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LSD

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For other uses, see LSD (disambiguation).
File:BlotterPaper-scaled.jpg
LSD blotter paper

D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (Chem: C20H25N3O), commonly called acid or LSD, is a powerful synthetic hallucinogen and psychedelic entheogen originally semisynthetically synthesized from ergot fungus alkaloids. LSD in pure form is colorless, odorless, and slightly bitter and is typically delivered orally, usually on a substrate such as absorbent blotter paper, a sugarcube, or gelatin, although it is also possible to deliver it via food or drink. In all these preparations LSD is tasteless. LSD is an abbreviation of the German term for the compound, Lyserg-Säure-Diäthylamid.

LSD was marketed as a psychiatric miracle drug, and was shown to have great potential for use in psychedelic psychotherapy. It first became popular recreationally among a small group of mental health professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists during the 1950s, as well as by socially prominent and politically powerful individuals such as Henry and Clare Boothe Luce. Cold War era intelligence services were also keenly interested in the possibilities of LSD, both for use in interrogation and mind control (see MK-ULTRA), and also for large-scale social engineering (see counterculture). Several mental health professionals, notably Harvard psychology professors Drs. Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), became convinced of LSD's potential as a tool for spiritual growth. They were dismissed from the traditional psychological community and spread LSD use to a much wider portion of the public as countercultural spiritual gurus among the hippies of the 1960s. The drug was banned in the United States in 1967. Tours by psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead were identified by the DEA as a primary illicit distribution mechanism. In the 1990s, LSD became popular in rave subculture. American LSD usage declined sharply circa 2000 following the largest LSD manufacturing raid in DEA history.

Dosage

LSD is one of the most potent drugs in common use. Both subjective reports and standard semiobjective assays, such as the rabbit hyperthermia model1 determine LSD to be, per mole, around 100 times more potent than psilocybin and psilocin and around 1000 times more potent than mescaline. Dosages of LSD are measured in micrograms (µg), or millionths of a gram. By comparison, dosages of almost all other drugs, both recreational and medical, are measured in milligrams, or thousandths of a gram.

The dosage level that will produce a threshold hallucinogenic effect in humans is generally considered to be 25 micrograms. In the late 1990s, LSD obtained during drug law enforcement operations in the United States has usually ranged between 20 and 80 micrograms per dose. During the 1960s, dosages were commonly 300 micrograms or more. The drug's effects become markedly more evident at higher dosages.

Effects

Physical

Physical reactions to LSD may include: uterine contractions, body temperature increase, elevated blood sugar levels, dry-mouth, "goose-bumps", heart-rate increase, jaw clenching, cramps, muscle-tension, nausea, perspiration, pupil-dilation, salivation, mucus production, sleeplessness, tremors.

LSD functions as a serotonin antagonist, though this is probably not directly related to its hallucinogenic properties, as several chemical analogues to LSD which are psychically inert also antagonize serotonin.

Psychological

LSD's psychological effects (commonly called a "trip") vary greatly from person to person, from one trip to another, and even as time passes during a single trip. Widely different effects emerge based on what Leary called "set and setting" -- the set being the general mindset of the user, and the setting being the physical and social environment in which the drug's effects are experienced.

A single LSD trip can have long lasting or even permanent neutral, negative, and positive psychoemotional effects.

LSD experiences can be indescribably ecstatic as well as difficult; many difficult experiences (or "bad trips") result from a panicked user feeling that he or she has been permanently severed from reality and the ego. If the user is in a hostile or otherwise unsettling environment or is not mentally prepared for the powerful distortions in perception and thought that the drug causes, effects are more likely to be unpleasant.

Conversely, a pleasant, comfortable environment and a relaxed, balanced and open mindset will often result in a unique and extremely unusual experience. Many have attempted to describe these states, which vary greatly among different individuals.

The sensory shifts caused by the drug can lead users to sit or lie in awkward positions for extended periods of time, resulting in muscle cramps and soreness that are often mistakenly attributed to the direct physical action of the drug.

Sensory/perception

Beginning in the first hour after ingestion, and continuing for the duration of the trip, the user may experience anything from subtle changes or distortions in visual perception and mood changes to overwhelming changes in perception.

