Good Night, Dr. Hoffman

Ah kiddies! what a lot can be encompassed in 100 years. So many things invented, explored, examined, envisioned and revised. I read in the news that Dr. Albert Hofmann has just passed on from his home in Switzerland on to whatever else comes next. As the inventor of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide  (more commonly known as LSD) Dr. Albert was no stranger to the strange. His chemical explorations were never meant as a party snack or as a toy for bored children; and the opportunities for inner exploration and growth that some psychiatrists and therapists have used with great success have yet to be as fully explored by scientists who are not in government employ.

Actor Cary Grant wrote very eloquently about the personal growth and insights he found under guided therapeutic use. He was outspoken in his support of psychiatric therapy and how it affected his ability to perceive, remember, understand feelings and make choices.  This was at a time when anything to do with “mental” was VERY out-of-popular-fashion. Senator Robert Kennedy Jr. successfully put LSD and other substances under government control and stopped its legal study…except for use as a weapon. That part didn’t go very well, either.

Whether it is “ultimately” right or wrong for an individual to choose to take psychotropic or psychedelic drugs, it is VERY WRONG to dose anyone with ANY drugs without their knowledge. Even if you  ARE in the employ of the government. Even if THEY are in the employ of the government. That’s not an ethical way to do science or medicine or governing. Knowledge and choice are very powerful things…and that’s a big reason that despots of all sorts like to keep those things on a very short leash.