LSD was secretly poured into the coffee of doctors in Zurich

At 8 a.m. Werner A. Stoll swallows a liquid. It is colorless and tasteless. Nothing indicates what the substance will do to Stoll’s mind twenty minutes later.

That morning he barricaded himself in a treatment room with a work colleague, they darkened the room, and Stoll took the substance. It’s called lysergic acid diethylamide. Abbreviated: LSD. It’s a historic moment.

The year is 1947. Stoll, 32 years old, is an assistant doctor at the Psychiatric University Clinic Burgholzli in Zurich and his self-experiment is the start of the world’s first clinical study with LSD.

Stoll’s self-experiment

Twenty minutes after taking the substance, Stoll’s arms and legs become heavy. He has trouble controlling the movements. Blood pressure drops, Stoll feels unwell. He walks up and down the room with long strides. He sees images of Christ’s crucifixion; a ship being sucked into a whirlpool. Then he imagines hideous cheap lamp decorations and sofa cushions. The images change faster: grimaces, Indian idols, a stick figure.

Stoll is euphoric. Later he wrote in his notebook: “When the experimenter emphasized my great imagination, the richness of my information, I only smiled pityingly. I knew I could only fixate, let alone name, a fraction of the images.” His condition worsens.

Stoll shivers, he feels neglected, unshaven, unwashed. He perches on a high chair and thinks he’s sitting there like a bird on a perch. The colleague noted in the report: “The test subject looks bad.”

The attempt is aborted. Stoll is sweating and feels exhausted. He later recalled: «I was grateful that I didn’t have to go to the canteen for lunch. The lab technician who brought us the food seemed small and distant, with a strange gracefulness.’ Stoll eats without an appetite, although the schnitzel he is served seems tasty.

In the afternoon, Stoll still finds it difficult to concentrate. He is depressed and contemplating suicide. In the evening the mood changes. On the way home, Stoll is suddenly euphoric. At home he notes: “I was tempted to try again.”

Accidentally on an LSD trip

The fact that Werner Stoll, of all people, was given the task of conducting the first clinical study with LSD 75 years ago has something to do with his father. At the time, Arthur Stoll was head of research at the Basel chemical company Sandoz and the boss of Albert Hofmann, the man who discovered the mind-altering effects of LSD in 1943.

The three men agreed at the time: LSD is special. In a letter to his father, Hofmann describes it as a “fantastic”. Never before has a substance been described that affects the human brain in such a small amount. A few micrograms are enough. However, the three men only realized the real significance of the discovery of LSD years later.

The history of LSD begins with a coincidence – or perhaps better said: with a carelessness. Chemist Albert Hofmann experienced the mind-altering potential of LSD firsthand. The then 37-year-old produced LSD in a Sandoz laboratory with the aim of developing a circulatory stimulant. It’s a Friday in April 1943 and Hofmann isn’t paying attention, perhaps his thoughts are already on the weekend.

He doesn’t realize he’s coming into contact with the substance. In the afternoon he gets dizzy and goes home. Hofmann went to bed and experienced an “intoxicated state”, as he later wrote in a report to his superior Stoll. Hofmann suspects that his condition must have something to do with the substance he was working with on Friday. On the following Monday he dared to try it on himself.

At 4:20 p.m. he swallows 0.25 milligrams of LSD. At 5 p.m. he gets dizzy, has blurred vision, paralysis. Then a fit of laughter. He asks his assistant to accompany him home. The two ride their bikes. Hofmann later noted: “Everything in my field of vision was swaying and distorted like in a curved mirror. I also had the feeling that I couldn’t get anywhere on my bike. However, my assistant told me later that we had driven very fast.’ Hofmann feels as if a demon has entered him. He sees spraying fountains of paint and grim grimaces. He falls asleep in his bed at home.

The next day he sends his boss Stoll a report. The latter calls him immediately: “Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake when weighing in, Mr. Hofmann? Is the specified dosage correct?» The doubts are justified, since at that time no substance was known that had any effect on the psyche in such a low dose. But Hofmann is sure.