Sensory shifts include "high-level" sensory distortions such as warping of surfaces, blurred vision, seeing "trails" behind moving objects, shape suggestibility, and color variations. Users often report "new" colors that they have not previously experienced. Audio and visual pseudohallucinations are common, ranging from subtle to overwhelming, often featuring or appearing in regular geometric or fractal patterns.

Higher doses often cause users to experience shifts at a "lower level" of cognition - causing intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and intense hallucinations.

Spiritual

LSD is considered an entheogen because it often catalyzes intense spiritual experiences where users feel they have come into contact with a greater spiritual or cosmic order. It is common for users to experience permanent or long-lasting changes in their life perspective. Some users consider LSD a religious sacrament, or a powerful tool for access to the divine. Many books have been written comparing the LSD trip to the state of enlightenment of eastern philosophy.

Such mystical experiences under the influence of LSD have been observed and documented by researchers such as Leary and Stanislav Grof.

Acute duration

LSD's primary effects normally last from 6 to 12 hours. One characteristic feature of LSD is that with higher doses, the intensity of the experience increases, but not the duration. It is typical for a user of LSD to be unable to sleep restfully until at least 12 hours have passed, and they do not feel completely "back to normal" until after getting one or two full nights of restful sleep, although they will exhibit no outward signs of impairment after the drug has worn off.

LSD has an extremely short half life in the body. Most of the drug's already miniscule dose is eliminated before the trip is even over, suggesting that LSD triggers some sort of neurochemical cascade rather than acting directly to produce its effects.

Administration of Thorazine or similar typical antipsychotic tranquilizers will immediately end an LSD trip.

Physical dangers

Although LSD is generally considered nontoxic, other dangers may arise from bad judgments made during the experience. As with many drugs, while under the influence of LSD the ability to make sensible judgments and understand common dangers can be impaired, making the user susceptible to personal injury. If the user attempts to drive a car or operate machinery, their impaired state may lead to accidents and injury.

There is also mounting evidence that LSD can trigger a dissociative fugue state in individuals who are taking certain classes of antidepressants. In such a state, the user has an impulse to wander, and may not be aware of their actions, which can lead to physical injury. Lithium-based antidepressants and tricyclics are believed to have such severe interactions with LSD. MAOIs and SSRIs are believed to interact more benignly, tending to diminish LSD's subjective effects greatly.

Flashbacks

There is also a commonly reported risk of "flashbacks", a psychological phenomenon in which an individual experiences an episode of some of the subjective effects of LSD (this may be a positive or negative experience) long after the drug has been consumed and worn off -- sometimes weeks or months afterward. Despite anecdotal claims that flashbacks are common, studies have shown that these experiences are relatively rare.

Debate continues over the nature and causes of flashbacks. Some say flashbacks are a manifestation of post-traumatic stress disorder, not directly related to LSD's mechanism, and varying according to the susceptibility of the individual to the disorder. Many emotionally intense experiences can lead to flashbacks when a person is reminded acutely of the original experience.

Several urban legends claim that flashbacks are the result of trace amounts of LSD or related chemicals being dislodged and released into the body after having been crystallized and stored in fat or spinal fluid cells. However, scientific research has disproven this conjecture; LSD is metabolized in the liver, as with many other drugs, and its metabolites are excreted normally in the urine. [1]

Drug studies have not confirmed that LSD can cause flashbacks or lasting psychoses, according to a meta-study by MAPS (see the link at the end of this article).

Addictive potential

LSD is not addictive in that its users do not exhibit the medical community's commonly accepted definitions of addiction and physical dependence. LSD users do, however, exhibit tolerance; LSD's effects diminish with frequent, repeated use, especially over short periods of time. This tolerance passes after a few days' abstention from use.

History

Early history: synthesis

LSD was first synthesised by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz (now Novartis) laboratories in 1938. The laboratory had undertaken a research program aimed at isolating the active constituents of medicinal plants so that they could be produced in the laboratory and later precisely dosed for accurate administration to patients. Dr. Hofmann eventually began researching the ergot fungus and alkaloids which could be derived from it. Ergot was traditionally used by midwives as an ecbolic, a medication used to induce childbirth, and early 20th century research indicated that the various compounds in ergot had other effects on the body as well, prompting further research.

