ALBERT HOFMANN, 102; SWISS CHEMIST DISCOVERED LSD

His Accidental Experience of 'An Extremely Stimulated Imagination'
Caused by the Drug Led to a Lifetime of Experiments and Initiated the
Psychedelic Generation.

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD and thereby gave
the psychedelic generation the pharmaceutical vehicle to turn on, tune
in and drop out, has died. He was 102.

Hofmann died Tuesday morning at his home in Basel, Switzerland, of a
heart attack, according to Rick Doblin, the head of MAPS, the
Multidisciplinary Assn. for Psychedelic Studies.

Hofmann also identified and synthesized the active ingredients of
peyote mushrooms and a Mexican psychoactive plant called ololiuqui and
developed at least three related, non-psychoactive compounds that
became widely used in medicine.

Those other feats would have been little remembered, however, had he
not accidentally gotten a trace amount of an experimental compound
called lysergic acid diethylamide on his fingertips and taken the
world's first acid trip.

Hofmann was a talented synthetic chemist working in the Basel research
center of Sandoz Laboratories -- now Novartis -- in the 1930s when he
began studying the chemistry of ergot, the common name for a fungus
that grows on rye, barley and certain other plants. Although ergot is
poisonous, midwives had used a crude extract for centuries to induce
labor in women.

Twenty years earlier, researchers had isolated ergotamine, the first
ergot alkaloid isolated in pure form, and the compound had become
widely used for halting bleeding after childbirth and as a treatment
for migraine headaches.

In the early 1930s, American researchers had identified the primary
active ingredient of ergot, a chemical called lysergic acid. Hofmann
devised a technique to make a series of derivatives of lysergic acid
called amides and began systematically looking for medically useful
compounds.

The 25th compound he synthesized, in 1938, was lysergic acid
diethylamide (in German, lyserg-saure-diathylamid), or LSD-25. Because
this compound had a chemical structure similar to an existing drug
called Coramine, Hofmann had hoped that it would be a stimulant for
the respiratory and circulatory systems.

But testing in experimental animals showed no significant activity for
the drug -- although the animals were observed to become restless
after its administration -- and it was abandoned.

During this period, Hofmann synthesized at least three amides that
became drugs: Methergine, used to halt bleeding after birth;
Hydergine, which improves circulation in the limbs and cerebral
function in the elderly; and Dihydergot, used to stabilize circulation
and blood pressure.

Prompted by what Hofmann later described as a "peculiar presentiment"
that LSD-25 might have properties other than those established in the
first investigations, he decided to look at it again.

On Friday afternoon, April 16, 1943, Hofmann had just completed
synthesizing a new batch when, he subsequently wrote to his
supervisor, "I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in
the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a
remarkable restlessness, combined with slight dizziness.

"At home, I lay down and sank into a not-unpleasant intoxicated-like
condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a
dreamlike state I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic
pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of
colors. After some two hours, this condition faded away."

Hofmann suspected that the state had been caused by something in the
lab. In an interview on his 100th birthday, he said, "I didn't know
what caused it, but I knew that it was important."

After breathing the solvents he had used produced no effect, Hofmann
suspected that the synthetic drug was the source. "LSD spoke to me,"
he said. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me,
'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "

The next Monday, he took what he considered to be an extremely small
dose of LSD, so small that a similar dose of even the most powerful
toxin known at the time would have had little or no effect. He had
planned to gradually increase the dosage but instead was surprised to
encounter the first bad acid trip.

Feeling bad, he asked his laboratory assistant to accompany him home
on his bicycle, no cars being available because of World War II
restrictions. During the trip, "I had the feeling that I could not
move from the spot. I was cycling, cycling, but the time seemed to
stand still."

By the time they reached his home, its furnishings had transformed
themselves into terrifying objects.

"Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and
pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms," he wrote in
his autobiography, "LSD: My Problem Child." "They were in constant
motion, animated, as if driven by an inner restlessness. The lady next
door [became] a malevolent, insidious witch with a colored mask."

Hofmann thought he was dying and sent for a doctor, but the physician
could find nothing wrong.

After about six hours, the experience began to change into a pleasant
one.

"After some time, with my eyes closed, I began to enjoy this wonderful
play of colors and forms, which it really was a pleasure to observe.
Then I went to sleep and the next day I was fine. I felt quite fresh,
like a newborn."

That day, April 19, has subsequently been celebrated by LSD proponents
as "Bicycle Day."

Hofmann's bosses did not believe the drug could be so powerful,
concluding that he had measured the dosage incorrectly. Two laboratory
assistants subsequently took doses only a fifth of what Hofmann had
consumed, and they too had powerful experiences.

LSD was initially hailed as a wonder drug for use in psychoanalysis,
particularly for gaining insights into schizophrenia; more than 2,000
research papers appeared over the succeeding decade.

The Central Intelligence Agency investigated LSD as a potential agent
for mind control, and the British government studied it as a truth
drug. In both cases, the drug was administered to subjects who were
not informed of its nature, leading to scandals and changes in
regulations about informed consent.

But in the 1960s, largely at the instigation of Harvard University
psychologists Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, LSD began to be seen
first as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment, then as a major
recreational drug.

"Instead of a 'wonder child,' LSD suddenly became my 'problem child,'
" Hofmann said.

In 1966, the United States banned its use, followed by most other
countries. Nonetheless, some still consider it a promising drug, and
research continues on its medical potential.

Meanwhile, Hofmann read that American ethnologist Gordon Wasson had
discovered mushrooms that were used for ritual purposes by Indians and
that produced an LSD-like effect. Other researchers had little success
extracting the active ingredient, and a sample was sent to Basel.

Hofmann's initial tests in animals appeared to show no effect from the
mushrooms. Before discarding them, however, Hofmann decided to sample
them and had what he called "a full-blown LSD experience."

He and his assistants then isolated the active ingredients, using
themselves as guinea pigs. At every purification step, they would
consume the product to make sure it still contained the active agent.

Ultimately, they isolated two active ingredients, which Hofmann named
psilocybin and psilocin because they had been isolated from Psilocybe
mexicana. They turned out to be about 1% as active as LSD.

On a later visit to Mexico, Hofmann gave a bottle of psilocybin
tablets to Maria Sabina, the shaman who had originally given the
mushrooms to Wasson. "When we left, Maria Sabina told us that the
tablets really contained the spirit of the mushrooms," Hofmann said.

On that visit, Hofmann collected a batch of morning glory seeds that
the natives called ololiuqui. Using the same approach as with the
mushrooms, he isolated the active ingredients and found them to be
lysergic acid monoamide and lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide. "They
were derivatives of lysergic acid that I had on my shelf through my
studies with LSD," he said.

Once again, his colleagues didn't believe him because the lysergic
acid derivatives came from a species completely different from ergot.
They assumed that his final products were contaminants introduced in
the laboratory. And once again he was shown to be correct.

By this time, LSD had developed its negative reputation, and Sandoz
decided it no longer wanted anything to do with ergot
derivatives.

But Hofmann's life had already been altered. LSD and the other
psychoactive drugs "changed my life, insofar as they provided me with
a new concept about what reality is," he said. "Before, I had believed
there was only one reality: the reality of everyday life.

"Under LSD, however, I entered into realities which were as real and
even more real than the one of everyday." He also "became aware of the
wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the plant and
animal kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all
this and all of us."

After dozens of acid trips, Hofmann finally gave up psychedelics. "I
know LSD; I don't need to take it anymore," he said.

Hofmann is survived by his wife, Anita; two daughters; a son;eight
grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.