What's the deal with LSD?

Factual Questions
1

Hi guys,

I’ve been talking to my friend about LSD. Contrary to a the words of a health teacher from last year, my friend (we’ll call him Tony) claims that LSD is not fat soluble and will not be released after usage, but rather is water soluble and will be metabolized within 24 hours. Which is true? I am not concerned mainly with the solubility, but what the long term effects of LSD are.

Tony claims that the hallucinations, paranoia, etc., that are frequently related to LSD are purely psychological, and I quote, “…can be controlled if I’m [Tony] is in a safe comfy environment.” Tony bases most of his beliefs and opinions on articles on the internet, which cite books and research from 1960 and 1970, when LSD testing was legal. He claims that he has read a lot about the drug, and that it is quite safe compared to other drugs such as heroine, cocaine, etc. I don’t know much about the drug, and didn’t trust the articles, so now I have turned to you guys.

Please fill me in on the true effects of LSD ==>hallucinations: what cause them? can they be controlled? long term effects? Is there a “safer” age range to use LSD?

I am actually pretty young compared to all of you, and don’t mean to offend anyone by this question. Thank you all!

Shapaiers

2

Hey, how do you spell your UserName? It looks like I’ve got two choices.

A friend of mine claims that LSD does not make him hallucinate. He tried it a few times, liked it, but can’t really describe its effects beyond, “Doesn’t cause hallucinations.”

I don’t know about the solubility. One explanation I heard about flashbacks was that it has nothing to do with the drug directly; rather, it is simply post-traumatic stress disorder. The mind remembers the event vividly and replays it at odd times. That’s just a theory though, I really have nothing to back it up.

  • Boris B, Hellacious Ornithologist
3

Um, I have a friend who used to take, like, a whole lot of it, dude. There’s a real good reason why I-- ah, he quit. Oh, hell with it.

LSD ain’t LSD any more, at least not where I come from.

According to reports from friends in LA, Orlando, and the Northeast, “fake” LSD is all over the place. Here’s what I’ve heard happened. It ain’t straight, but it’s from personal experience.

Sometime around the early 90s, dealers discovered that a coctail of amphetamines and other junk can be combined and applied to a sheet of paper just as LSD often is, or was. The superelevation of the heartrate occasionally caused hallucinations in the people who took this stuff. Other side effects like teeth-grinding and muscle cramps were evident as well, which leads me to suspect that strychnine was still present. (Apparently, strychnine was a part of the manufacturing process of LSD, but I’ve never seen this in print.)

But the buzz, dude! The buzz was gone.

Many of the “hallucinations” of LSD were not as you might imagine them. Visually, objects might appear to be skewed in shape, move, or even melt. Colors and patterns would wash across the field of vision in random swathes. Sometimes, under high doses, auditory and visual signals would be confused so that one would experience the flash of a lighting bug as a pleasant popping noise, or music would literally hang in the air around you. Very occasionally, you might even see something that’s not actually there. A good dose of acid used to be like an emotional rollercoaster ride that, while scary as hell, was also fun.

Most of the crap that’s up for sale nowadays is stuff I wouldn’t dare take. I can reliably report that the lack of effect is not a result of smaller dosages. If you do elect to try “acid,” don’t expect to experience anything remotely like what I described above. Now you get all of the side effects and none of the fun. It’s probably bad for the heart, too, but folks who risk taking drugs generally aren’t in it for the long haul, at least not at that moment.

As for flashbacks, well, I’ve had a couple. If they are purely mental in character then I’ve got to give my imagination a big pat on the back. I personally believe it was helped along by something chemical in nature.

4

I took LSD about a dozen times in the early 70’s. Besides the LSD, it usually contains other drugs like speed or strychnine. I tried orange sunshine, windowpane, and blotter. For several hours, at the peak of the high I was incompacitated. Fortunately, I was with friends and in a reletively safe environment. If you haven’t tried it yet, why bother? You can get a safer experience with mushrooms or peyote. Whatever you decide be careful.

The hallucinations are very intense. I saw patterns everywhere, including my skin. My arm hairs became worms, diving in and out of my skin. Avoid mirrors!! Eating is very difficult, and possibly dangerous due to a choking hazard. Going to the bathroom is difficult and can be frightening if your urine changes to blood. I have to say that, without fail, I was too high for too long, and was always glad when I came down and vowed not to do it again. Alas, peer pressure got the better of me.

