D-lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly called acid, LSD, or LSD-25, is a powerful Semisynthetic Psychedelic drug. A typical dose of LSD is only 100 to 150 micrograms, a tiny amount roughly equal to one-tenth the weight of a grain of sand. Threshold effects can be felt with as little as 20 micrograms. LSD causes a powerful intensification and alteration of senses, feelings, memories, and self-awareness for 6 to 14 hours. In addition, LSD usually produces visual effects such as moving geometric patterns, "trails" behind moving objects, and brilliant colors. LSD usually does not produce hallucinations in the strict sense, but instead illusions and vivid daydream-like fantasies. At higher concentrations it can cause synaesthesia.
LSD is synthesized from lysergic acid, derived from Ergot, and is sensitive to oxygen, ultraviolet light, and chlorine, especially in Solution. However its potency may last years if stored away from light and moisture in a freezer. In pure form it is colorless, odorless, and bitter. LSD is typically delivered orally, usually on a substrate such as absorbent blotter paper, a sugarcube, or gelatin. In all these preparations, LSD is tasteless.
Introduced by Sandoz Laboratories as a drug with various psychiatric uses, LSD quickly became a therapeutic agent that appeared to show great promise. However, the extra-medical use of the drug in western society in the middle years of the twentieth century led to a political firestorm that resulted in the banning of the substance for medical as well as recreational and spiritual uses.
[image] [image]
Until 1966, LSD and Psilocybin were provided by Sandoz Laboratories free of charge to interested scientists. The use of these compounds by psychiatrists to gain a better subjective understanding of the schizophrenic experience was an accepted practice. Many clinical trials were conducted on the potential use of LSD in Psychedelic psychotherapy, generally with very positive results.
LSD 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 to whom the early LSD researchers were connected socially.
Cold War era intelligence services were keenly interested in the possibilities of using LSD for interrogation and mind control (see MK-ULTRA), and also for large-scale social engineering (see Counterculture). The CIA conducted extensive research on LSD, which was mostly destroyed.
Several mental health professionals involved in LSD research, most 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. Their research became more esoteric and controversial, alleging links between the LSD experience and the state of enlightenment sought after in many mystical traditions. They were dismissed from the traditional academic psychology community, and as such cut off from legal scientific acquisition of the drug. Dr. Leary was then (allegedly unbeknownst to himself) approached by agents of the CIA, who supplied him with such quantity of purified LSD-25 that he and Dr. Alpert/Ram Dass made available to a much wider portion of the public. His experiments lost their scientific pretense, and the pair evolved into countercultural spiritual gurus, making LSD a household brand among the hippies of the 1960s. The drug was banned in the United States in 1967, for scientific therapeutic research as well as individual research and recreation. Many other countries quickly followed suit.
Since 1967, underground recreational and therapeutic LSD use has continued in many countries, supported by a black market and popular demand for the drug. Legal, academic research experiments on the effects and mechanisms of LSD are also conducted on occasion, but rarely involve human subjects.
The dosage level that will produce a threshold hallucinogenic effect in humans is generally considered to be 25 micrograms, with the drug's effects becoming markedly more evident at higher dosages. 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. Dosages by frequent users can be as high as 1200 micrograms, although such a high dosage may precipitate unpleasant physical and psychological reactions.
Estimates for the lethal dosage (LD50) of LSD range from 200 micrograms per kilogram to more than 1000 micrograms per kilogram of human body-weight, though most sources report that there are no known human cases of such an overdose. Other sources note one report of a suspected fatal overdose of LSD in which there were indications that ~1/3 of a gram (320 mg or 320,000 µg) had been injected intravenously, i.e., over 3,000 more typical oral doses of ~100 µg had been injected.
LSD has been studied in the past as a painkiller for serious and chronic pain caused by cancer or other major trauma. Even at low (sub-psychedelic) dosages, it was found to be at least as effective as traditional opiates while being much longer lasting (pain reduction lasting as long as a week-after peak effects had subsided).
Furthermore, LSD has been investigated as a treatment for cluster headaches, an uncommon but extremely painful disorder one researcher describes as "worse than natural childbirth or even amputation without anesthetic." Although the phenomenon has not been fully investigated, case reports indicate that LSD and Psilocybin can reduce cluster pain and also interrupt the cluster-headache cycle, preventing future headaches from occurring. Currently existing treatments include various ergotamines, among other chemicals, so LSD's efficacy may not be surprising. A dose-response study, testing the effectiveness of both LSD and psilocybin, is as of 2005 being planned at McLean Hospital. Unlike attempts to use LSD or MDMA in Psychotherapy, this research involves non-psychological effects and often sub-psychedelic dosages; therefore, it is plausibly the most likely way that a respected medical use of LSD will arise. , ,
An LSD trip can have long lasting or even permanent neutral, negative, and positive psychoemotional effects. LSD experiences can range from indescribably ecstatic to extraordinarily difficult; many difficult experiences (or "bad trips") result from a panicked user feeling that he or she has been permanently severed from Reality and his or her 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.
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 may mistakenly be attributed to the direct physical action of the drug.
