Does LSD cause birth defects?
Dear Cecil: During the 1960s, much was made of the impact of hallucinogenic drugs, notably LSD, on the genetic makeup of human beings. It was suggested that these drugs would cause users to subsequently produce deformed offspring. Now that the drug-abusing youngsters of the 60s have matured and presumably procreated on a wholesale basis, one might conclude that a good statistical population exists to test this horrifying theory. But little now is heard of the genetic effects of drug use. Is there, and was there ever, any truth to the allegations? — Anthony B., Chicago Cecil replies: Put your drug-sodden mind at ease, Tonio–the notion that acid causes birth defects was thoroughly discredited years ago. The controversy started in 1967 when New York geneticist Maimon Cohen published a paper claiming he’d found an unusually high number of broken chromosomes in a 57-year-old man who’d been given LSD as part of a hospital therapy. Cohen also found that human cells dosed with LSD in a test t
