Which individual exerted the biggest influence on underground culture in the 20th century? I'll give you some clues as to my suggestion: he's Swiss, a scientist, the average man on the street hasn't heard of him, and he died yesterday at the ripe old age of 102.
Albert Hofmann (1906 - 2008) was a chemical pioneer whose place in history has been assured as the inventor - or rather, synthesiser - of lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD or acid. After accidentally ingesting some of the substance in his laboratory in 1938, Hofmann unlocked the hallucinatory powers of this drug that he called "medicine for the soul". A true scientist, he re-checked his findings three days later by taking a heroic dose just before his bicycle ride home. What a dude. More...
See also: The weed issue: How Europe deals with marijuana...
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