SUBSTANCE THAT CHANGED THE FABRIC OF A GENERATION

Join me, if you will, in raising a blotter to mark the passing of
Albert Hofmann, scientist, alchemist and engineer of our enlightened culture.

Hofmann, in case you didn't know, discovered Lysergic acid
diethylamide, better known as LSD or acid.

The drug was first synthesized on November 16, 1938 by Dr Hofmann at
the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. He was looking for a
cure for alcoholism and respiratory diseases.

What he found was a powerful substance that was to fundamentally
change the fabric of a generation.

Others may aspire to this ubiquity in pop culture, such as Heinz and
their 57 varieties, but Lennon and McCartney never wrote Lucy In The
Soup With Diamonds.

Each generation is defined by the drug of its choice. I'm not saying
that all our children are wandering around in a state of chemical
intoxication, but a lot of them certainly are. And any old hippy will
tell you that the drugs aren't as good as they used to be.

The question today, really, is whether Hofmann inspired or corrupted
a generation.

Albert, who died at the ripe old age of 102, wasn't a counter-culture
type. It would take 25 years for his LSD to become a recreational
sacrament for the San Francisco drop-outs.

No, his mind-warping acid was given to the military for testing as a
possible chemical weapon of mass distraction.

An enemy that can taste colours and see through their own skin is not
likely to be able to point a rifle straight.

It was Dr Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, two far-out
psychotherapists who picked up the drug and ran with it after the
military decided it was just too weird to work as a mind-control drug.

These two are really the beginning of the modern acid story. Their
experiments with the drug initially had the intention of unlocking
the sub-conscious mind and presenting us with ego-death, but to a
young, post-war generation, brutalised by a war in Vietnam and
distrustful of an old regime, it became a key to so much more.

Writers such as Aldous Huxley and actors like Cary Grant, Larry
Hagman and Jack Nicholson became acid evangelists and when the drug
inevitably made the evolutionary leap from Dr Tim's dinner parties to
a post-Love Me Do generation of beatniks and students, it became a
radical force to be reckoned with.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out," was Leary's mantra and thousands took
him at his word.

Paul and Ringo took it, then John and George and pop music underwent
a seismic shift.

Without LSD, there would have been no Rubber Soul, Revolver or Sgt Pepper.

Listening today to Tomorrow Never Knows is still an almost
hallucinatory experience as backwards guitars, tape loops and drones
implore us to "turn off your minds, relax and float downstream."

It's difficult in this second Victorian age to imagine something so
revolutionary becoming so enmeshed in the very fabric of the mainstream.

Even though LSD was made illegal in the USA on October 6 1966, hippy
chemists such as the notorious Owsley Stanley manufactured enough to
fuel every single Grateful Dead gig, ever . and that's a lot of drugs, man.

You may even have taken it yourself, in which case you'll have an
opinion as to whether it's a force for good or evil.

One thing's certain, it's not the smash hit that it used to be.

Official figures reveal that we'd much rather be taking cocaine,
crack, skunk and ecstasy - chemical coshes for a quick-hit society.

It's not the smelly underground who are taking these drugs either.
It's children's TV presenters, our most famous pop stars, sportsmen,
politicians and lawyers.

It struck me as a brave and responsible decision when Tony Blair's
government downgraded the classification of cannabis to "not quite legal".

That's not to condone the behaviour of gangs of skunk-smoking
pubescent toe-rags hanging around our off-licenses, but to
acknowledge that the only way to win the so-called war on drugs is to
change the rules of engagement.

It's a shame that Nanny Gordon now seems hell-bent on making
criminals again a massive segment of society while failing to try and
understand why a whole generation has become deradicalised,
disenfranchisted, disenchanted and dysfunctional.