What Happened to Acid of the 60's?

[Wildest Bill]

I was having a conversation with some friends this last weekend and we were talking about the different things that were popular in the different decades.

Well the 60s came up and acid and pot use were definetely a big part of the 60s. So we started wondering what happened to acid use after that. I mean pot is still used today but you never hear anything about LSD or mushrooms anymore.

Why? Is it because drugs like cocaine and crack got real popular? Or are people to busy these days to trip out 8 hours anymore or what?

Anyway, I told my friends about you guys and how y'all had answers for everything and that y'all could get to the real reason. SO DON'T LET ME DOWN! :D

[Ivar]

Actually, I still know where to get acid and shrooms, and I haven't been friends with any druggies in a long time. It seems to me to be just as prevalent as always. Not as prevalent as doobie, but still there, just under the surface.
On another note, Ecstasy has made major inroads and seems to be much more popular than the others, and surely has taken away some potential consumers who like Ecstasy's "mixture of speed and acid effect" all in one little pill.

[Arjuna34]

You can order LSD on the web from Sigma (http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/saws.nsf/home?openframeset), reasonably priced at $46.40 for 1 mg (enough for 10 "tabs". Of course, there's a small amount of paperwork to fill in for the DEA before they'll ship it ;)

The LSD MSDS (http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_data_sheet.shtml) is pretty interesting ....

Arjuna34

[bdgr]

Originally posted by Wildest Bill
I was having a conversation with some friends this last weekend and we were talking about the different things that were popular in the different decades.

Well the 60s came up and acid and pot use were definetely a big part of the 60s. So we started wondering what happened to acid use after that. I mean pot is still used today but you never hear anything about LSD or mushrooms anymore.

Why? Is it because drugs like cocaine and crack got real popular? Or are people to busy these days to trip out 8 hours anymore or what?

Anyway, I told my friends about you guys and how y'all had answers for everything and that y'all could get to the real reason. SO DON'T LET ME DOWN! :D

Well, the chems used to make it are a lot harder to get today. Most of what you get on the street is not really LSD, but rat poison. Same general effect, but will kill you eventually. The folk I have spoken with in Law enforcement and the drug councilors I know say that almost never do you see real LSD anymore, and since most of the people who are using it have never had the real thing, they don't know the differance. If I was so inclined to do that sort of thing(I'm not), I wouldn't take anything that I didn't know the chemist personally. Shrooms are probably a better option, but I don't really know anything about those.

[Wildest Bill]

I never said I want to do acid or anything. I just wanted to get back to my friends why it(acid) went away that is all. Man, I need to keep every brain cell I got. ;)

[ScoobyTX]

Originally posted by bdgr
Well, the chems used to make it are a lot harder to get today. Most of what you get on the street is not really LSD, but rat poison. Same general effect, but will kill you eventually. The folk I have spoken with in Law enforcement and the drug councilors I know say that almost never do you see real LSD anymore, and since most of the people who are using it have never had the real thing, they don't know the differance.

I wouldn't trust a cop or a drug counsellor on the subject. They have an agenda to maintain. There is still honest-to-goodness LSD out there, but for the most part, the "standard" hit is about 1/4 to 1/2 as potent as in the '60s.

[Road Rash]

Mushrooms can still be had. Just go out to a field and pull them off the cow patties after it rains. Tried it about 4 times in my life. Twice I got off; twice I felt nothing. I saw a couple of people do a lot and they got stupider and stupider. I pass on it now. Drug experimentation among most people sharply declines with age and pressure from reality makes most people more in need of alertness.

[bdgr]

Originally posted by TXLonghorn
Originally posted by bdgr
Well, the chems used to make it are a lot harder to get today. Most of what you get on the street is not really LSD, but rat poison. Same general effect, but will kill you eventually. The folk I have spoken with in Law enforcement and the drug councilors I know say that almost never do you see real LSD anymore, and since most of the people who are using it have never had the real thing, they don't know the differance.

I wouldn't trust a cop or a drug counsellor on the subject. They have an agenda to maintain. There is still honest-to-goodness LSD out there, but for the most part, the "standard" hit is about 1/4 to 1/2 as potent as in the '60s.

