m a party drug to a spiritual communion. The drug, and others like it, became enormously popular during the 1960s when youth culture exploded in a drug-taking frenzy. Popular musicians and artists publicly and proudly extolled the virtues of LSD and other hallucinogens, which further encouraged and normalized their use. Especially among young people, LSD and hallucinogenic drugs became an epidemic that led to the adoption of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971. Several countries including the United States signed the convention's charter. The United States had in fact banned LSD a few years before the United Nations Convention. Unlike a few other controlled psychedelic substances that have been granted exceptions for use in religious ceremonies, LSD has neither a legitimate religious nor a medical role (DEA).
             Research into the possible therapeutic functions of LSD continued after Hoffman discovered the chemical and lasted until the United States government banned the substance. Early research distanced itself from Hoffman's claims that LSD was indicated as a "uterotonic" or as a migraine relief medication (Grof). After Hoffman, Walter Stoll carried the torch for LSD research. Stoll was also a Swiss chemist. However, Stoll believed that LSD might be an effective psychotherapeutic drug. The application of LSD to psychopharmacology led to numerous studies throughout the 1940s and
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