In the same year, the pharmaceutical company Sandoz patents the process for the production of LSD. Hofmann would like to continue researching, but it is war and he is drafted into the army. Stationed near Bellinzona, he can’t stop thinking about research. So he tries again on himself. During his service in Ticino in 1943, he took LSD once at dinner with his comrades. Another time after a coffee and a glass of grogg. Although he has nightmares at night, he wants to research LSD further as soon as possible.

In a letter to his boss Stoll, he suggested “having LSD clinically examined without waiting for further results from animal experiments”. And further: “Personally, I would be happy if you could interest your son in pursuing the problem.” Since this was also drafted, it was not until after the war that Stoll junior started the clinical study at the Burgholzli.

After the preliminary tests on his own body, Stoll examined the effects of LSD on sixteen healthy people and six schizophrenic patients. The normal people are primarily residents at the Burgholzli. They also include the later CVP cantonal and national councilor Gion Condrau.

Two years later, Condrau became the first doctor to administer LSD to depressed patients in the hope that it would produce a euphoric effect. In fact, he then finds that LSD tends to lead to an increase in the mood that is present.

In his book “LSD – my problem child”, Hofmann wrote in 1979: “The danger of triggering a psychotic reaction is particularly great if LSD is administered to someone without their knowledge.” Hofmann writes the lines because he knows what happened at Burgholzli.

In order to avoid auto-suggestion, in 1947 some healthy people at the Burgholzli were secretly mixed with LSD in their morning coffee. Since the substance is tasteless and colorless, the ignorant test persons do not notice it. You drink the coffee as usual and half an hour later find yourself on a trip.

A young doctor who has had LSD secretly poured into his coffee then feels the urge to throw himself into Lake Zurich. At minus 20 degrees. He had to be prevented from doing so by force, writes Hofmann. In his book he also points out the downsides of LSD consumption. “Horror visions, fear of death or the fear of being or becoming insane could lead to menacing mental breakdowns and suicide. Here the LSD journey becomes a horror trip.»

Whether the patients, in contrast to individual residents, were informed that they were being administered LSD is not entirely clear. Stoll writes in his report: “The condition was also the consent of the patients and their relatives, both of whom were informed about the new drug.” However, a letter from his father to the manager at Sandoz casts doubt on this version. Stoll wrote: «The attempt is disguised as a new shock procedure. For the time being, it should not be discussed with colleagues either.”

Decline and Renaissance of LSD

At the end of the clinical study, Stoll has more questions than answers. He writes in a report: “According to our experience, the question of a therapeutic effect of LSD cannot yet be assessed.” He suggests doing more experiments. And with the clinical study, he aroused the interest of scientists all over the world. Many of them believe that LSD gives psychiatrists the opportunity to experience the symptoms of the patients themselves and thus to better understand them.

Demand from researchers and physicians for LSD is increasing. From 1950, Sandoz sold the substance worldwide under the brand name “Delysid”. But the euphoria in the Basel group lasted only a few years. The raving headlines are soon followed by negative newspaper reports. There is talk of secret services using LSD for brainwashing. At the same time, the substance was abused as a drug, first in the USA and then in other countries.

The Sandoz name is suffering from the reports. And so, in 1966, the company decided not to sell Delysid anymore. Two years later, Switzerland issued a partial ban on LSD. At the request of the USA, the WHO obtains a worldwide ban. Hofman is disappointed. He never expected that LSD could be abused as an intoxicant.

The turning point came shortly before Hofmann’s death in 2008. In 2007, the Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser received an exemption for an LSD study with patients. It is the beginning of the renaissance of LSD in science. Today, research groups in Zurich, Basel and London are studying the active ingredient LSD. In a few years, an LSD drug for the treatment of anxiety disorders will come onto the market.

further reading
Albert Hoffman: “LSD – my problem child” (1979).
Magaly Tornay: “Access to the ego – psychoactive substances and personal concepts in Switzerland, 1945 to 1980” (2016).
Beat Bachi: «LSD in the country» (2020).
Werner A. Stoll: “Lysergic acid diethylamide, a fantastic from the ergot group” (1947).