Substance
Educational Media Reviews Online January 11, 2013 Jim Hobbs
LSD began as a medical research substance in the 1940s, but its profound psychological effects quickly became central. The film traces its rise from legal psychiatric tool in the 1950s to illegal drug of youth culture in the 1960s, then near abandonment and recent resurgence for psychotherapy. Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, who first synthesized LSD, appears in interviews describing his initial 'beautiful' experience in 1943. The CIA and Army tested LSD as a truth serum but found its effects too unpredictable. Harvard researcher Timothy Leary promoted LSD for a 'spiritual revolution,' leading to a cutoff of legal supply and an underground market. Today LSD and psilocybin are used therapeutically, including with terminally-ill patients for pain and emotional adjustment.