In the late 1940s LSD was introduced as a psychiatric wonder drug that could cure or alleviate numerous problems, including alcoholism, criminal behavior, depression, schizophrenia, and even the pain, anxiety, and fear associated with terminal illness. During the 1950s and early 1960s, scientific research with LSD was accepted as mainstream science, and approximately forty thousand patients received LSD as a part of their psychiatric or psychological therapy.

Over this same time period, six international conferences were held and more than one thousand scientific papers and several dozen books were written about the use of LSD in medical psychiatry.

As concerns about the dangers of LSD grew, the United States and other governments became increasingly unwilling to fund research projects involving the drug. By the 1990s, research into LSD and other hallucinogens had dwindled to almost nothing.

Now a small group of scientists...