So by the time it reaches...

[Lyra]

Nam vets are still getting the flashbacks from the illegal testing they got put through without their consent. I don't know what kind of dosages were used but still that's kind of scary.

 

[Trygon]

That's nuts! So you're working out hardcore, and you're burning off the fat, and then you have flashbacks?

Nuts.

Yep. LSD is a fascinating chemical. It's the only drug I've ever seen that WANTS into your system. You can absorb it through any contact with the drug, at all. Eating it is 100% absorption via stomach lining, an unheard of ratio. It sticks around forever. Completely fascinating how a random sequence of molecules seems custom-designed to make living creatures explore the depths of their mind.

 

[Lyra]

Its not random Try. It was developed in a laboratory for a specific purpose. It didn't fulfil that purpose but still...

 

[Trygon]

Its not random Try. It was developed in a laboratory for a specific purpose. It didn't fulfil that purpose but still...

LSD was first synthesized on November 16, 1938, by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, as part of a large research program searching for medically useful ergot alkaloid derivatives.[8] Ergot is a fungus that, by infecting cereal grains used for making rye breads, causes ergotism. After Dr. Hofmann succeeded in synthesizing ergobasine (which became the preeminent uterotonic), he began working on other amide derivatives of lysergic acid. Lysergic acid diethylamide, the 25th lysergic acid derivative Hofmann synthesised (hence the name LSD-25), was developed initially as a probable analeptic, a circulatory and respiratory stimulant, based on its structural similarity to another known analeptic, nikethamide (nicotinic acid diethylamide). However, no extraordinary benefits of the compound were identified during animal tests (though laboratory notes briefly mention that the animals became "restless" under its effects), and its study was discontinued.[9] Its psychedelic properties were unknown until five years later, when Hofmann, acting on what he has called a "peculiar presentiment," returned to work on the chemical.[9]
While re-synthesizing LSD-25 for further study on April 16, 1943, Hofmann became dizzy and was forced to stop work. In his journal, Hofmann wrote that after becoming dizzy he proceeded home and was affected by a "remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness". Hofmann stated that as he lay in his bed he sank into a not-unpleasant "intoxicated like condition" which was characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. He stated that he was in a dreamlike state, and with his eyes closed he could see uninterrupted streams of "fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors." The condition lasted about two hours after which it faded away.[10] Hofmann had attributed the psychoactive effects he experienced to accidentally absorbing a tiny amount of LSD-25 into his skin. Three days later he would take a much larger dose in order to test its effects further; this day would later be referred to as the "Bicycle Day".[2]

Thank you, Wiki.

They were operatingon a hunch when they synthesized it, literally just seeing what it would do. The thing that gets me is Dr. Hoffman's "peculiar presentiment". I'm a great believer in fate, personally, and oddities like this make me wonder.

 

[Lyra]

No they created it because they thought it would help "circulatory and respiratory" problems. They "re-synthesised" it on a hunch.

Besides, I think the experiments in 'nam were more interesting, albeit extremely fucked off.

 

[Lyra]

Sorry I said that wrong. They thought it might* help those problems based on an empirical data.