Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
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VIENNA (Reuters Health) Apr 16 - The man who discovered the
hallucinogenic agent lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) 60 years ago this week says its use should be allowed under controlled circumstances, to help psychiatric patients and to fight against drug abuse.
Dr. Albert Hofmann, now aged 97, made the discovery of the properties of LSD at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory in Basel, Switzerland, on April 19, 1943.
The road to the discovery started in 1929 when he shunned the synthetic chemistry so fashionable at the time to work on the chemistry of natural products.
By 1935 he had become interested in the alkaloids of ergot, a fungus that grows on rye. It had poisoned thousands in the Middle Ages by contaminating bread, although medieval midwives had also used it tentatively, and sometimes lethally, to induce childbirth.
Three years later, Hofmann developed the first artificial ergot
alkaloid, clearing the way for its safer use in obstetrics. Then, looking for other uses, produced a twenty-fifth derivative--labelled D-lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25.
It aroused no special interest and testing was discontinued after he noted that experimental animals showed some signs of disturbance.
From his home in Rittimatte, in Burg, Switzerland, the retired
researcher told Reuters Health how, five years later, he fully appreciated what had happened to the animals when "on a peculiar presentiment", he synthesised a batch of the abandoned LSD-25 and experienced his first 'trip' after spilling some on his hand.
He said: "I noticed strange effects coming over me in the lab, I was not sure what caused them. I though maybe it was the chloroform. But then I began to realise that it must have been the LSD-25."
Three days later, on 19 April, he decided to do a test by ingesting
four hundred micrograms, "a massive dose of five times the recommended amount."
"The lab assistant took me home and called a doctor. It was a hellish trip at first. But as I was coming out it was wonderful."
Twenty-two years on, thousands had repeated the agony and the ecstasy and Sandoz was forced to withdraw the drug, pointing out that "in some parts of the world (it) has reached the scale of a serious threat to public health".
In his book "LSD--My Problem Child," Dr. Hofmann recalls how the
managing director of Sandoz told him: "I would rather you had not discovered LSD."
Worldwide, the drug was banned from researchers and chemical
adventurers alike, a move that Dr. Hofmann says caused him great sadness. "I have been very saddened by the terrible things that have happened with it since, but the fault is not the drug, it's not evil, it's just a substance."
"The problem was that in the beginning there was not enough care taken. It came on the drug scene very quickly, especially in America. The doses people were getting were not controlled, were not right."
"I believe the answer is to make it possible for doctors to get access to it for therapeutic use like they do heroine or morphine. There are so many potentials for it, people who respond to no other treatment other than LSD for example. But it is banned, even though many, many doctors want to use it."
He said the drug is quite safe if carefully controlled, but the ban
makes it more attractive and dangerous. "It is glamorous to chase something that's banned. I hope the ban is lifted, I am 97 now and this is my hopefor the future."
But Dr. Fabrizio Schifano, a senior lecturer at St. George's Hospital
Medical School, London, told Reuters Health: "Nothing useful came out of the research of that time."
The consultant psychiatrist and pharmacologist sees no need for a
relaxation of the ban. "In twenty years I have never had the idea of giving psychedelic drugs to any of my patients," he said. "They have enough problems. I would like to say it should be banned forever but I really don't want to offend a great researcher."
By Nigel Glass
hallucinogenic agent lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) 60 years ago this week says its use should be allowed under controlled circumstances, to help psychiatric patients and to fight against drug abuse.
Dr. Albert Hofmann, now aged 97, made the discovery of the properties of LSD at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory in Basel, Switzerland, on April 19, 1943.
The road to the discovery started in 1929 when he shunned the synthetic chemistry so fashionable at the time to work on the chemistry of natural products.
By 1935 he had become interested in the alkaloids of ergot, a fungus that grows on rye. It had poisoned thousands in the Middle Ages by contaminating bread, although medieval midwives had also used it tentatively, and sometimes lethally, to induce childbirth.
Three years later, Hofmann developed the first artificial ergot
alkaloid, clearing the way for its safer use in obstetrics. Then, looking for other uses, produced a twenty-fifth derivative--labelled D-lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25.
It aroused no special interest and testing was discontinued after he noted that experimental animals showed some signs of disturbance.
From his home in Rittimatte, in Burg, Switzerland, the retired
researcher told Reuters Health how, five years later, he fully appreciated what had happened to the animals when "on a peculiar presentiment", he synthesised a batch of the abandoned LSD-25 and experienced his first 'trip' after spilling some on his hand.
He said: "I noticed strange effects coming over me in the lab, I was not sure what caused them. I though maybe it was the chloroform. But then I began to realise that it must have been the LSD-25."
Three days later, on 19 April, he decided to do a test by ingesting
four hundred micrograms, "a massive dose of five times the recommended amount."
"The lab assistant took me home and called a doctor. It was a hellish trip at first. But as I was coming out it was wonderful."
Twenty-two years on, thousands had repeated the agony and the ecstasy and Sandoz was forced to withdraw the drug, pointing out that "in some parts of the world (it) has reached the scale of a serious threat to public health".
In his book "LSD--My Problem Child," Dr. Hofmann recalls how the
managing director of Sandoz told him: "I would rather you had not discovered LSD."
Worldwide, the drug was banned from researchers and chemical
adventurers alike, a move that Dr. Hofmann says caused him great sadness. "I have been very saddened by the terrible things that have happened with it since, but the fault is not the drug, it's not evil, it's just a substance."
"The problem was that in the beginning there was not enough care taken. It came on the drug scene very quickly, especially in America. The doses people were getting were not controlled, were not right."
"I believe the answer is to make it possible for doctors to get access to it for therapeutic use like they do heroine or morphine. There are so many potentials for it, people who respond to no other treatment other than LSD for example. But it is banned, even though many, many doctors want to use it."
He said the drug is quite safe if carefully controlled, but the ban
makes it more attractive and dangerous. "It is glamorous to chase something that's banned. I hope the ban is lifted, I am 97 now and this is my hopefor the future."
But Dr. Fabrizio Schifano, a senior lecturer at St. George's Hospital
Medical School, London, told Reuters Health: "Nothing useful came out of the research of that time."
The consultant psychiatrist and pharmacologist sees no need for a
relaxation of the ban. "In twenty years I have never had the idea of giving psychedelic drugs to any of my patients," he said. "They have enough problems. I would like to say it should be banned forever but I really don't want to offend a great researcher."
By Nigel Glass
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