The United States Drug Enforcement Agency, the DEA, classifies LSD as Schedule I controlled substance. Schedule I controlled substances are considered the most dangerous drugs in the known pharmacopeia. LSD shares its Schedule I classification with harmful substances like heroin and MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy. Drugs classified as Schedule I substances have no known or no established medical uses but have a high potential for abuse and harm. Therefore, in the interests of public safety the Drug Enforcement Agency strictly prohibits the manufacture and distribution of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide-25). The drug was first synthesized in 1938 and was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in the late 1960s.
             In 1938 a Swiss chemist named Albert Hoffman synthesized over two dozen compounds from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye grass. Hoffman developed ergot-derived alkaloid molecules for therapeutic purposes working for the Sandoz Corporation pharmaceutical laboratory. Grof notes that the ergot alkaloids were studies as "drugs that can induce uterine contractions, stop gynecological bleeding, and relieve migraine headache." The 25th in a string of ergot alkaloids was what is commonly known now as LSD. Hoffman accidentally came into contact with the substance. The chemist experienced a profound transformation to his perceptual, cognitive, and emotional states and recorded his experiences in a journal. Grof cites Hoffman, who was "seized by a peculiar restlessness," like a "a kind of drunkenness... which was characterized by extreme activity of the imagination." The following day Hoffman deliberately ingested 250 micrograms of the same substance in an experimental fashion and experienced a far more intense hallucinatory experience (Grof).
             Hoffman's phantasmagoric experiences with LSD have been echoed by countless of recreational drug users who have viewed the hallucinogen as anything fro...