Nov 16th 1938: Albert Hofmann, a chemist working for Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, synthesis LSD for the first time.
April 16th 1943: Albert Hofmann accidentally experiences LSD for the first time. He reports seeing “an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscope-like play of colours”.
April 19th 1943: “Bicycle Day” Albert Hofmann intentionally ingests 250mcg of LSD
1947: First scientific article on the mental effects of LSD published by Werner Stoll in the Swiss Archives of Neurology.
1949: Max Rinkel brings LSD to the US and starts work on LSD in Boston. Nick Bercel starts work on LSD in Los Angeles.
May 1950: First paper about LSD appears in the American Psychiatric Journal, by Robert Hyde. The focus of the article is to create a “model psychosis”.
1951: The CIA begins “Operation Bluebird” to investigate mind control techniques using LSD. This subsequently evolves into MK-ULTRA in 1953. 1951: Al Hubbard first tries LSD.
1952: Charles Savage publishes the first study on the use of LSD to treat depression.
1953: First LSD clinic opened in the UK under Ronald Sandison
1953: MK-ULTRA underway. In November a CIA employee, Frank Olson, who had unwittingly been given LSD commits suicide by jumping out of a window in New York.
1953: Humphrey Osmond begins treating alcoholics with LSD
1954: Aldous Huxley takes mescaline for the first time. “The Doors Of Perception” is published.
1955: Aldous Huxley takes LSD for the first time. “Heaven and Hell” is published. 1955: First scientific conferences on LSD (and mescaline) take place in Atlantic City and Princeton. Mid 1950’s: First recreational use of LSD recorded, among Los Angeles medical community.
1957: Humphrey Osmond coins the word “psychedelic”
1958: Al Hubbard sets up the first private Canadian clinic to use LSD for therapeutic purposes.
1959: First international conference on LSD therapy. Sponsored by the Josiah Macy Foundation and chaired by Paul Hoch.
1959: Allen Ginsberg takes LSD for the first time.
Aug 9th 1960: Timothy Leary ingests magic mushrooms for his first psychedelic experience. He subsequently establishes the “Psychedelic Research Project” at Harvard.
1960: Ken Kesey volunteers for government sponsored psychedelic drug experiments.
1961: Al Hubbard publishes “The Use of LSD-25 in the Treatment of Alcoholism and Other Psychiatric Disorders”
1962: Timothy Leary takes LSD for the first time. Leary conducts the “Good Friday Experiment”.
1962: Congress passes new drug safety regulations. The FDA designates LSD an “experimental drug”.
1962: First LSD related arrests.
1963: LSD first appears on the streets as liquid on sugar cubes. First stories On LSD appear in the mainstream media.
May 1963: Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert are fired from Harvard. Leary sets up a psychedelic centre at Millbrook.
Nov 1963: Aldous Huxley dies after allegedly receiving his last request: An iv injection of LSD, administered by his wife Laura.
1965: Drug Abuse Control Amendments passed by Congress make illicit LSD manufacture a misdemeanour.
Feb 1965: Owsley Stanley first succeeded in synthesizing crystalline LSD. First reported distribution starts in March in San Francisco at $2 a trip. Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters begin holding Acid Test Parties.
Jan 1966: The Merry Pranksters hold a 3 day LSD party called “The Trips Festival”
1966: Ron and Jay Thelin open “The Psychedelic Shop” near the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Fransisco.
March 1966: Life Magazine runs a cover story entitled “LSD: The Exploding Threat of the Mind Control Drug That Got Out of Control”
April 1966: Millbrook is raided and Timothy Leary arrested on possession of marijuana charges.
April 1966: Sandoz recalls the LSD it had distributed and withdraws funding for work with LSD.
Oct 6th 1966: California enacts a law making LSD illegal.
Jan 16th 1967: First “Human Be-In” held in San Francisco
1967: Paul McCartney admits in an interview that the Beatles have taken LSD.