These were close friends of mine, the cop was even into shrooms himself, so I doubt he had anything against it really. I used to have a friend who supposedly had a source for the real thing, but that was a decade or so back.

[King Rat]

No thread about LSD would be complete without mentioning Augustus Stanley Owsley III. http://thebear.org
Putting his mane into google will get you all the info about acid you could ever want. As to its availability (on the street), I don't know. I've been told that the illicit sources of acid are shrouded in greater secrecy than any other drug.

[Killuminati]

Well, the chems used to make it are a lot harder to get today. Most of what you get on the street is not really LSD, but rat poison. Same general effect, but will kill you eventually. The folk I have spoken with in Law enforcement and the drug councilors I know say that almost never do you see real LSD anymore, and since most of the people who are using it have never had the real thing, they don't know the differance. If I was so inclined to do that sort of thing(I'm not), I wouldn't take anything that I didn't know the chemist personally. Shrooms are probably a better option, but I don't really know anything about those.

That is the most absurd thing I've heard. There are too many rumors and myths going around about acid. First, there was a myth about strychnine in acid. Now rat poison?? Rat poison has the same general effect as acid?? I need to get me some of that.

I live in Mississippi and acid is very hard to find. It comes around every once in a while but it is soon gone. There are a lot of shrooms here though.

[Badtz Maru]

In Dallas, TX it's pretty readily available, $5 to $8 a hit, usually blotter or sugar cubes though I know someone who buys it by the vial. I'm not into it as you have to make sure you have 8 hours free and someone around to make sure you don't get too whacky, but it's a hell of a deal. I know a lot of people who don't like it's aftereffects, but it's never given me any kind of hangover, it just takes too long to come down.

[adam420]

First of all... there is Acid to be had out on the streets nowadays.

Acid, LSD, or more technically lysergic acid diethylamide (acid = saure in German, hence LSD), chemical name : 9,10-Didehydro-N,N-diethyl-6-methylergoline-8ß-carboxamide, chemical formula : C20H25N3O, appears to be on the street.

According to http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_info5.shtml there are few active analogs of LSD that are likely to be widely seen on the street. I know of several people who can consistently obtain LSD, usually in the form of small pieces of blotter paper impregnated with a small amount of the drug.

( A size comparison showing the size of an average LSD blotter is available here : http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/show_image.php3?image=images/archive/pill_dimensions1.jpg )


LSD is an incredibly complex organic molecule whose synthesis ( http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal26.shtml ) is quite difficult and requires several years background in organic chemistry, a professional quality synthesis laboratory, as well as a quantity of precursor chemicals whose sale is closely monitored by the DEA.

As such, the DEA ( http://www.dea.gov/concern/lsd.htm ) has presented the the following information about the underground LSD market in America. (I hope this isn't quoting too much)

"Much of the LSD manufactured in clandestine laboratories is believed to be located in Northern California, and initial distribution sources for the drug are typically located in the San Francisco Bay area. A limited number of chemists, probably fewer than a dozen, are believed to be manufacturing nearly all of the LSD available in the United States. LSD is available in at least retail quantities in virtually every state, with supply increasing in some states. Retail-level distribution often takes place during concerts and all-night raves. Users usually obtain LSD from friends and acquaintances."

Also, I would like to point out some things about many drug myths about the quality of street drugs...

<hysterical anti-drug-war-propaganda mode>

LSD bought on the street contains such a small quantity of material (generally 5-7 mg _including_ the paper in an average square of blotter paper) thus it is _virtually impossible_ to adulterate LSD blotter. LSD is active in the range of 100 micrograms, one of very few molecules active in such miniscule doses. LSD blotter contains either LSD or _nothing_.

<slight hijack>

Furthermore, (now that i have a rant going), PCP is never embalming fluid. While it is highly unsafe, of varying quality (as it can possibly a number of dangerous chemical relatives of PCP), highly stupid, insanity producing, etc, PCP is _never_ embalming fluid or formaldehyde. This is a mixup in terminology, as slang for liquid PCP used to be "embalming fluid." Actual embalming fluid is highly toxic and would kill the users, which would mean they would not be able to buy more PCP.