I guess I’ll never know if there were any long term effects. I’ve never had a flashback, or met anybody else who seriously claimed to have had one.

Good luck,
John

5

Wanna make sure you have a nice comfy trip? I highly recommend “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

6

[dad mode]

What, are you STUPID? You don’t need that crap. Look, back when I was your age I tried a number of things. The details are unimportant. Hallucinations are not fun; there are things in the dusty back corners of your minds that you shouldn’t have to look at. The visual effects were interesting, though.
You cannot guarantee the quality of a substance you are ingesting. If the sample is adulterated with the wrong material, YOU COULD DIE. Think about that.
I know that you feel that it couldn’t happen to you. I don’t know why I am still alive and two of my friends are not. THINK!
[/dad mode]

7

One of my uncles (I have an abundance of them) liked to tell us about Berkeley CA in the late 60s or early 70s. He said it was the Jehovah Witnesses finest hour: the kids (music majors) from Berkeley used to blow their minds on LSD and end up in the streets with their instruments; JW would pick them up, put them into public services (social workers), apartments, and by the time they got cleaned up they would be JW and playing in JW quartets.

Had to be some lasting effect.

Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.

8

“Whaff dis?”
“What?”
“Dis stuff. Im my mouf. Deres fuff im my mouff.”
“Whoa, cool.”

A french fry. An insiduously evil french fry.

Newp. Don’t recommend attempting to eat at all.

LSD, like a lot of other drugs, have gone from recreational pharmecuticals for the social moral impaired to a booming business that involves a whole lot of cutting corners, cheating, and dangerous mass production designed for one thing only: the almighty dollar. So a few hundred or thousand people die in the process of perfecting the latest short cut, big deal so long as the dealers get paid first.

Just doesn’t seem to be either the time or place to experiment. It’s not just a matter of losing brain cells anymore. So, um, like, don’t do drugs, mkay?

9

Mkay, Suzeanne :slight_smile:

Tony my friend, does not seem to have any reason besides curiousity and idiocy to try LSD…I don’t think it’s a valid reason at all.

Thanks for all your responses so far!

Shpaiers

10

Okay, time to clear up a few misconceptions presented so far in this thread.

It surprises me how pervasive the strychnine myth is. According to revered psychedelic chemist Alexander Shulgin, " strychnine is neither used in the synthesis, produced by the synthesis, or a possible contaminant of the synthesis."

The simple fact of the matter is you couldn’t even fit an active dose of strychnine on a piece of blotter paper. A piece of blotter can hold maybe 500ug, whereas an active dose of strychnine is in the 10-15mg range, with the LD50 being 25mg.

According to the LSD FAQ :

The “speedy” quality of unadulterated LSD is due to the pharmacological actions of LSD itself, and not necessarily due to decomposition or impurities. LSD typically causes early adrenergic effects such as sweating, nervousness, jaw grinding and insomnia which are easily confused with the side effects of amphetamine.

As for the “staying in your body for X amount of months” claim, let’s look to a site operated by the purveyors of all evil themselves, the DEA, for the answer to that one :

“LSD is absorbed easily from the gastrointestinal tract, and rapidly reaches a high concentration in the blood. It is circulated throughout the body and, subsequently, to the brain. LSD is metabolized in the liver and is excreted in the urine in about 24 hours.”

Actually the DEA got most of their facts straight about LSD. I’m surprised.

LSD is not without danger, though. If you do a lot of it, it can kinda scramble your brain. In moderation, though, you should be fine.

LSD is not addictive, and is the cause of very few emergency room visits compared to other drugs. No death has ever been attributed to the direct effects of LSD. All this from the DEA site, by the way.

Hallucinations? You won’t get many because the average hit of LSD today contains just 40-100ug. In the sixties it was more on the order of 150-250ug.

