From Wikipedia

The Beyond Within

Part Two

LSD was introduced into the United States in 1948. Sandoz Laboratories distributed LSD to physicians and researchers, but never marketed LSD. In psychiatry, the use of LSD by students was an accepted practice; it was viewed as a teaching tool in an attempt to enable the psychiatrist to subjectively understand schizophrenia. It also showed great promise as a facilitating agent in psychedelic psychotherapy. In one study in the late 1950s, Dr Humphry Osmond gave LSD to alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous who had failed to quit drinking. After one year, around 50% of the study group had not had a drink — a success rate that has never been duplicated by any other means.

In the United Kingdom the use of LSD was pioneered by Dr Ronald Sandison in 1952, at Powick Hospital, Worcestershire. A special LSD unit was set up in 1958. After Dr Sandison left the hospital in 1964, medical superintendent Dr Justin Johanson took over and used the drug until he retired in 1972. In all, 683 patients were treated with LSD in 13,785 separate sessions at Powick, but Dr Spencer was the last member of the medical staff to use it.

From the late 1940s through the mid-1970s, extensive research and testing was conducted on LSD. During a 15-year period beginning in 1950, research on LSD and other hallucinogens generated over 1000 scientific papers, several dozen books, and 6 international conferences, and LSD was prescribed as treatment to over 40,000 patients. Film star Cary Grant was one of many men during the '50s and '60s who were given LSD in concert with psychotherapy. Many psychiatrists began taking the drug recreationally and sharing it with friends. Dr. Leary's experiments (see Timothy Leary below) spread LSD usage to a much wider segment of the general populace.

Sandoz halted LSD production in August 1965 after growing governmental protests at its proliferation among the general populace. The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States distributed LSD on a limited basis for scientific research. Scientific study of LSD largely ceased circa 1980 as research funding declined, and governments became wary of permitting such research, fearing that the results of the research might encourage illicit LSD use. By the end of the century there were few authorized researchers left, and their efforts were mostly directed towards establishing approved protocols for further work with LSD in easing the suffering of the dying (See thanatotherapy) and with drug addicts and alcoholics.