Furthermore, marijuana is never laced with crack or heroin. This would cost far more, and would not be profitable to sell, you would be told if marijuana you tried to buy had heroin. Marijuana may be laced with PCP as well (or oregano or tobacco as well) but will most likely have a characteristic chemical smell if this is so.

However, I don't want to imply at all that street drugs are at all safe. People have mistakenly taken PMA, an non-psychoactive, dangerous analog of MDMA (ecstasy) and _died_. Furthermore, no matter how reliable the source for an illegal drug is, it's contents are _unknown_ and could be *anything*. I don't advocate the use of illegal drugs at all, only education about them.

</slight hijack>

</hysterical anti-drug-war-propaganda mode>

adam

[bdgr]

Originally posted by Killuminati
Well, the chems used to make it are a lot harder to get today. Most of what you get on the street is not really LSD, but rat poison. Same general effect, but will kill you eventually. The folk I have spoken with in Law enforcement and the drug councilors I know say that almost never do you see real LSD anymore, and since most of the people who are using it have never had the real thing, they don't know the differance. If I was so inclined to do that sort of thing(I'm not), I wouldn't take anything that I didn't know the chemist personally. Shrooms are probably a better option, but I don't really know anything about those.

That is the most absurd thing I've heard. There are too many rumors and myths going around about acid. First, there was a myth about strychnine in acid. Now rat poison?? Rat poison has the same general effect as acid?? I need to get me some of that.

I live in Mississippi and acid is very hard to find. It comes around every once in a while but it is soon gone. There are a lot of shrooms here though.


Dont know how absurd, but could be inacurate...I don't know. I am not a chemist, or an expert of any kind on the subject. btw strychnine=rat poison. What I posted, is information given to me by people I trust to know what they are talking about, and who are generally honest (at least with me). It is generally a source of amusement to folks in law enforcement, new generation wannabe hippies taking the shit and thinking they are getting acid. maybe they are wrong, maybe the ladc I used to talk to at the hospital I worked at was mistaken....Personally I trust him, but then again I have no desire to try the stuff anyway, so it doesnt bother me. what they told me was that most of the LSD confiscated in the Fort Worth/Dallas area was not LSD at all. take it for what its worth.

[VarlosZ]

To repeat what others have said. . .

Acid is still widely used, though is considerably less popular than alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, and now ecstasy. Took me about a week of asking around on campus to find some for mom & me. As best I can tell, availability fluctuates wildly.

Price: usually $5-$6 per hit, though the average modern dose is several times less potent than it was during the 60's.

[Tzel]

I'll just weigh in with others that have said that it's definitely around. If you don't "hear about it," you're just not hanging around with the right people. I hear about acid available pretty often. And let me tell you, if the acid I've taken is rat poison, I should get ahold of some rat poison. If strychnine had effects even comparable to acid, it would have become known, and people would take to eating strychnine to trip. That "confiscated acid" would have one name among users: "bunk." No one would be fooled. It could just be that the fake peddlers are more inept and likely to be caught.

[Badtz Maru]

I heard strychnine can cause tracers, which MIGHT trick an idiot who has never done acid into thinking he is tripping.

But strychnine is not used in rat poison. Rat poison uses:

warfarin
2-pivaloyl-1,3-indandione
2-iso-valeryl-1,3-indandione
difenacoum
chlorophacinone
coumachlor
diphacinane
brodifacaum

Warfarin is the most common ingredient. Quit spreading urban legends here, please, we FIGHT ignorance at SDMB.

[oldscratch]

Uh bdgr that's crap. Rat Poison could not be mistaken for acid. Whoever told you that was either incredibly stupid, or pulling your leg. Acid is generally readily available still, and still widely used.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get any for a while. Just shroom pills.

[Sue Duhnym]

Originally posted by adam420
"Much of the LSD manufactured in clandestine laboratories is believed to be located in Northern California, and initial distribution sources for the drug are typically located in the San Francisco Bay area.

Not that I'VE seen, DAMMIT!!!!