After Dr. Hofmann succeeded in synthesizing ergobasine (which became the preeminent uterotonic), he began experiments with other molecules based around the central lysergic acid component shared by ergot alkalines. Lysergic acid diethylamide, the 25th synthesized molecule (hence the name LSD-25) was developed initially as a probable analeptic, a circulatory and respiratory stimulant, based on its structural similarity to another known analeptic, Coramine (nicotinic acid diethylamide). However, no extraordinary benefits of the compound were identified during animal tests (though laboratory notes briefly mention that the animals became "restless" under its effects), and its study was discontinued.

The hallucinogenic effects of LSD were unknown for the next five years. Dr. Hofmann writes in LSD: My Problem Child that a "peculiar presentiment" prompted him to revisit LSD-25. While re-synthesizing the compound for further study, he became dizzy and was forced to stop work:

Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.

Three days later, April 19, 1943 (known as Bicycle Day), Dr. Hoffman intentionally ingested 250µg of LSD, which he hypothesized would be a threshold dose, based on other ergot alkaloids. Hoffman wrote:

By now it was already clear to me that LSD had been the cause of the remarkable experience of the previous Friday, for the altered perceptions were of the same type as before, only much more intense. I had to struggle to speak intelligibly. I asked my laboratory assistant, who was informed of the self-experiment, to escort me home. We went by bicycle, no automobile being available because of wartime restrictions on their use. On the way home, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror. I also had the sensation of being unable to move from the spot. Nevertheless, my assistant later told me we had traveled very rapidly.

Dr. Hofmann summoned a doctor, who could find no abnormal physical symptoms other than extremely dilated pupils. After spending several hours terrified that his body had been possessed by a demon, that his next door neighbor was a witch, and that his furniture was threatening him, Dr. Hofmann feared he had become completely insane.

[The doctor] saw no reason to prescribe any medication. Instead he conveyed me to my bed and stood watch over me. Slowly I came back from a weird, unfamiliar world to reassuring everyday reality. The horror softened and gave way to a feeling of good fortune and gratitude, the more normal perceptions and thoughts returned, and I became more confident that the danger of insanity was conclusively past. Now, little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux. It was particularly remarkable how every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and color ... Exhausted, I then slept, to awake next morning refreshed, with a clear head, though still somewhat tired physically. A sensation of well-being and renewed life flowed through me. Breakfast tasted delicious and gave me extraordinary pleasure. When I later walked out into the garden, in which the sun shone now after a spring rain, everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh light. The world was as if newly created. All my senses vibrated in a condition of highest sensitivity, which persisted for the entire day. This self-experiment showed that LSD-25 behaved as a psychoactive substance with extraordinary properties and potency. There was to my knowledge no other known substance that evoked such profound psychic effects in such extremely low doses, that caused such dramatic changes in human consciousness and our experience of the inner and outer world.

Interest in the drug was revived after Dr. Hofmann's experiment, and the University of Zurich began conducting systematic human trials on both normal subjects and psychiatric patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. In both cases, the predominant reaction was euphoria. Sandoz began producing LSD under the trade name Delysid for research, suggesting that the drug might be useful "to elicit release of repressed material and provide mental relaxation, particularly in anxiety states and obsessional neuroses" and also for self-experimentation by psychiatrists, "to gain an insight into the world of ideas and sensations of mental patients".

Psychiatric use

LSD was introduced into the United States in 1948. Sandoz Laboratories (now Novartis) marketed LSD as a psychiatric cure-all and hailed it as a remedy for everything from schizophrenia to criminal behavior, sexual perversions and alcoholism. In psychiatry, the use of LSD by students was an accepted practice; it was viewed as a teaching tool in an attempt to enable the psychiatrist to subjectively understand schizophrenia. It was also showed great promise as a facilitating agent in psychedelic psychotherapy. From the late 1940s through the mid-1970s, extensive research and testing were conducted on LSD. During a 15-year period beginning in 1950, research on LSD and other hallucinogens generated over 1000 scientific papers, several dozen books, and 6 international conferences, and LSD was prescribed as treatment to over 40,000 patients. Many psychiatrists began taking the drug recreationally and sharing it with friends. Dr. Leary's experiments (see below) spread LSD usage to a much wider segment of the general populace.

Sandoz halted LSD production in August of 1965 after growing governmental protests at its proliferation among the general populace. The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States distributed LSD on a limited basis for scientific research. Scientific study of LSD ceased circa 1980 as research funding declined, and governments became wary of permitting such research fearing that the results of the research might encourage illicit LSD use.

