A Brief History of LSD in the Twenty-First Century Since Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered LSD’s psychedelic properties in 1943, a plethora of books, news articles, film documentaries, academic papers and conferences about the substance have seen the light of day. Add to that numerous artistic expressions – artworks, designs, films – that feature references to acid. It is simply fair to say that interest in LSD has been huge. However, most of it took place in (or is focusing on) the twentieth century. One may even get the impression that acid is a historical phenomenon that barely exists today. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the past 15 years have seen many important developments in connection with …show more content…
Had I been born in another time and place, my encounter with Hofmann’s potion – had it happened at all – would have been completely different. It should also be said that my perspective as a writer is that of a white male in his early forties living in Sweden, which of course has influenced my approach to writing the article. When discussing LSD culture, one should keep in mind that it is a global, multifaceted and loosely connected movement, and few, if any, psychedelic researchers can claim to know the full story of what has happened during the past decade and a half. Yet what follows is an attempt at outlining some of LSD’s recent underground as well as above ground use. At the turn of the new millennium the future looked somewhat bleak for LSD. In his book Albion Dreaming, UK acid historian Andy Roberts says that during this time public interest in LSD was at an all time low, and that LSD appeared to be yesterday’s drug.[1] Indeed, there was a major drop in availability of underground acid in the early twenty-first century, at least in the States, where there was a substantial decrease in LSD related emergency room visits.[2] In addition, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s testing of suspected LSD dropped dramatically in the early