Summer 1967: “The Summer of Love” in San Francisco. Acid- Rock emerges as a musical genre. Jan 17th 1968: Lyndon B Johnson mentions LSD in his State of the Union address. The US government makes possession of LSD illegal.
1969: The first “home-grown” UK acid lab was discovered. Quentin Theobald and Peter Simmons were prosecuted.
1969: In August the Woodstock festival takes place in New York and members of the Charles Manson cult commit the Tate-LaBianca murders (allegedly influenced, in part by LSD).
Summer 1969: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love produce and distribute an estimated 10 million doses of “Orange Sunshine” LSD (as pills).
Dec 1969: The Rolling Stones Altamont concert ends in tragedy as 4 concerts-goers are killed. Feb 1970: Timothy Leary jailed for possession of a joint. Sept 1970: Timothy Leary escapes from prison with the aid of “The Weathermen” The escape is funded by the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.
1970: An estimated 2 million Americans have used LSD. June 20th 1970: Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Doc Ellis pitched a “no-hitter” game whilst under the influence of LSD.
0ct 27th 1970: The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act is passed in the US. Most known hallucinogens are placed in Schedule 1.
1971: Windowpane LSD first appears
1971: UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances schedules LSD as a class A drug. All UN countries implement this into their drug laws or create their first drug laws. LSD is banned virtually world wide.
1972: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love busted.
1973: Timothy Leary captured in Afghanistan and jailed again in the US.
1975: End of last formal LSD research programme.
1976: Blotters emerge as the most commonly available form of LSD.
1976: Timothy Leary released from prison.
Late 1970’s: Availability of LSD falls, due to a combination of negative publicity about potential side-effects (the majority misleading or blatantly false) and a combination of law enforcement and governmental controls.
1978: “Operation Julie” in the UK breaks up one of the largest LSD manufacturing and distribution networks in the world at that time.
1979: Albert Hofmann publishes “LSD: My Problem Child”
1986: MAPS: The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies is founded.
1988:The Psychedelic Movement re-emerges with the “Second Summer of Love”. Raves and all-night “Acid House” parties are however mainly fuelled by MDMA rather than LSD.
1988: Permission granted in Switzerland for the use of LSD in psychotherapy by several specialists in private practice.
1993: Permission to use LSD withdrawn in Switzerland.
1993: The Heffter Research Institute founded to support and promote investigation into the medical uses of psychedelic hallucinogens.
1995: Dr. David Nichols publishes an essay entitled “A Scientist Reflects on the Discovery and Future of LSD”
Feb 2000: MAPS comment that case-reports of LSD and Psilocybin being efficacious in the treatment of Cluster Headache should be scientifically investigated.
2000: Discussions about the use of LSD and Psilocybin use for Cluster Headaches initiated on various internet forums.
2000: The UK government was advised in The Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 by the Police Foundation in March 2000 that LSD should be transferred from Class A to Class B (recommendation 8). This advice was ignored.
2001: Psychotherapy study on the use of LSD in Cancer patients submitted to the FDA. Protocol was placed on Clinical Hold by the FDA requesting changes in the study design and a review of previous work in this area. No date has yet been set for the resubmission.
2004: MAPS announce development of a randomised, dose response study of Psilocybin and LSD in people with Cluster Headache. They hope that this will be the first study to renew human research with LSD.
April 2005 In the UK Drug activist Casey Hardison is sentenced to 20 years in jail for producing 145.000 doses of LSD. Casey Hardison defense is the right on cognitive liberty: the right to alter ones own psyche. At the time of writing this case is pending and will be decided on the EU supreme court. Your support is needed. See here.
June 2005: Editorial published in the British Journal of Psychiatry entitled “Can Psychedelics Have a Role in Psychiatry Once Again”
April 2006: Editorial published in The Lancet entitled “Reviving Research Into Psychedelic Drugs”
Read more:
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=LSD#ixzz20ytH6fK0
this is a good site for all things about LSD - I took the liberty of c/p the history, it's reflective of how drugs are described as useful one day -illegal the next.
The history speaks for itself.
