Dr. Albert Hoffman, a Swiss scientist best known for synthesizing LSD, died yesterday at the age of 102.

He first discovered the effects after accidentally ingesting some of the drug through his fingertips, and argued for decades that it could be an effective treatment of mental illness.

Hofmann called LSD “medicine for the soul” and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that pushed it underground. “It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis,” he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the youth movement of the 1960s and then unfairly demonized by the establishment that the movement opposed.

Here’s a great article about him, written a couple years ago, about his feeligns over what he affectionately called his “problem child”. Thats cute. Acid is like a snot-nosed kid who gets bad grades.

article via NY Times