Steve Jobs snubs LSD daddy

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Steve Jobs snubs LSD daddy

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/jobs_asked_for_acid_research_help/

What a long, cheap trip it's been

By Rik Myslewski
10th July 2009

In February of 2007, Albert Hofmann - the discoverer of LSD who died
last year at an alert 102 - sent a letter to Steve Jobs, asking for
the Apple CEO's help in funding research into psychedelic-assisted
psychotherapy.

This revelation comes from a book excerpt published today by The
Huffington Post, which also includes a facsimile of the letter itself.

Oh, and that donation that Hoffman requested? He didn't get it,
according to the excerpt, which is from This Is Your Country on
Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America.

Not that Jobs has anything against LSD - more properly known as
lysergic acid diethylamide and more commonly simply dubbed acid. In
fact, in What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture
Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, Jobs is quoted by author John
Markoff as telling him that tripping on acid was "one of the two or
three most important things he has done in his life."

He is also widely reported to have once said about Bill Gates, "He'd
be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram
when he was younger."

Jobs has - or, at minimum, had - no problem with psychedelic drugs.
What he does have is a problem with giving away money.

As we discovered in an investigation last November, neither Jobs nor
his company are known for their eleemosynary generosity. Wired's
Leander Kahney made the same observation in a 2006 article comparing
the philanthropic activities of Jobs and Bill Gates. (Summary: Gates
is better.)

So it's no surprise that Albert Hofmann felt perfectly comfortable
asking Steve Jobs for a contribution to help probe the therapeutic
properties of LSD. And it's equally no surprise that he was rebuffed.

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Published: LSD inventor's letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/09/published_lsd_inventors_letter_to_apple_ceo_steve_jobs.html

By Katie Marsal
July 9, 2009

In an offbeat but somewhat fascinating article published by the
Huffington Post this week, it's revealed that LSD inventor Albert
Hofmann penned a letter to Steve Jobs shortly before his passing, in
which he asked the Apple co-founder for help in transforming his
problematic psychedelic into a "wonderchild."

Jobs' experimentation with psychedelics as a young man is well
documented in books, movies, and media reports covering Apple's early
years. As part of his search for spiritual enlightenment during the
mid-70s, he was known to have dropped LSD, and has since recalled it
as "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life."

Aware of the positive effects in which the experience had on Jobs'
contributions to the world of technology, Hofmann -- who was an
age-defying 101 years old a the time of the letter in 2007 -- reached
out to the Apple luminary at the request of his friend Rick Doblin,
who runs MAPS, an organization dedicated to studying the medical and
psychiatric benefits of psychedelic drugs.

Once thought to be a promising psychiatric research medicine, LSD
would ultimately follow a path that would see it transform into
recreational drug sparking hysteria and prohibition. This
disheartened Hofmann, who from then on was known to refer to the drug
as his "problem child."

"I hope you will help in the transformation of my problem child into
a wonder child," Hoffman wrote in his letter to Jobs, roughly 14
months before he passed away in April of 2008. Specifically, he
request that Jobs contribute to Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser's
proposed study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety
associated with life-threatening illness -- said to be the first
LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 35 years.

According to the Post, the letter would lead to a 30-minute
conversation between Doblin and Jobs but no contribution to the
cause. "He was still thinking, 'Let's put it in the water supply and
turn everybody on,'" Doblin told the publication. Still, Doblin
hasn't given up hope that Jobs will someday decide to contribute to the study.

A copy of Hoffman's letter and more on the role of psychedelic in the
tech industry can be seen in the full report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-grim/read-the-never-before-pub_b_227887.html

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