I Love Acid

Lots of you guys might know that tomorrow is "Marijuana Day" because the date is 4/20. But did you know that today, 4/19, is also a drug-themed holiday? April 19th is Bicycle Day, which commemorates the discovery of LSD by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in the year 1938. Hoffman was doing experiments with a type of fungus called [i]ergot[/i], which naturally contains significant quantities of LSD. He accidentally ingested trace amounts of the ergot when eating some food without washing his hands. It wasn't enough to get him high on an acid trip, but it was enough to make him feel kinda funny, and he hypothesized that the fungus might contain a psychoactive chemical.

The next day, he informed his lab assistant that he intended to purposefully eat what he theorized was the critical dosage of ergot to get him high. He told the assistant to take him home if he started acting really loopy. It turns out, Hoffman waaaaaay underestimated the critical dose, and he took too much and got totally blitzed on it.

This was happening in Switzerland during the Second World War, and gasoline was heavily restricted, meaning cars were not very common and the preferred method of transportation at that time was riding a bike. So Hoffman's lab assistant had to put him on the handlebars of his bicycle and ride him back home while he was high on acid. The day after, Hoffman recorded a journal entry about his experiences while under the influence of LSD. He had hallucinated that his neighbor was a witch, and that time had frozen completely still.

So now, 4/19 is celebrated as Bicycle Day, named after the bike ride that Hoffman and assistant took in 1938. If you've been wanting to try acid but never knew what day to take it on, well...there's your answer! Happy tripping to all those celebrating today like me.