The biggest concern, already mentioned in this thread, is adulterants. There are a few chemicals active in the microgram range that could replace LSD, including scopolamine and atropine. But most chemists aren’t out to kill their customers. That’s just bad business sense, ya know? If you’re going to get ripped off buying LSD, more often than not, you’re just gonna get plain paper that hasn’t been soaked in ANYTHING! I once paid $25 for a once-inch square piece of green paper. I was not a happy camper.

The thing that really sucks about LSD is that we just don’t know for sure, how it works, why it works, and all that other good stuff. Research on it is illegal. Theories abound, but solid facts are hard to come by.

In my experience, the normal cycle of LSD use is that you take it a few times, maybe even a few dozen times, over the course of anywhere from 1 to 5 years and eventually you just get bored by its effects. It doesn’t really offer anything new. I haven’t done LSD in 18 months. Haven’t really feel the desire to.
It was fun while it lasted, though.

11

Two of your friends died from adulterated LSD? Or were they messing around with those nasty hard drugs?

12

puffington:

Car crashes while under the influence of sundry substances. Not acid for either, but 'shrooms for one.

Palliatives for boredom need not have fatal side effects.

13

OK, I can kinda understand why people take alcohol, downers or heroin (to relax and unwind); or uppers or cocaine (for high energy).

But who the hell would want to hallucinate or “alter their mind?” My mind is so delicately balanced as it is that I have no intention of playing Ducks & Drakes with it.

14

People of every culture and every civilization throughout history have attempted to reach “higher states of consciousness.” Some achieved it through mortification of the flesh, some through starvation, some through lengthy bouts of meditation.

But it often seemed that the easiest way to throw the mental gearshift was to eat some of that bush over there. No, not that one, THAT one.

To roughly quote that font of wisdom, George Carlin: “Primitive Man looked about him, and said, ‘This can’t be it.’”

Uke

15

What is MMAD (ecstasy) all about? I understand it’s effects are similar to LSD. Is the street version of this drug dangerous?

16

Thank you puffington… I am also sick of the myths about LSD that are so omnipresent (speed, strychnine, etc).

And Eve? If you don’t want to do it, don’t.

For me, I’ve taken LSD probably over 100 times actually I really miss it. I have learned a lot about myself while on it, and it’s a lot of fun. I would definitely say that no one should take it unless they are old enough that their brain isn’t developing anymore and are in a safe environment.

LSD gives you a new perspective on just about everything, and it can be very spiritually eye-opening, and psychologically healthy.

Ok, flame away.

–
Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

17

OpalCat,

Flame? Whatever for? You’ve captured it in a nutshell.

[jerks thumb up one thread] What she says.

18

Hmmm… LSD used to be my drug of choice, back when I did “hard” drugs. Probably haven’t done it in 10 years, but I’d probably do it again if someone offered.

In my opinion, the worst effects of LSD is that you can easily trip for 12 hours and you tend to forget to do things like eat, drink water, etc. Seeing as I was usually quite active during the trip, I’d end up tired, hungry, and dehydrated. Not fun. As I clued into this I used to stock up on stuff to eat, and write myself notes to remind myself to drink water and eat the food. No more bad hangover when I came down.

I agree with the above posts on hallucinations. I never saw people who weren’t there, and I never decided that I could fly or any such thing like that. I did get the funky texture stuff - walls start to breath, anything with a texture starts crawling around. That’s pretty cool.

I guess the biggest memory I have is just that everything was so damn FUN when I was tripping. Moving from the kitchen to the living room, for instance, was sure to bring a lot of laughs. Different textured food was great. Hell, all my friends became more fun! It’s a fun drug, and like most of the others on this thread, I’ve never heard first hand accounts of people getting hurt on LSD. Coke, Heroin, sure - I have a cousin who is lying in the hospital as I type this, heart attack provoked by a cocaine overdose. He’ll probably die. But I tend to group LSD in the same group as alcohol and pot. Yeah, you can do too much of it and screw your life up, but you can drink too much, too. All is fine, in moderation.

19

OK, what do you “learn” about yourself on drugs that you couldn’t come to by plain old thinking and reasoning?

Reminds me of people who think they’re terribly clever or witty when they’re high or drunk, when actually their thinking processes are just so slowed down that they SEEM witty to themselves . . .

20

Okay, go ahead, do whatever you want.

But, don’t come running to me if you fall down a flight of stairs and break your neck.