Discoverer of LSD takes final trip

It is a drug that has sparked debate like no other. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) opened the doors of perception for some, influencing music, art and psychology. Others, the so called "acid casualties", were left with irrevocable psychological damage. It was announced today that Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the substance by accident , died yesterday aged 102.

He had hoped his drug would prove to be a "medicine for the soul" - but after its widespread use as a recreational drug he ended up calling it his "problem child". This report from our social affairs correspondent Victoria Macdonald contains strobe lighting. Professor Albert Hofmann was the man who spawned a generation which turned on, tuned in and dropped out - whose discovery of lysergic acid diethylamide enhanced the summer of love, psychedelia and the counterculture.Prof Hofmann was known as the father of LSD but it was a drug that he also described as his problem child.



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