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- inactive, on 10/27/2007, -10/+234"Acid was my favorite drug. Acid opened up my mind... it expanded my mind. Because of acid, I now know that butter is way better than margarine. I saw through the *****."
- opiv421, on 10/27/2007, -35/+201I love LSD.
- CCB0x45, on 10/12/2007, -5/+158I came up with a working quantum computer when I was high... ***** I should have written that down.
- chefsam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+92and all I did was walk through a dairymart wearing "3D" glasses when I was on LSD... geez, I feel like such an underachiever.
- PilotPrecise, on 10/12/2007, -6/+78@noreturn
Your statement is pretty misleading. Can you offer any specific information about the dangers of LSD? Please also provide context by offering fair comparisons, like decongestants or pain relievers for example. It's low (non) toxicity alone places it in a category we should be able to consider physically "safer" than these. Comparing its relative safety to that of marijuana is just propping up a straw man since marijuana is also a very physically safe drug.
Ive been told there is some evidence/supposition that prolonged (years) use produces changes in the function of the brain. This is inconclusive and, to my lay knowledge, don't clearly indicate LSD is any less benign than any other mood/perception-altering chemical over similar periods.
Are you referring to cases where LSD has bad interactions with other medications? (Don't mix drugs, m'kay...) Or where people are already suffering with psychological problems and experience mental trauma after taking LSD? (Don't be insane, m'kay...) Again, neither of these have been concluded. At worst, they are extremely rare.
I am wondering if your argument is actually religious - not in the sense that you follow a given doctrine, but rather that you have certain beliefs about the strengths of LSD's mental effects and conclude these effects are "dangerous." - hambend, on 10/12/2007, -5/+66If I could legalize any one drug, it would be LSD. It can be dangerous, yes, but like any powerful tool it's perfectly safe when used responsibly. It's not hard, either:
- LSD heightens your senses, which can leave you prone to sensory overload. Avoid loud parties. Always have a quiet place you can go to. Take sunglasses.
- Control your dosage. This would be easier if LSD was legal and you knew what you were getting, but still... take too much and even if you don't have a bad trip you still won't remember much. The best trips are ones you can control.
- Trip with friends. Look after one another, if someone wants to stay sober (or just get stoned) even better.
- If someone is freaking out, talk to them. Say their name, ask them to do something normal (go get a glass of water, check the time, tie a shoelace). Ground them in reality.
- Don't drive. Ever.
- Don't get caught.
- Relax.
- Peace. - sonaboy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+61Carl Sagan, the pre-eminent astronomer and astrobiologist also freely spoke about his use and endorsement of recreational drugs and how they helped him breach certain gaps in his intellectual work.
But stay away - this is a very dangerous and problematic drug. It actually makes you think. - paulmdx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+50I thought the same as noreturn. However I google'd this:
"Cigarettes, which have only weak mental effects, are amongst the most physically harmful (they damage the brain by dramatically increasing the risk of stroke in the long term) while LSD and ketamine, which produce profoundly altered states of being, have perhaps the least lasting effects upon the human brain."
Article: Drugs, brain damage and other neuroscientific issues and misconceptions
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/DS%20Media%20Project/media_brain.htm - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -17/+64@noreturn:
Do tell how LSD damages your brain. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+46Not to mention the fact that most ppl have never used it and are just trying to sound cool
- baxtermaddux, on 10/27/2007, -5/+44but..but...The Drug Free America ads told me that my brain would be a cracked and fried egg if i took LSD?!? im soo confused
- dagobah77, on 10/12/2007, -5/+39The only danger someone faces when the are on LSD is from themselves but apparently that's a pretty big danger.
- muddo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33ah erowid... never take any drugs before visiting the vaults. it is by far the informative drug reference guide that I have seen.
- xoxuxox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32"Wouldn't you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To hear what it's all about, perhaps? Wouldn't that be interesting? Just for once?
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's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."
- Bill Hicks - Ystig, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Even moreso, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and particularly psilocybe cubensis should be legalised, even before LSD. Reasons?
Dose: It's more or less impossible to lethally overdose on psilocybe, and no one is known ever to have done so. The LD50 in rats and mice (~280mg/kg) suggests that a lethal dose for humans would require the consumption of several kilograms of dried mushrooms (i.e., 1000 times a typical dose, and a few hundred times the level at which the mushrooms would fairly necessarily begin to cause severe digestive upset, preventing consumption). Furthermore, because the mushroom is consumed in a dried, unrefined form, the end-user can be sure of the size of the dose and judge accordingly whether it is an appropriate one, whereas this is more difficult and less certain in the case of refined drugs.
