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A CHEMIST MADE LSD FIVE YEARS BEFORE HE SWALLOWED IT
LSD Is Short For Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
A Drug Company Chemist Built It From An Acid In Rye Fungus
He Was Not Trying To Make A Psychedelic
A Heart And Breathing Stimulant Was The Goal
He Made The Compound And It Went Into Animal Testing
The Company Saw Nothing Special In The Results
He Did Not Build It Again Until 1943
A Trace Of It Passed Through His Skin While He Worked
He Then Swallowed A Measured Dose On Purpose
THIS NEWSLETTER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. NOTHING IN THIS CONTENT CONSTITUTES MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY HEALTH RELATED DECISIONS.
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OKAY BACK FROM BASEL 🇨🇭
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WHAT SANDOZ WAS LOOKING FOR ⚗️
Albert Hofmann Worked As A Chemist At Sandoz In Basel
Sandoz Was A Swiss Pharmaceutical Company
His Job Was To Build New Compounds Out Of Lysergic Acid
Lysergic Acid Is A Natural Substance From A Rye Fungus
That Fungus Is Called Claviceps Purpurea
Chemists Group Its Products As Ergot Alkaloids
He Numbered His Own Derivatives As He Made Them
The Twenty Fifth In That Series Was Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
Its Short Name Comes From That Number
He Made It In 1938
Why He Built It Is On The Same Record
The Work Was Planned Around An Existing Drug Called Coramine
Coramine Was A Circulatory And Respiratory Stimulant
A Compound With Similar Properties Was What He Was After
That Same Search Appears In A Later Review
Both Sources Name A Stimulant As The Aim
Animal Tests With The New Substance Followed
Those Tests Aroused No Special Interest At Sandoz
Further Testing Was Discontinued
The Compound Was Forgotten
Five Years Went By Before He Touched The Compound Again
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THE TWO DAYS IN APRIL 🚲
Hofmann Synthesised The Compound Again In April 1943
On 16 April He Was Doing The Final Purification Step
Dizziness And A Remarkable Restlessness Affected Him
He Had Not Swallowed Anything
Trace Amounts Had Been Absorbed Through The Skin Of His Hands
Then He Went Home And Described What He Felt
He Wondered If A Drop Had Touched His Fingertips
That Would Make It An Extremely Potent Compound
A Deliberate Test Followed On 19 April
He Swallowed 0.25 Milligram Of The Drug Dissolved In Water
That Happened At 4:20 In The Afternoon
Then He Wrote The Effects Down As They Arrived
His Notebook Recorded Dizziness And Feeling Of Anxiety
It Also Lists Visual Distortions
Symptoms Of Paralysis Were Written Down
He Also Noted A Desire To Laugh
Each Of Those Came From The Same Entry
An Urge To Go Home Followed
His House Was A Few Miles Away
He Travelled There On A Bicycle
That Ride Is Why The Date Is Now Called Bicycle Day
A Recent Review Calls It The First Documented Trip Of Its Kind
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WHAT SANDOZ SOLD IT AS 🧾
Sandoz Gave The Compound A Trade Name
That Name Was Delysid
Researchers Received It From Sandoz From 1949 To 1966
Psychiatrists Were Among The Recipients
Two Separate Research Programmes Used It
The First Produced Temporary Psychotic Like States In Healthy People
Researchers Called That A Model Psychosis
The Second Used It Alongside Psychotherapy
That Work Was Called Psycholytic And Psychedelic Therapy
A Pharmacology Review Records Both Uses
Then A Later Paper Named The Conditions They Treated
Anxiety Associated With Terminal Cancer Was One Of Them
Alcoholism And Opioid Use Disorder Were Two More
Depression Was On The Same List
Every One Of Those Is A Psychiatric Indication
The Compound Sandoz Had Forgotten Was Now Its Own Product
Doctors Were Ordering It From The Company That Had Discontinued It
That Arrangement Ran Until 1966
