Hi Georg,
Yes, LSD had an effect on an entire generation! Timothy Leary had a major influence too. I'm surprised there wasn't worse brain damage than was obvious in the people that jumped out of windows being chased by electric rabbits or leapt into space believing they were travelling in a space time purple vortex to Nirvana. Anyway, a lot of people survive electric shock therapy and some it helps. Same maybe with LSD. However, on the whole I think it was damaging for the troubled already unbalanced folk who needed different ways of getting relief and escape for bewilderment, social numbness and boredom. I don't know the science well, but I imagine that those successful well directed guys were able to deal with the bolt of chemistry and come back fairly unscathed.
However, for some it was really a one way ticket and the return ticket didn't cover the whole journey back.
Asher
Hey Asher,
All true, and there is more to learn in the context of LSD induced Soldiers and the CIA experiments in Nam. I personally know some chaps who were in Nam and active in Intelligence Special Ops. I spoke with many of them when I lived in the US in deed.
As for the science, the lysergic acid diethylamid research is probably our earliest understanding of neurochemistry. As usual, there is no such thing as a wonderdrug, never will be.
However a polictically induced social stigma on psychotropic substances is not what is needed either. It is well known that certain elements of steroid alcaloids can have many beneficial medicinal pruposes. Think about side effects of chemotherapy, just for an example, I knew doctors who (against the law) organised joints for their patients on a regular basis as it helped them to ease the known side effects considerably.
Taking drugs for recreational purposes is always risky of course, and I intend to believe this is more than likely a matter of pre disposition. If a person is dealing with severe mental instability of any kind, or is in difficult life circumstances, such as Nam, the chances that they will suffer severe psychotic accelerations are big, and of course, some of them never came back or are damaged for a life time.
Having said that, it needs not the intake of LSD to become damaged for life! War on it's own is usually enough!