The United States Drug Enforcement Agency claims:

Although initial observations on the benefits of LSD were highly optimistic, empirical data developed subsequently proved less promising... Its use in scientific research has been extensive and its use has been widespread. Although the study of LSD and other hallucinogens increased the awareness of how chemicals could affect the mind, its use in psychotherapy largely has been debunked. It produces no aphrodisiac effects, does not increase creativity, has no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics or criminals, does not produce a 'model psychosis', and does not generate immediate personality change.

However, drug studies have confirmed that the powerful hallucinogenic effects of this drug can produce profound adverse reactions, such as acute panic reactions, psychotic crises, and "flashbacks", especially in users ill-equipped to deal with such trauma.

Dr. Timothy Leary

A significant number of researchers disagree with the government's assessment of LSD. Dr. Timothy Leary, a psychology professor at Harvard University, was the most prominent pro-LSD researcher. Leary claimed that using LSD with the right dosage, set (what one brings to the experience), and setting, preferably with the guidance of professionals, could alter behavior in dramatic and beneficial ways.

Dr. Leary began conducting experiments with psilocybin in 1960 on himself and a number of Harvard graduate students after trying hallucinogenic mushrooms used in Native American religious rituals while visiting Mexico. His group began conducting experiments on state prisoners, where they claimed a 90% success rate preventing repeat offenses. A student introduced Leary to LSD, and he then incorporated that drug into his research as his mental catalyst of choice. His experiments produced no murders, suicides, psychotic breaks, or bad trips. On the contrary, almost all of Leary's subjects reported profound mystical experiences which they felt had a tremendous positive effect on their lives.

By 1962, faculty discontent with Leary's experiments reached critical mass. Leary was informed that the CIA was monitoring his research (see Government experiments below). Many of the other faculty members had harbored reservations about Leary's research, and powerful parents began complaining to the university about Leary's distribution of hallucinogenic drugs to their children. Further, many undergraduate students who were not part of Leary's research program heard of the profound experiences other students had undergone, and began taking LSD (which was not illegal at the time) recreationally. Leary described LSD as a potent aphrodisiac in an interview with Playboy magazine. Leary and another professor, Richard Alpert, were dismissed from the university in 1963.

DEA agents Don Strange (r.) and Howard Safir (l.) bring Leary to justice in 1972.

Leary and Alpert, unfazed by their dismissals, relocated first to Mexico, but were expelled from the country by the Mexican government. They then set up at a large private mansion owned by William Hitchcock in New York, known as Millbrook, where they continued their experiments. Their research lost its controlled scientific character as the experiments transformed into LSD parties. Leary later wrote, "We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the twenty-first century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s. On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art."

A judge who expressed dislike for Dr. Leary's books sentenced him to 30 years in prison for possession of half a marijuana cigarette (which was later reversed by the Supreme Court). Publicity surrounding the case further cemented Leary's growing reputation as a countercultural guru. Around this time, President Richard Nixon described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America." Repeated FBI raids instigated the end of the Millbrook experiment. Leary refocused his efforts towards countering the tremendous amount of anti-LSD propaganda then being issued by the United States government, coining the slogan, "Turn on. Tune in. Drop out."

Many experts blame Leary and his antics for the near-total suppression of psychedelic research over the last thirty years.

Government experiments

LSD was the original centerpiece of the United States Central Intelligence Agency's top secret MK-ULTRA project, an ambitious undertaking conducted from the 1950s through the 1970s designed to explore the possibilities of pharmaceutical mind control. Hundreds of subjects, including CIA agents, government employees, military personnel, prostitutes, members of the general public, and mental patients were given LSD, many without their knowledge or consent. The experiments often involved severe psychological torture, and many victims committed suicide or wound up in psychiatric wards. The researchers eventually concluded that LSD's effects were too varied and uncontrollable to make it of any practical use as a truth drug, and the project moved on to other substances. See MK-ULTRA.

Though no evidence has yet come to light in the West, it is presumed likely that the Soviet government conducted its own experiments on the properties of LSD during the Cold War.