Sensory shifts include "high-level" sensory distortions such as warping of surfaces, appearance of moving geometrical patterns and textures on objects, blurred vision, image trailing, shape suggestibility, and color variations. Users often describe seeing new colors that they have not previously experienced, or colors may appear to have greater intensity. Perspective distortions may occur where items in the foreground appear to become part of the background, or the foreground and background may become temporarily indistinguishable. Changes in aural and visual perception are common, ranging from mild to overwhelming. LSD trips, however, are described to be only alterations of "reality" and not the loss of contact with "reality." . Many people report an overwhelming feeling of the connectedness with the natural world.
Higher doses often bring about shifts at a lower cognitive level - causing intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as Synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and temporary dissociation.
Such experiences under the influence of LSD have been observed and documented by researchers such as Timothy Leary and Stanislav Grof. A brief video documentary of the Good Friday Marsh Chapel Experiment that took place under Leary's supervision can be viewed here. That study showed that hallucinogens could reliably be used to induce mystical religious states.
LSD has an extremely short half life in the body. Most of the drug's already minuscule 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.
Anecdotal reports indicate that administration of Thorazine or similar Typical antipsychotic tranquilizers will not end an LSD trip, but rather will just immobilize the patient. While it also may not end an LSD trip, the best chemical treatment for a "bad trip" is an anti-anxiety agent such as valium (diazepam) or other benzodiazepines. There have also been reports of Niacinamide being useful, a claim that has not been verified scientifically and is therefore questionable.
If an individual attempts to drive a car or operate machinery under the influence of the drug, it could lead to accidents and injury.
There is also some indication that LSD may trigger a dissociative fugue state in individuals who are taking certain classes of antidepressants such as lithium salts and tricyclics. In such a state, the user has an impulse to wander, and may not be aware of his or her actions, which can lead to physical injury. MAOIs and SSRIs are believed to interact more benignly, with a tendency to significantly reduce LSD's subjective effects.
Pregnant women are advised not to ingest LSD, since a side effect is that it induces contractions and babies can be born smaller than normal.
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 (which is water soluble) is metabolized in the liver, as with many other drugs, and its metabolites are excreted normally in the urine.
| LSD | |
|---|---|
| Chemical name | D-Lysergic acid diethylamide or: (6aR,9R)-N,N-diethyl-7-methyl- 4,6,6a,7,8,9-hexahydroindolo [4,3-fg]quinoline-9-carboxamide |
| Chemical formula | C20H25N3O |
| Molecular mass | 323.43 g/mol |
| Melting point | 80 - 85 °C |
| CAS number | 50-37-3 |
| SMILES | O=[C@@](N(CC)CC)[C@H] 1CN(C)[C@](C2=C1)([H]) CC3=CNC4=C3C2=CC=C4 |
LSD is an example of an Ergoline derivative. It is commonly produced from lysergic acid, which is made from the tartrate salt 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.
[image]
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 (at 50 micrograms per dose), 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.
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.
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 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. The best known of these is undoubtedly Augustus Owsley Stanley III, usually known simply as Owsley. The former chemistry student set up a private LSD lab in the mid-Sixties in San Francisco and supplied the LSD consumed at the famous Acid Test parties held by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, and other major events such as the Gathering of the Tribes in San Francisco in January 1967. He also had close social connections to leading San Francisco bands the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company, regularly supplied them with his LSD and also worked as their live sound engineer and made many tapes of these groups in concert. Owsley's LSD activities-immortalized by Steely Dan in their song "Kid Charlemagne"-ended with his arrest at the end of 1967, but some other manufacturers probably operated continuously for 30 years or more.
American LSD usage declined in the 1970s and 1980s - this is often attributed to a large anti-drug program targeted at young people in the U.S. LSD then experienced a mild resurgence in popularity in the 1990s. Although there were many distribution channels during this decade, the U.S. DEA identified continued tours by the psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead and the then-burgeoning rave scene as primary venues for LSD trafficking and consumption. American LSD usage fell sharply circa 2000. The decline is attributed to the arrest of two chemists who, the DEA claims, were manufacturing 95% of the LSD sold in America and much of the European supply. The arrests were a result of the largest LSD manufacturing raid in DEA history.
[image] LSD manufacturers and traffickers can be categorized into two groups: A few Large scale producers and an equally limited number of small, clandestine chemists. Overall, LSD production in the United States is extremely limited, with very few individuals or groups capabable of production. One large scale organization was identified by the DEA as run by chemists (referred to as cooks) William Leonard Pickard, a Harvard-educated organic chemist, and Clyde Apperson. These men worked in close association with organized 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.
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 larger groups, as their product reaches only local markets.
Many notable individuals have commented publicly on their experiences with LSD, both when it was legally available in the US and Europe for non-medical uses as well as for psychiatric treatment in the 1950s and 60s, and later illegally, through its continued use for philosophic, artistic, therapeutic, spiritual, or recreational purposes.
"LSD, 100 µg, i.m." (Aldous Huxley's last words, as a written request to his wife from his deathbed)
"Turn on, tune in, drop out" (Timothy Leary)
"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather." (Bill Hicks)
"Focus on the spaces in between objects and you will find the answers" (L.Miller)