LSD was his "problem child", Dr Hofmann insisted the drug could help reconnect people to the universe.
He recalled a mystical experience he had on a forest path more than 90 years ago in the hills above Baden, Switzerland without the use of drugs.
The revelation left him longing for a similar glimpse of what he calls "a miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality".
"It's very, very dangerous to lose contact with living nature," he said.
"In the big cities, there are people who have never seen living nature, all things are products of humans. The bigger the town, the less they see and understand nature."
Dr Hofmann described how he had had the same kind of mystical experience in April 1943 - more than 30 years after his trip through the forests near Baden - when he first experienced the effects of LSD. "Immediately, I recognised it as the same experience I had had as a child," Dr Hofmann said.
"I didn't know what had caused it, but I knew that it was important."
Dr Hofmann said he took LSD dozens of times and had suffered one "horrific" trip when he was tired, but he did not explain the circumstances.
However, he did say that he might be tempted to take one final dose if he was on his deathbed.
"I know LSD. I don't need to take it anymore," he said.
During the 1960s, LSD was widely taken in the entertainment world with the Doors singer Jim Morrison and the guitarist Jimi Hendrix both well-known users. It is normally taken in the form of a crystal "tab" and its mind-bending hallucinogenic effects can last anything between six and 14 hours.
Bad "trips" which are frightening and traumatic are among the dangers of taking the drug, while some users develop persistent hallucinations that can last for weeks or possibly years.