Addictiveness: Not physically addictive. Furthermore, one begins to build up a tolerance to psilocybe immediately, and continued use will increase this tolerance, leading to poorer and less desirable trips. This makes them even less addictive than pot, as continued consistent (e.g., daily) use will cause any worthwhile effects to cease to manifest themselves. Maximally enjoyable trips and heavy psilocybe use are fairly inherently incompatible. Most fans of the mushroom prefer to space out their trips significantly.
Manner of Consumption: Because smoking is not an effective method of psilocybe consumption and use of refined psilocybin offers no meaningful benefits, there are no physical detriments associated with its mode of consumption, that being oral and gastro-intestinal absorption.
Impurity: Because psilocybe is almost always consumed in the form of dried whole mushrooms rather than as a pill or powder, it is highly improbable that it would ever be 'cut' or contaminated with other mind-altering or addictive drugs.
Social Problems: I am not aware of psilocybe users being associated with social conerns which typically associate themselves with drug use (bad dadaist art maybe?). I've looked at material produced by a local government sponsored Drug Addiction information and treatment hospital on psilocybe use, and even this (clearly anti-recreational-drug use) material did not assert such a connection. - rockforever, on 10/27/2007, -24/+45But will anyone who makes these laws actually listen? Of course not. They only care about legislating morality. Who cares what Nobel Prize winners say right.
- dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22RE: Ystig
don't kid yourself! I've died plenty of times on mushrooms....I was reborn, but I still died. - gboodhoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21@Spo8
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd.shtml - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+221. Clear your schedule for the day. Turn your cell phone off and leave it at home.
2. Stick to a small dose. You can smoke some dope if you want to amplify the effects temporarily (1 hour or so).
3. Have a sober person with you. They will prevent you from doing anything stupid, and you'll feel calmer knowing that. They can also drive you around and stuff.
4. Stay away from crowded public places -- you do not want to deal with people you don't know, at least not until you're a few hours in and comfortable with what's going on in your head.
5. Stock up on juice, fruit, and other easy-to-eat snacks. It lasts a long time and you'll need to eat, but you won't feel like eating a hearty meal.
6. If it you get nervous, just remember, it will wear off in a few hours.
In short, your moods on LSD are influenced by your surroundings. Don't put yourself in stressful situations and you'll have a great time. - Shivalyn, on 10/12/2007, -9/+29Sorry but Rosalind Franklin actually discovered the DNA, showed an x-ray-type photograph to Crick, and Crick ripped her off. It just happend that Franklin died before she could get the Nobel Prize so the prize, and the credits, went to Watson and Crick.
- drjones78, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20@mediaphile
Actually the research I'm reading seems to point to a scenario where people who took LSD, were inappropriately labeled 'LSD Psychotic', when in fact, they developed schizophrenia. Just so happens they took LSD when they were younger.
In fact, it looks as if the rate of mental disorders 'psychosis' in the population of LSD users, actually less, than that of the normal population... hmm?
Wikipedia:
"There are some cases of LSD inducing a psychosis in people who appeared to be healthy prior to taking LSD. This issue was reviewed extensively in a 1984 publication by Rick Strassman.[37] In most cases, the psychosis-like reaction is of short duration, but in other cases it may be chronic. It is difficult to determine if LSD itself induces these reactions or if it merely triggers latent conditions that would have manifested themselves otherwise. The similarities of time course and outcomes between putatively LSD-precipitated and other psychoses suggests that the two types of syndromes are not different and that LSD may have been a nonspecific trigger. Several studies have tried to estimate the prevalence of LSD-induced prolonged psychosis arriving at numbers of around 4 in 1,000 individuals (0.8 in 1,000 volunteers and 1.8 in 1,000 psychotherapy patients in Cohen 1960;[38] 9 per 1,000 psychotherapy patients in Melleson 1971[39]). But these rates are far lower than the lifetime prevalence for psychotic conditions: schizophrenia, just one type of psychotic disorder, has a lifetime prevalence of about 1% in populations that are not exposed to LSD. In itself, this suggests no causative link between LSD and chronic psychotic disorders." - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18LSD can be a very mind expanding or very horrowing experience. The 3 times I did it I had a bad trip and vowed never to do it again, none the less not all bad came out of the experience. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of thought and has definately changed me as a person. Im sure that has some direct correlations with the change of chemicals in my braind but I dont regret doing it at all.
- Uberdork, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19Crick didn't rip her off. Her x-rays were an important piece to the puzzle, but it wasn't the only piece.
Even though the Nobel prize isn't awarded postmortem, Watson and Crick make no secret of the importance of her contribution, and she's mentioned in every textbook I've ever come across that addresses DNA. - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15It's my understanding that LSD, like all tryptamines, acts in a passive manner on your brain. It binds to your 5-HT receptors, then later, it detaches and you piss it out. You don't even metabolize it, and it never enters the cells.
Your 5-HT receptors are expecting certain neurotransmitters like serotonin. Instead, you're giving them a similar (but different) molecule. Same way marijuana and opium work, though they act on different receptors. No physiological harm done.
