Fun Holidays - Bicycle Day

As humanity developed, people acquired knowledge about the world around them, developing science, technology and creating works of art A by-product of civilization was the development of synthetic drugs One of them, LSD, a chemical from the lysergamide family, was first tested by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman on April 19, 1943 The drug was based on ergot, a fungus that parasitizes cereals Lysergic acid was synthesized from it Hoffman, who used 250 mcg of the drug for research purposes, went home from the laboratory on a bicycle under the supervision of an assistant During the trip, the scientist experienced a psychedelic effect, dizziness and anxiety from taking LSD Driving at high speed felt very slow to Hoffman It seemed that the cobblestones on the pavement were crawling in all directions like beetles The houses and other objects around began to remind the chemist of paintings by Salvador Dali His experience of a bad trip, a negative psychedelic experience, became the reason for the emergence of the common expression “Bicycle Day” The scientist who arrived home was in a state of delirium, which was recorded by the arriving doctor called by the assistant The feeling of anxiety was replaced by multi-colored hallucinogenic paintings in the form of geometric shapes The sounds of the surrounding world were perceived by Hoffman in the form of optical images The next morning, the scientist's sensory sensitivity was still strong, although he felt very tired American psychiatrist Cindy Cohen spoke about the impressions of the creator of LSD on Bicycle Day in her book The beyond within: The LSD story The popularization of synthetic drugs in the United States coincided with the heyday of the era of hippies and beatniks - representatives of the generation of artistic bohemians of the 50s and 60s XX century The new social groups created and their lifestyle sucked in many young Americans, leaving the older generation in a helpless position Marijuana and LSD did not just provide “flower children” with pleasure like alcohol, but changed consciousness, having a destructive effect on the brain and central nervous system From Switzerland, the fashion for using synthetic lysergic acid produced by the SANDOZ company was brought to the United States by the then popular science fiction writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley Thanks to advertising by rock musicians and other cultural figures, the drug plague caused by the use and addiction to psychedelics has swept the entire world Representatives of authorities and public organizations in many countries of the world have been fighting the negative consequences of the invention of LSD-25 and its spread for decades After testing the synthesized ergot alkaloids on April 19, 1943, Hoffman's laboratory began sending samples to foreign colleagues, indicating that the substance temporarily caused schizophrenia Perhaps the Swiss chemist, like Andrei Sakharov, who invented the atomic bomb, did not think that the results of his scientific work would harm humanity But it happened Suicide and LSD overdose kill thousands of people around the world every year Bicycle Day reminds us of the tragedy of lost lives and everyone's personal responsibility for their actions