Is it true that anyone who does more than 3 hits of acid is, from then on out, legally insane? I’ve been hearing this nugget preached for years, but have found no evidence to back up the claim.
He might be legally intoxicated, but insanity is far more complex than an acid trip. There is no way only three hits of LSD can cause insanity. They’ll cause brain damage but three hits won’t exactly turn you into a drooling moron, either. Don’t trust what ‘your mamma allus sayed’ when it comes to things like drugs, medicines, or medical treatments. Unless, of course, your mom happens to be a RN (which mine was). Besides, the term ‘legally insane’ really makes no sense. You mught be judged incompetent to stand trial or incompetent to own a firearm, something along those lines, but nobody except a psychiatrist can deem you ‘insane’. And that is like any medical diagnosis: It entails treatment, not punishment. It is also eminently reversable.
Not true. Just more paranoia from an uninformed public.
Jeez, if it were true I’d be insane.
I’d be really insane.
If you are preparing your defense, that one won’t work. Instead, say you ate too many Twinkies.
I disagree. The effects of LSD depend on serveral variables:
People who have a serious underlying mental disorder (such as anxiety or depression) are far more likely to have adverse effects than someone who does not.
Three hits of acid is also a rather nonsensical term, as the potency of a single dose can vary greatly from one to the next. The drug is normally prepared by adding one drop to a large sheet which then diperses throughout. The individual squares that that sheet is divided into could therefore have as many different strengths. I may have to be corrected on this, but I would imagine that the tab nearest the ‘drop site’ would be the strongest and the ones further away, less so.
Also, the brain quickly builds up a tolerance to the effects of LSD, so that for example, if you take one hit the first night, it is said that you will need two hits the next night to get the same effect. That’s the theory anyway, although in practice, you may find that even three or four ‘hits’ will have little effect if you have already had some the night before.
It is fair to say that three hits (as your first trip) would very likely turn you into a ‘drooling moron’, as LSD severely distorts your perception of reality. A person’s perception of reality is one of the fundamental tests of sanity, subjective thought that may be.
But since when does LSD cause actual (measurable) brain damage?
I think mandrake was referring to the “legal” definition that after 3 hits, you are declared insane. Nothing to do with the actual effect of said hits.
TD
No you are not legally insane after taking any amount of LSD. There is nothing on the books that will label you insane legally or officially.
No, Lsd does not cause brain damage, nor does it damage chromosomes, nor does it get stored in fat cells causing you to have flashbacks when you lose weight, etc. etc.
Oh, you mean like for use in mitigation or something? My dad once represented a guy on a burglary charge (he’s a barrister, in case you wondered). The guy broke into someone’s house first shooting their guard dogs with a crossbow, then looting the place. He pleaded not guilty on the grounds of ‘diminished responsibility’ (we don’t use the word “insane” in British Law) because he was under the influence of LSD at the time. He also claimed that the LSD had been added to his drink in a pub without him knowing.
Under British law, claiming dimished responsibility through intoxication is not a valid defence to commiting a crime - no matter what or how much you’ve had. The point being that you voluntarily became that way. Also, proving that someone else ‘spiked’ your drink is extremely difficult.
I believe the “flashbacks” are merely the same thing as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and are nothing to do with the drug at all.
Extremely intense experiences of any kind (e.g. a car crash) have a habit of ‘replaying’ themselves in your mind afterwards. The mind is merely trying to make sense of and rationalise what it has experienced.
All perfectly natural, I assure you.
exactly. 
It’s worse than that! If you have ever taken even one hit of acid in your life, you will suffer from multiple personality disorder.
That’s ridculous. I’ve never heard of such a thing. That is not true!
It is true. I read it some where. Or… did I hear it from a friend of a friend? …Oh, wait, I made it up.
I thought so!
Shrinks were using LSD in theraputic situations in the late 50s and early 60s, as a way of diminishing inhabitions. Of course, once Timothy Leary and his crazy much of kooks got their mitts on it, it became a counter-culture thing.
Doesn’t have much to do with the OP, but an interesting tidbit…
And let’s not forget Project MKULTRA.
*One of the experiments probably proved fatal. On November 19, 1953, an Army scientist and germ warfare specialist named Frank Olson, who was working on an MKULTRA project, was slipped a solid dose of LSD in his drink. Then, after spending eight days stumbling about in what many observers described as a paranoid, depressed state, Olson jumped through his hotel window in New York and fell ten stories to his death.
The Agency covered up its role in Olson’s demise, and twenty-two years would pass before his family would learn of the events leading up to his death.*
My personal experience with LSD is… extensive. It is not a drug to be trifled with. But I haven’t done it in years, and I’m not insane, even though the alien transmitter in the base of my skull keeps trying to tell me that I am.
i think that the insanity bit refers to something i have heard too. remember, i myslef seriously doubt the veracity of this report, so don’t go claiming it as fact, and don’t bust my heinie if it’s proved wrong.
some branches of the armed forces will regard you as incompetent to serve if you have taken over a certain amount of acid (ten hits, perhaps (although the strength of hits varies wildly)). and if a competency hearing ever came up, you could be deemed insane if it could be proved that you took over a certain number of hits.
as for flashbacks, the only explanation i have heard is really stupid. what the hell? bubbles of LSD in the spine that pop occasionally and randomly? i’m sorry, but i don’t buy that.
post-traumatic stress? i’ve had some pretty intense trips, but c’mon, it’s not like Charlie ambushed my brigade after a long hike, and turned Danforth into a pile of sirloin. i think PTSD is a bit too much.
the beauty of acid is that it encourages connections between disparate parts of the brain. and whenever you go through a new experience, the brain forges new neuronal connections. repeat it over and over, or have a rather powerful experience, and the connections get strengthened. so why the hell couldn’t those pathways get reactivated?
Now I don’t know…my girlfriend was telling me about a guy she knew that suffered severe flashbacks. He had to be hospitalized for it and one day, (in front of her), during a flashback, he jumped out of an apartment window and died.
Now my hypothesis is that messing with your neurons is kinda dangerous, and that if they are not firing right to begin with, it can do permanent damage. Or even if they are, why mess with them?
I mean, it seems like using drugs that were used to treat psychosis (or are used) is kinda like playing russian roulette with your head.
acid was never used to treat psychosis. one of it’s first clinical uses was for alcoholics, to simulate the DT’s. quite effective when used correctly (to see incorrect use, look at how the U.S. government tried to replicate the earlier canadian studies) (sorry i don’t have any links- this is stuff i was interested in a while ago).
look, humans have been ingesting chemicals to facilitate experiences with the divine for as long as we have been around. yeah, it may do damage, but I’m a lot more worried about getting lung cancer and/or emphesema (i know that’s spelled wrong…) from smoking than screwing with my grey matter.
I’ve never seen LSD last anyone more than 12 hours let alone eight days. I’ve never seen any drug last eight days. LSD is the leadrunner with 12 hours. shrug
DMZ aka QNB, aka BZ. Used in the later stages of MKULTRA. Trips lasting three days. Basically, insta-psycho, just add water.
This link gives some info on BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate): http://sis.bris.ac.uk/~mp9481/BZ.htm
This link does as well: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/bz/bz_info1.shtml
Another long one :
DPT (dipropyltryptamine) is supposedly a 36 hour trip. And it’s quasi-legal, too. I suppose technically it’s illegal under the Controlled Substances Analog amendment to the Controlled Substances Act. It’s non-existant on the streets, though, and I’ve never heard of anyone getting busted for it. And the legally gray status of the drug isn’t enough to keep at least one online retailer of “poisonous non-consumables” from selling it. It’s rather expensive, though.