Just don't do it all the time, because you don't want to get in the habit of thinking like a lunatic! - brockpetrie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16That's actually a code that can only be interpreted through the use of LSD, but I can't talk about it... not here...
- spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16I've done LSD 20 or 25 times and I've never had a bad experience. Ever. I've done it alone and with friends, in houses and at raves and walking around downtown, eyes open and eyes shut. Not every second was fourth-of-July lights twinkling and colours whirling but there were certainly times where I was overwhelmed and lost my ego. I always came back, always stronger, always wiser.
This is not how it goes for everyone. Some people have bad trips. Maybe some people go crazy, though I've never known anyone to.
I seriously cannot fathom why LSD is illegal while Salvia Divinorum can be bought in stores in Canada and most United States. Salvia is a zillion times more powerful than LSD and is rather frightening - and that's an experienced tripper's opinion, folks.
For those who are interested in reading about my own experiences,
LSD:
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=49772
Salvia Divinorum:
http://blog.demodulated.com/2007/01/02/salvia-nos/ - Fhionnlaoch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18@Spo8
"Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes..." - noreturn, on 10/12/2007, -64/+77@rockforever
Oh please. I'm all for the legalization of marijuana, but even I can't ignore the fact that unlike weed, LSD can be incredibly harmful, especially to one's brain. Don't take a few peoples' use, people that have approached the limits of conventional thought (unlike you) and make it seem like suddenly LSD is fine and dandy, and we should drop acid whenever we're bored or need an inspiration. - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14@dago:
You're thinking of PCP. - Kakcoo, on 10/27/2007, -2/+15Turn on, digg in, drop out.
- Travisx2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Someone who used to do LSD quite a bit in the 60's explained the rumors of flashbacks to me:
"Flashbacks"
"Free Trips?"
"One of LSDs biggest selling points, unfortunately, It turned out to be False Advertising" - dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13"This is your brain....this is your brain on drugs, i'm not doing this again (he cracks an egg on a frying pan, the guys drunk while doing/saying this)"
"Listen, I'm tripping *right now* and that's a ***** egg. There is a hobbit dancing around the egg, but that's a ***** egg"
bill hicks is the best. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22My last LSD trip was one of the main reasons I gave up all drugs. *shudders*
- YouEnjoyMyself, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14my dads cousin Kary Mullis discovered PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) and won the noble prize for science for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction
He has said that LSD helped him in his discovery. PCR is huge in science today and many things would be impossible to do without it. Here is a quote from him in Scientific American ""Beginning with a single molecule of the genetic material DNA, the PCR can generate 100 billion similar molecules in an afternoon. The reaction is easy to execute. It requires no more than a test tube, a few simple reagents and a source of heat. The DNA sample that one wishes to copy can be pure, or it can be a minute part of an extremely complex mixture of biological materials. The DNA may come from a hospital tissue specimen, from a single human hair, from a drop of dried blood at the scene of a crime, from the tissues of a mummified brain or from a 40,000-year-old wooly mammoth frozen in a glacier."" - emjaymj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13@mediaphile:
Oh please. Studies WERE commissioned to see just how similar LSD use was to schizophrenia, because it would help greatly in letting researchers understand schizophrenia. However, they were found to be much much different and so LSD as a research tool for schizophrenia was scrapped. LSD is probably the most physically benign of ANY illicit drug. I can even say its safer than marijuana because at least you're not even putting smoke into your lungs.
Also, it seems to have since been understood that LSD psychoses was just mislabeled schizophrenia. The age of onset for schizophrenia happens to be about the same age people start experimenting with LSD (around 20 years old), and there is no statistical difference for mental illnesses like schizophrenia between LSD users and the normal population.
and...
@ystig: The LD50 for LSD is thousands of times higher than a recreational dose - gboodhoo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15didn't seem to bother the CIA when they dosed unsuspecting citizens however.
- kingleroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12please give link about how it damages spinal cord. Last time I checked, not even the DEA website claims this.
From what I understand, it's just another myth. - shardcore, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12I recently painted Francis Crick tripping, some of you may find it interesting:
http://www.shardcore.org/shardpress/index.php/2006/09/26/francis-crick-tripping-2006/ - otheruser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12WATSON AND CRICK DID NOT DISCOVER THE STRUCTURE OF DNA!
Please, read more on the issue, and you'll quickly discover that they stole the data from Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant female molecular biologist of the time. - spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Nobody has proven flashbacks to be true. In 4 years I've never had one.
- thecyko1, on 10/27/2007, -2/+13It's 42.
- mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -13/+24@elroy: "Do tell how LSD damages your brain."