BTW, zen101 gives a pretty good explanation of the state of acid today in this thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45056

[Sofa King]

zen101 really hits the nail on the head, there. I find that poster's explanation to be plausible; it correlates exactly with the experiences I had and which led me to eventually swear off my most favored of recreational drugs.

I am convinced that the commonly available "acid" of today is either not LSD at all or, as zen101 suggests, is highly diluted and combined with other substances. I quit doing the stuff because starting in the early to mid 1990s, I noticed a distinct change in the effects of the drug on me. At first I thought it was a result of my getting older and reacting differently to the drug, but a chance encounter with the real thing convinced me that this was not the case.

The LSD that I knew and loved did not induce +100 bpm heartrates. It did induce stunningly vivid visual and auditory hallucinations. Of my last half-dozen experiences, only once did I take something that met those criteria. That's not a winning percentage, so I'm outa that crap shoot. I suspect that there are a lot of other purists like me who no longer trust the stuff, or the people who sell it.

[MaryJane]

Oh, it's definitely around alright. My son can get it, which worried the hell of me at first. I did a fair bit of it in the '60's and finally decided that it was psychic abuse and stopped. But today acid and pot have traded places in terms of potency. Acid in the sixties could be some hellish ride that took days to straighten out but the pot was bunk. Now it's opposite. Much of the pot nowadays is strictly wheel-chair material.

But, I still had to rag on at my son (20 yrs old) that acid is, in all probability, nasty stuff. Anything that was researched and developed by the CIA for use in experimental mind control programs, in all likelihood doesn't have your best interests at heart.

As an aside, that rat poison reference. Back in 1968 a group of us inadvertently scored some bad acid. Turned out it was bella donna - which is an Old World poisonous plant.
The rumour on the beach was to stay away from that guy selling acid...it's really rat poison. Maybe that was just the beginning of some of us hippies' urban myths.

[zen101]

did someone mention LSD? :)

on the OP, If you really do a lot of reading on the whole counterculture movement there was a heavy amount of introspection and such right at the heart. LSD is a very introspective drug in many ways (again refer to Huxley "Doors of Perception") and lets face it, people just are not that actively introspective these days. The 60's (actually the era lasting from 64' to 76' or so) were a time of looking inward, then you had the 80's (post disco) where you were not looking inward or outward but looking into mirrors and at people to see how they were looking at you (accumulation of wealth or the outward signs of wealth) the 90's (Grunge decade) was a good attempt at throwing off the 80's but never really got to the movement feeling of the 60's (more of a pissed off at your paren'ts for selling out era than anything else) and now we have the 00's (love the name) I have no clue what this ear is going to be like.

Pot is still going strong mainly because while it may have gotten better over tha past 30 years, it still is not an all consuming thing the way that LSD is or was and therefore it is more of a side dish. LSD is so mucking powerful in and of itself that you have to really desire it specifically and all the baggage that comes with it. Pot being more benign can be had with most any experience as a sort of an aside.

Personal LSD update: I bought a vial of about 80 drops a week or so after that last thread fizzled out and only managed to get really great visuals after doing over 5 "hits". The physical side of that was so disconcerting that I got queasy and had motion sickness to a small degree (did not uke). Dropped about 9 "hits" three weeks back and watched "The Cell" (ok, bad idea) and I am in no hurry to drop again in the near future. Still have half a vial in the freezer and have been sharing liberally with friends (doling out much smaller doese than I use myself). All in all this is just not the same stuff that I used to really enjoy. It takes huge amounts to "get off" visually and those same amounts have really negative physical impact (I guess if you are a person who likes to feel like you are on a roller coaster then you would like it). I will probably wait another month or two before riding it again mainly because I'm a bit cynical about experience and do admit that when there is something that you can only get by wading through a mess of hell to get it if you still want it knowing that then it is worth it, but for most of you I would advise REM sleep and leave off on the search for "real" hallucenogens. I would do the same but I lost my ability for lucid dreaming after my last concussion and therefore this is as close to godhead as I can get anymore.

pax

[Tzel]

Originally posted by Wildest Bill
I never said I want to do acid or anything. I just wanted to get back to my friends why it(acid) went away that is all.