Recreational use

LSD began to be used recreationally in certain (primarily medical) circles. Some psychiatric and medical professionals, acquainted with LSD in their work, began using it themselves and sharing it with friends and associates. During the 1960s, this first group of casual LSD users evolved and expanded into a subculture that extolled the mystical and religious symbolism often engendered by the drug's powerful effects, and advocated its use as a method of raising consciousness. The personalities associated with the subculture, gurus such as Dr. Timothy Leary and psychedelic rock musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane soon attracted a great deal of publicity, generating further interest in LSD.

The popularization of LSD outside of the medical world was hastened when individuals such as Ken Kesey participated in drug trials and liked what they saw. Tom Wolfe wrote a widely read account of these early days of LSD's entrance into the non-academic world in his book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, which was written as he traveled around the country in a psychedelic bus with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.

The Beatles wrote a song which many assumed referred to LSD, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," although John Lennon is said to have always dismissed the connection as mere coincidence; the song title is reputedly based on how Lennon's son Julian described the subject of a drawing he made (the Lucy of the song is one Lucy O'Donnell). The Beatles were, however, experimenting with the drug, and the songs "She Said She Said" (the line,'I know what it's like to be dead' is from an LSD trip that the Beatles took with Peter Fonda. Peter kept saying that to John Lennon) and "Got To Get You Into My Life" from the album Revolver were admittedly about LSD trips. During that same time, bands such as Pink Floyd helped give birth to a genre known as "psychedelic rock."

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the drug culture adopted LSD as the psychedelic drug of choice, particularly amongst the hippie community. However, LSD dramatically decreased in popularity in the mid-1970s. This decline was due to negative publicity centered on side-effects of LSD use (most misleading or patently false), its criminalization, and the increasing effectiveness of drug law enforcement efforts, rather than new medical information.

As a recreational drug, LSD has remained popular among certain segments of society. Traditionally, it has been popular with high school and college students and other young adults. LSD also has been integral to the lifestyle of many individuals who follow certain rock music bands, most notably the Grateful Dead. Older individuals, introduced to the hallucinogen in the 1960s, also still use LSD.

LSD made a comeback in the 1990s, especially through the acid house scene and raver subculture. However, the current average oral dose consumed by users is 30 to 50 micrograms, a decrease of nearly 90 percent from the 1960 average dose of 250 to 300 micrograms. Lower doses may account for the relatively few LSD-related psychiatric emergencies during this period. LSD use and availability declined sharply following a raid of a large scale LSD lab in 2000 (see below).

Although retail-level distribution of LSD is known to sometimes take place at public events that feature music that appeals to users, such as certain kinds of concerts and all-night raves, users at the fringes of the distribution chain typically obtain small quantities of LSD from friends and acquaintances in relatively private exchanges.

Urban Legends

A number of urban legends exist about LSD. The aura of mystique popularly associated with the drug, and a great deal of misinformation issued and propagated by well-meaning anti-drug groups, particularly in United States anti-drug education programs in schools, provide fertile ground for misconceptions to take hold. Such misinformation may be propagated due to simple ignorance, or through deliberate attempts to frighten students away from LSD usage through scare tactics.

Blue Star Tattoos

One popular meme is the blue star tattoo legend. This meme frequently surfaces in American elementary and middle schools in the form of a flyer that has been photocopied through many generations, which is distributed to parents by concerned school officials. It has also become popular on Internet mailing lists and websites. This legend states that a temporary lick-and-stick tattoo soaked in LSD and made in the form of a blue star, or of popular children's cartoon characters, is being distributed to children in the area in order to get them addicted to LSD [sic]. The flyer lists an inaccurate description of the effects of LSD, some attribution (typically to a well-regarded hospital or a vaguely specified "adviser to the president"), and instructs parents to contact police if they come across the blue star tattoos. No actual cases of LSD distribution to children in this manner have ever been documented.

Retention of LSD in Spinal Fluid

A meme with particular appeal to anti-drug educators who wish to instill a healthy fear of the potential long-term effects of LSD in their pupils, and also among casual high school age LSD users, is that the body stores crystallized LSD in spinal fluid or in fat cells, which at some point dislodges and causes horrific flashbacks, perhaps years later. The scientific evidence provides no support whatsoever for this theory, and rather indicates that LSD has a very short half-life in the body, and that most of the drug's already miniscule dose is eliminated from the system before the trip is even over. (see Flashbacks, above).

This legend may be derived from the fact that an inert, metabolized form of THC, the main active constituent of marijuana, is in fact stored by the body in fat cells for about a month after use.

