Product overview
Hoffman Trip Chrome: The Chemist Behind the Name and What Ended Up On the Paper
- Pack: Loose gram
- Category: Psychedelics
- Availability: Availability on request
Albert Hofmann, spelled with a single n, was a chemist at Sandoz in Basel. On 16 November 1938 Hofmann synthesised the twenty-fifth compound in a series of ergot alkaloid derivatives, naming it LSD-25. Hofmann was seeking to find a compound with circulatory and respiratory stimulant properties; he discovered none and shelved the compound.
What happened five years later
Hofmann returned to LSD-25 in April 1943 after accidentally absorbing a trace amount of the substance. On 19 April Hofmann took 250 micrograms of LSD-25, an amount he believed to be cautious. He cycled home from the laboratory after taking it. That ride has earned 19 April the title of Bicycle Day.
What Sandoz did with it
From 1950 the company sold it to the worldwide market under the brand name Delysid, as a substance to be used for research purposes only. For roughly fifteen years it was a legitimate psychiatric research chemical with a manufacturer, a brand and a literature.
How it reaches the market now
As paper squares, at an average of 5.90 euro each in the Dutch testing figures, making up 1.4% of everything submitted to DIMS in 2023.
The advantages people report
The EU Drugs Agency states that the most prominent feature of LSD's effects are its hallucinogenic properties. These include geometric shapes and patterns that users see with their eyes open or closed, flashes of intense colour, objects that appear to move and dissolve, synaesthesia where sounds are seen as colours, and a perception of time that appears to slow down. These effects take thirty minutes to start to be felt and can last between eight and twelve hours or longer.
Product details
- Pack type
- Loose gram
- Pack size
- Loose gram
- Article number
- SKU-9213680
- Availability
- Availability on request
- Category
- Psychedelics
Common questions
Was it invented by accident?
Not the compound, but its effects were. LSD was synthesised deliberately in 1938, but the compound itself was uninteresting. The accidental discovery was Hofmann's exposure to LSD in April 1943, after which he tested it on himself.
What is Delysid?
From 1950, Delysid, the brand name of LSD, was supplied by Sandoz to researchers around the world. This was the only period in which LSD had a legitimate commercial manufacturer.
Why 250 micrograms?
Because Hofmann had no way of knowing that the compound would be active at 20 to 50 micrograms. What he took was around five times the amount of LSD taken recreationally today.
Does the Hoffman name on a blotter mean anything?
No. It is merely a label that borrows the chemist's name, usually with two ns instead of one. It tells you nothing about the strength of the LSD on the paper, or where it came from.
