Happy Bicycle Day!

Today is the 80th anniversary of the first ever intentional LSD trip.

On April 19 1943, Albert Hoffman, a Swiss Chemist, deliberately ingested 250 micrograms of a molecule he had synthesised, lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25. Albert Hoffman was the first human to consume this molecule, and subsequently had the world’s first ever acid trip, changing the course of history in the process. It’s eighty years to the day since Albert Hoffman tripped balls while riding his bicycle, giving this day the colloquial name of Bicycle Day. One could only imagine how stoked he must’ve been to have discovered this beautiful new drug.

From LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hoffman:

“Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in coloured fountains, rearranging and hybridising themselves in constant flux,” he wrote. “It was particularly remarkable how every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and colour.”

He had plenty of good things to say for LSD;

“It gave me an inner joy, an open mindedness, a gratefulness, open eyes and an internal sensitivity for the miracles of creation... I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD. It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be.”

—-----------------------------------------------

From NZ Drug Foundation’s LSD: New Zealand’s LSD History:

“Lysergic acid was criminalised in NZ, on 7 July 1967, the same day TVNZ screened a documentary describing the widespread use of pure Swiss LSD (Delysid) in local therapeutic settings, especially in Dunedin and Christchurch.”

“By 1964, ‘acid tests’ in therapeutic settings were commonplace in New Zealand. Records show psychiatrists were administering ampoules of Delysid, provided free by Swiss manufacturer Sandoz [(where Albert Hoffman worked)], to scores of consenting patients. The drug appears to have been in common use across [Ōtepoti] Dunedin – at Cherry Farm, in the psychiatric department at Waikari Hospital and at Ashburn Hall”.

“The global criminalisation of LSD both demonised the drug and ended this research phase. In May 1966, Sandoz announced it would no longer supply the drug globally because of “misuse by teenagers and beatniks”. The local branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists complained that “the drug had been found useful and that it was desirable that supplies be continued”.

The war on drugs has been brutal, violent, and dangerous to people simply wanting to experience something as fantastic as what Albert Hoffman had experienced 80 years ago today. It has also held an undeniable role in exacerbating mental harm through its limitation of mental health research. Whether it’s a day of memorial, a day of happiness, or a day of riding around on a bike tripping balls, however you spend it; have a happy 80th Bicycle Day.