Different Types of LSD

A popular meme with high school and college age users is that there are different "types" of LSD, which produce different types of trips. The types are usually associated with a particular blotter paper design or other dosage form (e.g. sugarcube or geltab), and the resultant trips associated with each dosage form are typically described in terms such as that "blue pyramids [a blotter paper design] give body trips" (a trip of mainly physical sensations with not much mental effect) or a "head trip" (the reverse, mainly mental effects with little physical sensations) or "great visuals" (hallucinations).

While there is no actual physical variation in the LSD molecules carried on different substrates, this meme is self-reinforcing insofar as a user taking LSD who strongly expects to have a particular type of experience due to ingesting a particular substrate is thus much more likely to actually have that particular kind of experience.

Banana Peel Synthesis

Another popular theme among naïve LSD users is that it is possible to synthesize LSD from banana peels or other common household foods and chemicals, or that the synthesis of LSD can be easily accomplished in a bathtub. Variants of this legend often circulate on the Internet, and were popular on 'underground' BBSes run by high schoolers before the advent of widespread home Internet access. This myth is sometimes related in a way so as to bolster social standing within a drug-using social group through association with the purported chemist, e.g. "My boyfriend/cousin/friend/roommate makes LSD in the bathtub from banana peels". The actual synthesis requires university training in organic chemistry and requires both expensive laboratory equipment and expensive, carefully controlled precursor chemicals.

Strychnine

Anti-drug educators frequently tell their students some variant on the theme of inevitable strychnine poisoning through LSD use, for example, that strychnine is commonly sold as a cheaper substitute for LSD by unscrupulous drug dealers; that strychnine is a byproduct of LSD synthesis; that the body produces strychnine as a result of LSD metabolism; or that strychnine is somehow necessary to bond LSD to blotter paper. None of these are true. These memes may even be believed and propagated by drug users themselves.

Strychnine has indeed rarely been discovered mixed with LSD and other drugs in a few samples recovered by law enforcement agencies, but these were all found in murder or attempted murder investigations where someone was being specifically targeted for poisoning, and not associated with recreational LSD use.

A related myth is that a new type of gang initiation requires the initiate to put a mixture of LSD and strychnine on the buttons of as many payphones as possible.

Fruit Juice Synergy

Several legends claim that drinking some specific type of fruit juice (varying from legend to legend) will intensify an LSD trip. While there is no specific physical evidence supporting this claim, if a person under the influence of LSD does something that they believe will intensify their trip, then it is likely to do so.

Various Atypical Psychotic Reactions

Anecdotal legends retell the stories of LSD users who believed (for example) they could fly and jumped out of a high window; believed themselves immortal and walked onto a highway, only to be hit by a car; thought that they were oranges and locked themselves in a closet for hours for fear of being peeled, etc. While it is not unlikely that isolated instances of such cases have occurred in the long and widespread history of LSD use, these are not typical reactions, though anti-drug educators usually present them as such, in an effort to warn students off of trying LSD. Individuals with preexisting mental problems are much more likely to suffer such effects under the influence of LSD.

Chemistry

LSD is an example of an ergoline derivative. It is commonly is produced from lysergic acid, which is made from the tartrate form of ergotamine, a substance derived from the ergot fungus on rye, or from ergine (lysergic acid amide), a chemical found in morning glory seeds. Although theoretically possible, manufacture of LSD from morning glory seeds is not economically feasible and these seeds have never been found to be a successful starting material for LSD production.

File:Lsd-chem.jpg

Only a small amount of ergotamine tartrate is required to produce LSD in large batches. For example, 25 kilograms of ergotamine tartrate can produce 5 or 6 kilograms of pure LSD crystal that, under ideal circumstances, could be processed into 100 million dosage units (50 micrograms), more than enough to meet what is believed to be the entire annual U.S. demand for the drug. LSD manufacturers need only create a small quantity of the substance and, thus, enjoy the advantages of ease of concealment and transport not available to traffickers of other illegal drugs, primarily marijuana and cocaine.

Glassware seized by the DEA from Pickard and Apperson's laboratory

Manufacturing LSD is time consuming and dangerous. Relatively sophisticated and expensive laboratory equipment is required, and it takes from 2 to 3 days to produce 30 to 100 grams of pure compound. Some of the reactions necessary may cause significant explosions if not performed properly by a trained organic chemist. It is believed that LSD usually is not produced in large quantities, but rather in a series of small batches. Production of LSD in small batches also minimizes the loss of precursor chemicals in case a synthetic step doesn't work as expected.