Short answer: It didn't. Less short answer: There's a lot of shitty acid and non-acid around.

[Johanna]

LOL I see one thing hasn't changed since the 60s. The rumors about street acid are still flying around. Remember Woodstock? "Hey guys, watch out for that brown acid...."

[Crack'dOff]

Originally posted by oldscratch
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get any for a while. Just shroom pills.


Just to clarify things, 'a while' in oldscratch time is about 3 weeks. One and one half of which he was driving across the country with rasa.

Do drugs affect one's sense of time??? Nahhhh....not a bit! ;)

[handy]

mushrooms?

Sure, my friend got a book on which ones make you high with pictures of course, went to a local school & found them growing there & got herself a jar of them. Spiffy.

LSD? Sure, its still around. Not very potent but the laws for possession of it are extreme now, really not worth it.

[Scupper]

FWIW, I'll add my voice to the "LSD has Strichnyne in it" = BS chorus.

I have read in multiple sources that this is an urban legend (most notably in Erowid's Psychoactive Vault http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/psychoactives.shtml).

Personally, I did my share of acid and shrooms in college (graduated in '93), so it was certainly available then. I don't have an earlier benchmark to gauge the effects, but I generally had a fine time with one or two hits of acid. Visual and audio hallucinations, the whole bit. Shrooms were much less pleasant and had a higher "bad trip" average for me.

Ecstacy really ended my drug days. Whereas acid was pretty much acid (it is so cheap there's no profit in substituting anything else except maybe nothing at all), speed was quite often sold as ecstacy. Expecting a nice touchy-feely X trip and getting three days of teeth-grinding speed heebie-jeebies is a real turn-off.

[jmullaney]

Originally posted by Sue Duhnym
Not that I'VE seen, [b]DAMMIT!!!!
I you walk up and down the Haight often enough (well, the last few blocks of course) you might find someone slinging it.

Dallas is another major manufacturing hub, BTW.

[jmullaney]

Oh, heck -- that should not have been bold. Here come the fuzz...

Originally posted by MaryJane
Turned out it was bella donna - which is an Old World poisonous plant.

That actually grows wild in San Francisco but is very very dangerous.

[elucidator]

What I tell my kid, and any other youngster I can force to listen:

If you can't get there behind a six pack of beer and a couple of fat doobs, don't go.

I prefer a drug that will sit around and visit for a while, and then go away. Acid is cool for about an hour, and tiresome for another four or five. Patterns, uh huh. Wall breathing. Yep. Wish I could read.

Ecstasty is nothing new, first surfaced as MDA (we were totally stuck on three letter names for stuff) and is a checmical analog that somewhat combines mescaline and methamphetamine. Not bad, not great, good beat, easy to dance to, give it a 82. More or less faded away to resurface as XTC. The good shit is ok, the bad shit kills, as in dead. Being bored is a drag. Being dead is permanent.

You cannot trust a pusher, even if he is your friend, unless you friend has a PhD is psychopharmocology.

Truly organic 'shrooms are a blessing, and, along with the ubiquitous Weed, further evidence that God is a hippie.

[oldscratch]

Originally posted by jmullaney

I you walk up and down the Haight often enough (well, the last few blocks of course) you might find someone slinging it.


[Treading carefully to keep this from getting closed]


Nope. Haight is pretty much cleaned up. All tourists and GAP and Ben and Jerry's now.

[jmullaney]

Originally posted by oldscratch
Haight is pretty much cleaned up. All tourists and GAP and Ben and Jerry's now.

Since four years ago? I mean, all that was there in '96, but I knew several people who slung pot and shrooms for pocket money. Unless they finally busted the big dog since then -- and he had a low profile.

[oldscratch]

Pretty much jmullaney

I've been in Sf off and on for most of my life. I've been here solidly for the last 4 years. It's changed quite a bit. Though you can still find a fair ammount of drug dealers around Reggae in the Park and such.

[handy]

"Turned out it was bella donna - which is an Old World poisonous plant."

Actually its quite prevalent, but its called:
Amaryllis

I used to just love cold medicine made from it.