Given its psychoactive properties, it has been reported to be consumed as a recreational drug, and the purported first confirmed detection of the substance on the illicit market occurred in April 2016.

[3][4] ALD-52 was initially synthesized in 1957 by Albert Hofmann, who is accredited as the first individual to have synthesised LSD, a chemical analogue of ALD-52.

[3] In Entry 26 of his compendium TiHKAL, which discussed LSD, chemist Alexander Shulgin touched briefly on the subject of ALD-52.

One account found that there was less visual distortion than with LSD and it seemed to produce less anxiety and tenseness and that it was somewhat less potent.

Ron Stark managed several LSD labs in Europe and most of his output was tableted and sold as Orange Sunshine.

The Orange Sunshine variety of LSD that was widely available in California through 1968 and 1969 was produced in the Sonoma County underground chemistry lab of Tim Scully and Nicholas Sand.

Although it is not officially scheduled, it is controlled as an LSD structural analog due to an amendment made on June 1, 2015.

ALD-52 is a class A controlled drug, and is illegal to traffic, manufacture, import, export, possess, or consume in Singapore as of December 1, 2019, punishable with a minimum of five years' imprisonment and five strokes of the cane.

[15] The UK Home office accepted this advice and announced a ban of the substance to be enacted on 6 January 2015 as part of The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) (No.