Albert Hofmann, father of the mind-altering drug LSD, dies in Switzerland at 102 By FRANK JORDANS (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press April 30, 2008 10:28 AM EDT GENEVA - Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery grew into a notorious "problem child," has died. He was 102.
Hofmann died Tuesday at his home in Burg im Leimental, said Doris Stuker, a municipal clerk in the village near Basel where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971.
Hofmann's hallucinogen inspired - and arguably corrupted - millions in the 1960s hippie generation. For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.
"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he once said.
The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.
He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943.
"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses.
Hofmann sat down and began experiencing what he called "wonderful visions."
"What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures," he told Swiss television network SF DRS for a program marking his 100th birthday two years ago. "It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."
Three days later, Hofmann experimented with a larger dose. The result was a horror trip.
"Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he wrote, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant tol
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