Well?
I think the greatest risks of the drug are more of what you might do to yourself or others rather than the direct effects of the drug itself.
There is no known LD-50 for LSD (the dosage for which 50% of the participants die). If one can be sure that you have pure LSD then it is not going to kill you. Flashbacks also seem to be a myth. This is just from academic knowledge in my psychopharmacology and behavioral neuroscience programs. It has no bearing on the street where true LSD is rare and illegal makers can introduce their own problems. I have never taken it myself.
Physically, yeah, it’s safe. But if you’re not mentally stable, you might have a bad night. There are hints that when taken in combination with lithium, it can induce mania in those prone to it, although this hasn’t been proven. The dose is micrograms, but I know people who have chugged bottles (about 300 doses) of the stuff and been fine, if not a little crazy.
It’s one of the safest drugs out there, but it’s also one of the most powerful. Don’t mess with your mind unless you can handle it.
A friend of mine had his first psychotic break after taking LSD. Prior to that he was a mostly regular guy. However, due to the break he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Can a drug like LSD not cause trouble for people who may have some underlying potential to become ill?
One of the biggest problems with LSD is that it is difficult to manufacture, often leading to impurities or just downright something else. There’s no quality control testing done on it, so you better trust who ever is making it. I’m a chemist and having looked over the recipie, it wouldn’t be easy by any stretch of the imagination.
That stuff is really hard to show. The age where people would experiment with anything like that overlaps very well with the age where some serious mental illnesses arise (early 20’s). It is almost impossible to do experiments that test that although LSD and schizophrenia do focus on the same brain centers and receptors.
I dunno if it’s safe or not. I suppose there are risks because of the “street” nature of such drugs. LSD-25 was on the streets when I was <cough> of the experimenting age (mid 70’s) and never in my life have I had such an experience. I only took it once because it was extremely hard to get.
I didn’t know where it came from or who made it, such a thought never entered my stupid teenaged head. It was cheap, $2.50 a pop. I don’t even remember what the actual thing looked like (blotter possibly).
Looking back I can’t believe what a risk I took at that age.
But damn it was fun.
LSD has been touted as a possibly useful tool in psychotherapy, but it obviously has the stigma of the Furry Freak Brothers et al. The handbook in this link looks pretty interesting, but I haven’t read it, as I’m at work and shouldn’t be seen to be ploughing through research into major psychedelics. Besides, I prefer field research… 
A smiley seems appropriate for once…
Do you mind telling us about your experience?
BTW, I have no interest in taking LSD. I have led a drug free life cept for alcohol. I am just curious. Why do we not hear about LSD anymore?
I would guess due to the difficulty in manufacturing compared with other comparable products (see: mushrooms). I have one friend who uses it because his parole testing does not find LSD or its metabolites.
'Cause you don’t travel in the circles that use it? I do, and it’s very easy to find, it’s still cheap, and there are seldom complaints about potency or purity. I suspect a lot* of the “ohmigod, they’re selling rat poison mixed with MDMA and PCP as LSD and it’s going to eat holes in your BRAIN and turn you into a neo-con!” hysteria is simple propaganda planted by the Drug Warriors.
Mushrooms are harder to come by, actually.
*Not all, but a lot.
That’s not what I’ve heard.
I imagine another reason might be lack of commercial demand. The LSD experience lasts for several hours and the massive perceptual distortion doesn’t make it the most convenient chemical for use on a night out; it can be hard to order drinks when the assumptions you normally make about the physical world are thrown out the window. The window which now seems to be made of vertical billowing water…
Most people I know who like shrooms grow their own. Relatively simple, much easier than laboratory production of LSD.
Also, the equipment you need to produce LSD will quickly put you on the FBI watch list if you order it. Really, you need lab-grade equipment to synthesize the stuff.
Mushrooms are very easy to find when they’re in season (the hot, humid months), and only somewhat difficult to find when not. LSD varies; some cities are huge for one drug and not much for another. Most of the time, though, mushrooms are easier to find.
It was a long time ago and I can only remember bits and pieces, but I do remember feeling a bit nauseated when the drug started to take effect, and I had the shakes for a while. I felt like I was outside of my body and gravity no longer had any hold on me. We saw everything in neon colours. We somehow ended up at a baseball game and we must have looked like fools sitting there with our mouths agape at what we were seeing (in our minds, of course). Everything was brightly coloured, almost cartoonish, and when a ball was hit it streaked through the sky with trails of colour behind it. The white baseball uniforms were the colour you see when you look at white in a black light. Even the whites of people’s eyes glowed like that. Scary if you’re not prepared for it!
Mostly everything fascinated us, like we were seeing things through a microscope. Walls were undulating and waving, the sidewalks were slowly waving up and down. I’m sure people around us thought we were out of our minds as we tried to “climb” the sidewalks. I do remember going down a set of stairs to a public restroom and ending up at the top of the stairs over and over again. I can’t remember if I ever made it to the toilet or not.
We had no sense of time at all. We could sit and look at a bug on the sidewalk or watch the lights bounce off of something shiny for what seemed like hours. I had a gold ring on my finger that fascinated us for a time. There was another world going on in that shiny ring (like getting a glimpse into the Wardrobe…). Sounds totally weird and kind of stupid, but that’s what we experienced.
We got lost wandering on Yonge St. in Toronto and couldn’t find our way back to the car. We only found it when the sun was coming up in the morning and when we were coming down from the LSD. We were extremely tired and I felt as if I was walking in a fog. But I was back in my own body again.
It does take you out of your mind and you think differently. I felt like a God, like I had the answers to everything. Wish I could remember what those answers were! Everything you read about an LSD trip is what I experienced. My story above seems almost cliché. I had a fantastic time but I can see how someone might have trouble with it if they aren’t prepared. The high lasted at least 8 hours so if you have a bad “trip”, you’re in for a very long bad trip! Even worse if you are alone or not with someone you trust.
Would I do it again? Never in a million years. I’ll never forget the experience though!
Prior to it being outlawed in 1966, LSD was used by some therapists. Cary Grant, for instance, took it as part of ongoing therapy for a variety of issues. Of course, this was pharmaceutial grade (probably produced by Sandoz in Switzerland) and one would hope “cleaner” than what was available on the street. Owlsley Stanley (aka “Bear”) was supposed to be able to produce exceptionally clean material but is no longer in that line of work, from what I’ve read.
I worked next door to the Medical College of Virginia Library during college and during a rainy lunch hour I looked through the stacks and found a protocol on the therapeutic use of LSD in the treatment of alcoholism. It was a pretty interesting read.
As far as the safety of its concerned in a recreational sense, I don’t think the chromosome damage and other effects you used to hear about were ever really shown to be true. It is such a intense experience (and always left me a little ringy for a few days afterwards) that the user probably would self limit their use. I knew several Deadheads on tour that dosed themselves a couple times a week but they were the exception. It has been a long while since I took it and while it was enjoyable and scary and fun and intense and confusing and enlightening and and and and and and all at the same time (yes, that was intentional), I don’t have any interest in doing it again.
It’s definitely not a chemical you want in your body if you just want a mild high. Massive perceptual distortion is absolutely right. I don’t think I’ve really given you a good idea of what the experience is like with my description above but it’s not the easiest thing to describe. Especially 30 years later!
Here is a case study on LSD. WARNING: FUNNY!