Well, there's the fact that there's a whole category of mentally disturbed people categorized in psychology as "LSD psychotics", and the fact that LSD use often leads to symptoms that are basically indistinguishable from schizophrenia. In fact, studies have been commissioned that try to determine whether LSD psychosis and schizophrenia are in fact two different illnesses or one in the same. Do a Google search for "LSD schizophrenia" and you should have no trouble finding many articles linking the two. - Jagula, on 10/12/2007, -25/+36Most of the people on Digg who talk of how great LSD and other mind-enhancing drugs are fail to mention their negative effects.
I've known more than one person that's tweaked out on a trip, causing physical harm to themselves and others, and effectively scarred themselves with relapses from the drug.
Really, it's just not worth it. - lysdexia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Here are some clues you may find useful. As your mind wanders off to places that don't ordinarily exist - there is no clue to what will be the outcome. You can't think straight because *you* is largely dispensed with. Difficult to understand? That's because it's very, very difficult to explain.
It can be awe-inspiring, it can feel like you have touched on some deep truth leaving you exhilarated - later the *truth* that you saw the meaning of life in a 1cm long icicle may feel less sensational. But, at least the realisation is funny. If you survived, of course. I have friends who went out on LSD and never quite got back to the original departure point. One, for example, now lives in a forest and another flits in and out of mental hospital. Another has physical shakes that he has lived with now for a couple of decades.
Some also experienced genuine joys and personal revelations that elevated other experiences in life thereafter. I think it's also fair to say your senses can enjoy wondrous moments unattainable in everyday life.
There are some truly dangerous generalisations being offered up as *advice* on this thread. You simply cannot know where the trips take you because by their very nature they alter your perceptions and how you experience things - experiences out-with everyday experience so you have no real basis for understanding what might happen. And that's every time you use the drug. No two experiences are even remotely similar other than the altered reality you face.
I could never condone it's use, never recommend it, but also do not regret the many experiences I had. Until the very last one when I had a monumental bummer where the walls of the room I was in marched in on me leaving me fearing for my life for the hours until the effects of the drug waned. Another time I felt I had been locked in a bathroom when the carpet turned to a seething mass of worm-like creatures and I could not escape - because the door handle had turned to elasticated metal and would not turn.
You need to understand the first trip could be the worst bummer - or any subsequent ones. Or they could be joyous, It should be the considered choice of the individual to take the drug - but there can be no clear predictions on what may or may not happened whilst under the influence.
Take great care. - marillion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I wonder how much of it was because he was using LSD and how much of it was because he was already a frickin genius
- Erfman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9The Nobel Prize, what's your anti-drug? Wait a minute....!
- imagoddamnrobot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10According to his own testimony, Dock Ellis was on (not a small) amount of LSD when he pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in 1970.
http://www.sirbacon.org/4membersonly/docellis.htm
Another Nobel Prize winner, Kary Mullis attributes many of his discoveries to Acid.
http://www.brainsturbator.com/index.php/brainsturbation/comments/kary_mullis_doc_ellis_and_a_meditation_on_lsd/
As to those claims above about Acid being retained in Spinal fluid? False.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_urban_legends#Retention_of_LSD_in_spinal_fluid - catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Adults do LSD too. You just don't know it because, quite frankly, why would they tell someone like you?
- asdfasdf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I've had what at the time I thought were "bad trips" but after a little thought, I came to the conclusion that no trip is really "bad." You learn just as much, if not more, from a "bad trip" than you do from a good one.
You can reduce the tension by working your way up the hallucinogen ladder. Maybe start by taking magic mushrooms (you can easily grow them at home for very cheap, Google for "PF tek" or "rye bitches rye"), mescaline (you can order San Pedro cuttings online) or another available hallucinogen (research chemicals, etc..). Start off at low doses and work your way up.
Trying to fight off the effects of the drug will almost always cause you to go into a very uncomfortable state because it's simply not possible. The notion of "losing control" is what freaks most people out. If you learn to LET GO and ACCEPT the experience, there's no way it can go bad.
Letting go of your ego is something most users of psychedelic drugs quickly have to learn, and it in itself is a very worthwhile skill to acquire. This is what separates these drugs from say, coke, alcohol or heroin. I have friends who don't mind coke and alcohol but wouldn't touch mushrooms or acid. They tried these drugs hoping to see silly cartoon visuals and hallucinations. A lot of them CRIED while tripping because they live their lives avoiding their personal problems and riding high on their ego.
The psychedelic drugs rip off your ego, toss it on the ground and stomp all over it. Ego loss, or ego death (different, Google the terms) can no doubt be VERY frightening, but are by far some of the most insightful things anyone can experience. From my own experience, I would rate ego death (and of course, ego re-birth) as having as much influence on a person as falling in love, getting married or losing a loved one. - joeshlub, on 10/12/2007, -14/+23Jagula, those are the few and far between who don't know how to handle themselves while tripping and don't have appropriate trip sitters there when taking higher doses. Those who know how to use LSD, take it and use it well.
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