The 1960’s wouldn’t have been the same without L.S.D., which changed the culture of America. The change happened due to the discovery of L.S.D. (acid) by a Swiss chemist know as Albert Hofman in November 16, 1938. The find was discarded for five years till Albert decided to come back to L.S.D. he thought that it held medical use but wasn’t yet explored toughly. During his research Albert absorbed acid through his hands by accident, this was the first time acid was ever felt by a human being.
Twenty years later chemists all over the world are making the drug. In the Americas acid was being made at many private labs and universities. Dr. Timothy Leary a psychology professor at Harvard during this time. After his first experience with a similar hallucinogenic drug (psilocybin mushrooms) he founded a study to test the effects of psychedelic drugs. He even went on to create The League for Spiritual Discovery a religion that claimed LSD as a holy sacrament and must be kept legal for religious freedom. This is just one example of how the drug was a powerful force that pushed for acceptance just as Medical Marijuana is doing in today’s time.
Just as any drug L.S.D. eventually made its way form the lab to the streets. The abuse of any substances draws attention, the concentrated use in the U.S. during the 1960’s caught the eye of the federal government. Acid could be legally made in America up until 1965 when it was then marked as having zero medical use and became a schedule one drug. This didn’t stop anyone from making the drug; a high demand of a drug that is odorless and virtually weightless could mean big profits. Acid continued to flood society, with its acceptance by many monumental people from musicians to scholars. John Lennon...
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...mortality, loses inhibitions and has skewed perceptions. Acid isn’t harmless but most people who have bad experiences “bad trips” are already in a bad mood or wrong setting.
Its strange that in a generation where its seems a new drug gets made every week you might think that LSD would lose its allure. Surprisingly enough that hasn’t happen, LSD still attracts willing test subjects today. History also tells us that acid has guided the visions of shamans and seers long before the chemical was ever discovered in a lab. This to me makes acid different; it has been apart of the human race for thousands of years. Maybe it’s the promise it gives, a journey of mystery to people whose lives aren’t filled with excitement and adventure. Perhaps LSD today is simply a way of self-examination, but if you're not aware of the risks you shouldn’t have any business with the drug.
A psychedelic drug is one that alters the brains perception and cognition. Drugs of this sort can cause visual hallucinations. People have said it feels as though everything is alive, breathing, dancing. Of course, like any drug, there is the possibility of having a “bad trip.” This is where things seemingly go wrong. The person tripping feels trapped, frightened, and extremely uncomfortable. The
Lee, Martin A. Acid dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. Grove Press. 1985.
In 1960 professor Timothy Leary urged people to try the drug LSD. Leary thought that it could help people therapeutically and he saw many benefits in the usage of the drug. LSD was first available in tablet form but when it became illegal people began to use it in other forms such as liquid acid which was taken orally, through the eyes or mucous membrane or mixed with other drugs such as marijuana.
LSD has proved that the mind contains much higher powers and energies, beyond the average10% of the brain that a typical human uses. These powers and energies, under the right circumstances, can be taken advantage of to benefit human kind spiritually, creatively, therapeutically, and intellectually. LSD has given human kind the option to chemically trigger mental energies and powers. Arguments that LSD is potentially a dangerous discovery and mind control should be strictly prohibited by the government holds much validity, although there are benefits and arguments of personal freedom of neurology to consider. Whether LSD reflects negativity as a weapon and mind control drug, or radiates euphoria as a mind-expanding chemical and sacrament, the choice to engage in such an experience should be through personal reasoning. It is not the states and other bureaucracies’ duties to take control of the human brain and body.
Art influenced by drugs faces a unique challenge from the mainstream: prove its legitimacy despite its "tainted" origins. The established judges of culture tend to look down upon drug-related art and artists, as though it is the drug and not the artist that is doing the creating. This conflict, less intense but still with us today, has its foundations in the 1960s. As the Beatnik, Hippie, and psychedelic movements grew increasing amounts of national attention, the influence of drugs on culture could no longer be ignored by the mainstream. In an age where once-prolific drugs like marijuana and cocaine had become prohibited and sensationalized, the renewed influence of drugs both old and new sent shockwaves through the culture base. The instinctual response of the non-drug-using majority was to simply write drug-influenced art off as little more than the ramblings of madmen. Some drug-influenced artists tried to ignore this preconception, and others tried to downplay their drug use in the face of negative public scrutiny. For some drug-influenced artists, however, it was imperative to gain popular acceptance by publicly challenging the perception and preconceptions of mainstream America.
