April 19 is a Big Day Every Year for People Who Love Psychedelics as its the Anniversary of a Momentous, Stoned Bicycle Ride Taken in 1943 by Albert Hofmann, the Chemist Who First Synthesized Both LSD and Psilocybin
While working for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in 1938, he had synthesized LSD from ergot, an invasive fungus that infects rye. Five years later he accidentally scratched some LSD into his skin. Intrigued by the mental changes he experienced, he purposefully ingested 250 mg of the drug a few days later; that was a whopper of a dose. Hofmann asked his lab assistant for help getting home. They both got on their bicycles, and the assistant escorted him to safety. Today on April 19 we celebrate that Hofmann made it home at all and that the psychedelic era was launched.