# LSD and what it exactly does in comparison to other drugs.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304 "2017-05-23T21:19:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/21 "2017-05-24T14:42:37Z")
I never had any visual hallucinations. But yes to the metaphorical representation, _as if_ rendering an idea as an icon or a visual sculpture, of complex ideas. Our minds do that anyway, just to a significantly lesser extent. We may summarize an entire volatile argument about capitalism, its relationship to organized religion, scarcity, masculinity, environmental politics, and the debate about free will and represent it in our head as a single “thing” long enough to consider how it also relates to net neutrality or something. On LSD, you make connections between complex ideas like that much more rapidly and then very rapidly build on them. Very intricate concepts become nouns long enough to move them around on the mental chessboard or dance-floor of your mind to see how they interact with yet other intricate concepts, you see (or at least visualize; as I said, I don’t literally “see” this stuff) a phenomenon constituted of the relationship betwene them and BANG! the entire just-observed phenomenon becomes a new noun and a moment later you’re perceiving a connection between animal rights activists and the disparagement for hip hop among fans of French poetry due to the way that the rising shoreline caused by global warming is going to offset the falloff in grand opera attendance among red wine drinkers. (Yeah, sometimes it continues to make compelling sense later, _assuming_ you can reconstruct enough of the tower of detailed interconnections to hold on to the notions; and sometimes it just doesn’t) ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/22 "2017-05-24T14:46:08Z")
> [@](#): > > : Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No by James Blagden > A celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis’ legendary LSD no-hitter. In the past few years we’ve heard all too much about performance enhancing drugs from greenies to tetrahydrogestrinone, and not enough about performance inhibiting drugs. If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 no-hitters ever thrown in the Big Leagues, we can only guess how many were aided by steroids, but we can say without question that only one was ever thrown on acid. > > Sadly, the great Dock Ellis died last December at 63. A year before, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, had recorded an interview with Ellis in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres. Alexander and Ilels original four minute piece appeared March 29, 2008 on NPRs Weekend America. When we stumbled across that piece this past June, Blagden and Isenberg were inspired to create a short animated film around the original audio. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_vUhSYLRw14/hqdefault.jpg "No Mas Presents: Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No by James Blagden") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vUhSYLRw14) ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/23 "2017-05-24T14:56:59Z")
> [@SigMan](#): > > Back in the 60s LSD were the good stuff. Lately they have strychnine being passed off as acid. That’s somewhere in the 70s and since then I stopped because I knew it’s not the real thing. Cite? Lately? This was an old saw already 30 years ago, and I called bullshit on it then because I read up on the stuff. I don’t know a whole lot about strychnine but LSD is such a tremendously potent drug that cutting it with an adulterant seems like complete bullshit. How significant a dose of strychnine can you possible get on a little 1 square cm piece of paper that tastes only of paper? ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/24 "2017-05-24T15:05:08Z")
I only spoke from experience. I took what I thought was acid and it’s not. I learned later that the LSD had become illegal and the some of the materials used to make LSD were removed from the market. Yes, LSD was legal. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/25 "2017-05-24T15:22:25Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Missed edit window … I wonder why. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/26 "2017-05-24T15:28:28Z")
[quote=“Channing\_Idaho\_Banks, post:22, topic:787304”] [/QUOTE] What a great short! Of course, the Bennies get an assist. ETA: wait that’s basketball. Touchdown! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/27 "2017-05-24T15:45:49Z")
> [@FluffyBob](#): > > I don’t know a whole lot about strychnine \*Wine is red Poison is blue Strychnine is good For what’s ailin’ you If you listen to what I say You’ll try strychnine some day Make you jump, it’ll make you shout It’ll even knock you out\* - The Sonics ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/28 "2017-05-24T16:03:51Z")
“Be advised, the brown strychnine has been cut with acid, so be careful” – John Belushi – _Lemmings_ … I’m convinced that the “strychnine in acid” is an urban myth … but that doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as dirty acid … did the cook clean out the athlete’s foot fungus from the bathtub they used to mix up the new batch? … I doubt it … ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/29 "2017-05-24T16:43:47Z")
A coupe of random comments: I don’t have the cites but a study of all “Ecstasy” seized in NYC from 2009-2104 showed 87% contained no MDMA at all. There was another study in the UK that showed 0% of “X” seized there over a one year period contained MDMA. Another non-cite but LSD was reported, in one study, to be 5x as effective a AA in treating alcoholism. The problem with Schedule I drugs is thats its very difficult to conduct serious research legally. ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/30 "2017-05-24T17:11:54Z")
That’s the point I was making, the drugs aren’t drugs anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Mikeisskeptical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@Mikeisskeptical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikeisskeptical)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304/31 "2017-05-25T00:34:34Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > I have experienced a severe paranoia reaction to MDMA. I’m fairly sure it was MDMA because the source was very trustworthy, and others around me enjoyed the experience after consuming the same batch. > > Then again, I smoked the pill after crushing it. That’s not at all a normal way to take MDMA, so that is probably related. > > FWIW, even though I was massively paranoid I could objectively see that I was over-reacting. I went away by myself and waited it out. Not much fun for 4 hours. Yeah, I’ve only ever taken it in the conventional pill form. I’ve heard the reaction can be much more potent and unpredictable if you drink liquid MDMA as well. Obviously all bets are off if it’s cut with anything else as well. I’m lucky in that I can get stuff from a very reliable source. I have a few PHD chemists for friends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lsd-and-what-it-exactly-does-in-comparison-to-other-drugs/787304.md?page=1)