Forms of LSD

LSD is produced in crystalline form and then mixed with excipients or diluted as a liquid for production in ingestible forms. Often, LSD is sold in tablet form (usually small tablets known as microdots), on sugar cubes, in thin squares of gelatin (commonly referred to as window panes), and most commonly, as blotter paper (sheets of paper soaked in or impregnated with LSD, covered with colorful designs or artwork, and perforated into one-quarter inch square, individual dosage units). LSD is sold under more than 80 street names including acid, blotter, cid, doses, and trips, as well as names that reflect the designs on the sheets of blotter paper. On occasion, authorities have encountered the drug in other forms-- including powder or crystal, liquid, and capsule-- and laced on other substances. More than 200 types of LSD tablets have been encountered since 1969 and more than 350 paper designs have been acquired since 1975. Designs range from simple five-point stars in black and white to exotic artwork in full four-color print. Inexpensiveness (prices range from US $2 to $5 per dosage unit or 'hit'; wholesale lots often sell for as little as $1 or less), ready availability, alleged 'mind-expanding' properties, and intriguing paper designs make LSD especially attractive to junior high school and high school students.

The United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances (adopted in 1971) requires its parties to prohibit LSD. Hence, it is illegal in all parties to the convention, which includes the United States and most of Europe. However, enforcement of extant laws varies from country to country.

LSD is easy to conceal and smuggle. A tiny vial can contain thousands of doses. Not much money is made from retail-level sales of LSD, so the drug is typically not associated with the violent organized criminal organizations involved in cocaine and opiate smuggling.

Unlike alcohol prohibition, LSD prohibition does not make an exception for religious use, presumably because nontraditional entheogen-centered religions are extremely uncommon and not generally accepted by modern societies. By contrast, the United States government permits some tribes of Southwestern American Indians to cultivate and use hallucinogenic peyote cactus in traditional religious rituals.

LSD was legal in the United States until 1967. The US Federal Government classified it as a Schedule I drug according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. As such, the Drug Enforcement Administration holds that LSD meets the following three criteria: it is deemed to have a high potential for abuse; it has no legitimate medical use in treatment; and there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision. Lysergic acid and lysergic acid amide, LSD precursors, are both classified in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. Ergotamine tartrate, a precursor to lysergic acid, is regulated under the Chemical Diversion and Trafficking Act.

LSD in the United States

Prior to 1967, LSD was available legally in the United States as a prescription psychiatric drug.

LSD has been manufactured illegally since the 1960s. A limited number of chemists, probably less than a dozen, are believed to have manufactured nearly all of the illicit LSD available in the United States. Some of these manufacturers probably operated continuously for 30 years or more.

Pickard and Apperson ran an LSD lab in this former missile silo in Kansas.

LSD manufacturers and traffickers can be separated into two groups. The first group was based in northern California and later identified by the DEA as run by chemists (referred to as cooks) William Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson. Initial distribution points for this group's LSD were usually in the San Francisco area, or coordinated elsewhere through informal meetings at Grateful Dead concerts. These men worked in close association with trusted traffickers. The government claims that these two men were responsible for the vast majority of LSD sold illegally in the United States and a significant amount of the LSD sold in Europe, and that black market LSD availability dropped by 95% after the two were arrested in 2000. [2]

In November of 2003, Pickard and Apperson were sentenced to two life sentences and two 30 year sentences, respectively, after being convicted in Federal Court of running a large scale LSD manufacturing operation out of several clandestine laboratories, including a former missile silo near Wamego, Kansas.

The second group of cooks consists of small independent producers who, operating on a comparatively limited scale, can be found throughout the country. As a group, independent producers are of less concern to the Drug Enforcement Agency than the northern California group, inasmuch as their production is intended for local consumption only.

Notable people who have commented on their LSD experiences

Please add to this list.

According to James Gleick's biography Genius, Richard Feynman experimented with LSD during his professorship at Caltech. Somewhat embarrassed by his actions, Feynman sidestepped the issue when dictating his anecdotes; consequently, the "Altered States" chapter in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! only describes marijuana and sensory deprivation experiences.

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