LSD was invented in Switzerland by Albert Hofmann, a researcher for Sandoz pharmaceuticals. It did not spontaneously appear among the youth of the Western world as a gift from the God of Gettin’ High. The CIA was on to acid long before the flower children.
Although in the modern world such drugs have developed an almost taboo status, it is impossible to ignore the tales of enlightenment reported by ancient cultures and even those rebels that use such drugs illegally today. While the American government has been one of the main influences on today’s society’s negative attitudes towards psychedelic drugs, they have granted some scientist and psychologists permission to experiment with such agents, and despite the controversy and varying results there seem to be many positive uses of psychedelic agents. These positive uses and the research that has been directed toward these uses will be reviewed in the following, as well as a brief history of psychedelic drugs.
The sixties had a huge pull from conservative America of the post-war era. Vietnam veterans were returning home with heroin addictions, the counterculture was spreading their free love, and the music festivals were introducing millions of people into the new America. The sixties was the first decade that made non-alcoholic drug use popular among young people. When it first dawned that drugs were going to be a big political debate, many representatives, like Nixon, made some the first anti-drug policies since Wilson. And though LSD was created much earlier, “acid” as it was called, became widespread in specific sects of America.
Shulgin then goes on to describe how he gave some of the drug to a friend who was about to retire from his career as a psychotherapist. Shulgin then began traveling the country introducing MDMA to other therapists and teaching them how to use it in their therapy (Saunders). All of the therapists Shulgin introduced the drug to began in the same way, taking the MDMA themselves (Saunders). The psychotherapists felt that they had no right to give a psychoactive drug to another person unless they themselves knew how the drug effected their own minds (Saunders). The testing going on between the therapists caused this drug to became readily available on the street as a recreational drug sometime during 1977 (Erowid). "Those first psychotherapists to use MDMA were keenly aware that they had found a valuable new tool." As one put it "MDMA is penicillin for the soul, and you don't give up prescribing penicillin, once you've seen what it can do (Saunders).
While hallucinogenic drugs have been used for centuries, it was not until the discovery by Western society of their mind-altering properties (Hofmann 1959; Stoll 1947; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A) that these compounds began to be more widely used for treatment of mental disorders (see Abraham, Aldridge & Gogia 1996; Strassman 1995; Neill 1987; McGlothlin & Arnold 1971; Freedman 1968; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A). Hallucinates are derived from plants or the fungus that grows on plants, the first recorded hallucination was a tossup between mental issues that were then used for a political push or the ergotamine during the Salem witch trails in 1962, far after that Albert Hofmann became the creator of LSD from ergotamine a chemical from the fungus ergot, in Switzerland 1938. From that time LSD has played a part in history, studies have shown that much has changed in the half-century since LSD was first used by psychiatrists and then found widespread recreational use in the 1960's and 70's. Modern psychiatry has embraced drugs that affect the same brain molecules that are tweaked by hallucinogens (Blakeslee,
I do not think that society should be criticizing a drug like LSD just because they disapprove of it. For Ken Kesey when he was using LSD it was considered to be legal and he was not breaking any laws. Ken Kesey was a part of a research program to experiment with LSD which was being run by the government. Society was going to find any reason possible as to why LSD should be illegal. Since there are no withdrawal symptoms of LSD that are not physically visible and the fact that it is not an addictive drug then I do not see anything wrong with it. Yes, there are side effects related to LSD but that goes for every drug in the world whether the drugs are legal or illegal. I think the main reason for this criticism is that society did not like the
...presence of LSD in the US that was completely unaffiliated with the government, there is clear evidence that because of MKUltra’s experiments, the drug was propelled from a niche market to a national – even global – stage. In addition to the many subjects of the drug trials, thousands of people were exposed to LSD when they read Leary’s published works and attended his public lectures, participated in Kesey’s Acid Tests and listened to his endorsements, attended Robert Hunters concerts, and witnessed the extensive work done by many others – all influenced by MKUltra in some fashion. Ultimately, the alterations in its use gave the emergence of LSD a sense of irony that truly reflected that era – instead of becoming the government’s secret chemical weapon, LSD became a sacrament that shaped a generation, epitomizing the counterculture’s belief of “make love, not war.”
The actual causes of such hallucinations are the chemical substances in the plants. These substances are true narcotics. Contrary to popular opinion, not all narcotics are dangerous and addictive. The term psychedelic describes such drugs in the United States.
Drugs have been part of the American culture as far back as the 1800’s. Using drugs for medicinal purposes existed before the 1800’s but it was during the years 1850 to 1914 when America suffered from what was considered the first epidemic of drug use.