The History of Lsd and Its Effects on the American Counterculture Essay Example
After World War II ended, the age of baby-booming and urban sprawling began. During this time, many American soldiers came home from the war; married, and had five or six children. This created the largest generation ever. Could this new generation change the social world of America? In 1964, most of the baby-boomer's children were in their late teens. This was the beginning of a major social change in the United States. With the birth of rock-n-roll not far in the past, and a growing liberalism of the normally conservative American Society, it is no wonder that a powerful hallucinogenic drug called LSD gained so much popularity.
LSD-25 was first created in 1938 by Albert Hoffmann in the Sandoz chemical-pharmaceutical laboratories in Basle, Switzerland. It was synthesized from the twenty-fifth compound of Iysergic acid. When first tested on animals, scientists had no idea that the powerful chemical had such psychedelic properties until Albert Hoffmann himself, involuntarily tested the new chemical. This "involuntary" testing of the LSD is the first time it was ever tested on a human subject; it was a result of Hoffmann accidentally intoxicating himself with LSD-25 during a routine purification process with the chemical.(3) After the experience, Hoffmann wrote:
"Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to stop my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and to go home, as I was seized by a peculiar restlessness associated with a sensation of mild dizziness. On arriving home, I lay down and sank into a kind of drunkenness, which was not unpleasant and which was characterized by extreme activity of the imagination. As I lay in a dazed condition with my eyes closed, (I experienced daylight as disagreeably bright) there surged upon me an uninterrupted stream of fantastic images of extraordinary plasticity and vividness, accompanied by an intense kaleidoscope-like play of colors. This condition gradually passed off after two
LSD-25 was first created in 1938 by Albert Hoffmann in the Sandoz chemical-pharmaceutical laboratories in Basle, Switzerland. It was synthesized from the twenty-fifth compound of Iysergic acid. When first tested on animals, scientists had no idea that the powerful chemical had such psychedelic properties until Albert Hoffmann himself, involuntarily tested the new chemical. This "involuntary" testing of the LSD is the first time it was ever tested on a human subject; it was a result of Hoffmann accidentally intoxicating himself with LSD-25 during a routine purification process with the chemical.(3) After the experience, Hoffmann wrote:
"Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to stop my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and to go home, as I was seized by a peculiar restlessness associated with a sensation of mild dizziness. On arriving home, I lay down and sank into a kind of drunkenness, which was not unpleasant and which was characterized by extreme activity of the imagination. As I lay in a dazed condition with my eyes closed, (I experienced daylight as disagreeably bright) there surged upon me an uninterrupted stream of fantastic images of extraordinary plasticity and vividness, accompanied by an intense kaleidoscope-like play of colors. This condition gradually passed off after two