Most people think Acid is the most wonderfullest drug in the world, and it makes everything so coollorrful and beautifull....and its the only way you can have fun....well, think again.
Mods please sticky this. People should know what this drug can do to them.
A Little Dab'll Do Ya: Doses and Forms
Once they got used to the onslaught of imagery and perceptual distortion that LSD evokes (if anybody ever really gets "used to it"), Hofmann and early researchers were still amazed by the drug's potency.
That's because LSD is one of the most potent drugs ever discovered -- so powerful that it's measured in micrograms (or millionths of a gram), instead of the more common, thousandths-of-a-gram unit known as milligrams.
In fact, LSD (or "acid," as it's commonly known) is so strong that an effective dose (about 30 mcg) is virtually invisible.
For underground chemists who've churned out the drug since 1966 (when possession was banned in the U.S.), measuring doses of the colorless, odorless, tasteless drug can be a lot like guessing the weight of a person you've never met by means of a telephone.
They found a solution in the solution itself -- diluting liquid LSD, then dripping it onto an absorbent medium.
And since almost anything will do, LSD has made the scene in a variety of formats over the years. Sugar cubes were an early favorite, but they had drawbacks -- crumbling in pockets, for example, or being stirred into coffee. Tablets, capsules, mini-tablets, and gelatin chips ("windowpane") followed, but today, the most common form is "blotter" -- LSD-soaked paper.
Blotter has become so popular in recent years that it's gone Hollywood, sporting imprints of such cultural icons as Bart Simpson and Beavis & Butt-head.
Dosage has stabilized, too, with acid's renewed pop-culture appeal. Today's acid averages 20-80 mcg, contrasted to 150-250 mcg doses common in the '60s.
Inner Actions: LSD and the Brain
No matter how it gets in there, once it's inside the body, LSD sets out on an incredible microscopic rip of its own, interacting with the deepest biological circuits and engines of human consciousness.
The drug itself is quickly absorbed and almost as quickly eliminated from the body. After two hours, less than 10 percent of the drug is still active; the rest is broken into inactive by-products by the liver.
Even though only a small portion of each dose stays biologically active (and even less -- only 0.01 percent -- ever crosses into the brain), that tiny amount is plenty.
How acid produces its effects is still only partly understood. But among its other effects, acid alters the action and supply of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that the brain uses to make sense of all the scents and sights and sounds that filter into us from the world out there.
The result is a lowered threshold for sensory stimulation, and a temporary overload of central nervous system circuitry.
And when CNS circuits overload, sensory signals flood in and normal thought processes float (or fly) out the window.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Body/mind Effects
While most of the specifics of LSD's actions on the brain are still a mystery, its effects on perception and thought are anything but. They've been the subject of serious scrutiny since Albert Hofmann started babbling about them in April 1943.
A "normal" acid trip (if anything about LSD can be called "normal") starts 30 to 90 minutes after ingestion and lasts six to nine hours.
Initial effects are mostly physical: dilated pupils, muscular weakness, rapid reflexes, decreased appetite and increased blood pressure and body temperature.
Later effects zero in on thought and sensory processes. As the drug scrambles neurochemistry, visual, auditory, and tactile sensations can collide in a form of sensory crossover (in which sounds can appear as colors or smells as touch) called synesthesia.
During a trip's "peak," perceptions and thoughts can take on the plastic fluidity of dream states.
Other common effects include distractibility, rapid mood swings, depersonalization, and distortions in body image.
Helter Skelter: Flashbacks & Bad Trips
Scare stories about LSD are legendary. Still, the drug rarely causes serious physical problems.
Users may suffer a "crash" period, though, which can lurk in the background of everyday consciousness for a few days after the LSD wears off.
Users also typically become much less sensitive to LSD's effects for several days after use -- a condition known as tolerance.
Studies show that LSD doesn't cause cancer, brain damage, or chromosome breakage. And despite its potency, it's virtually impossible to overdose on it.
That doesn't mean it's good for you, though.
LSD can (and does) cause severe psychological discomfort -- even trauma. In fact, one bad trip can quickly outrank dozens of hearts-and-flowers trips.
When bummers do occur, they tend to take two main forms ---panic attacks and psychotic reactions:
Panic : The most common adverse reaction to LSD, panic usually centers on a fear of dying or going crazy.
Psychotic Reactions :Serious breaks with reality, psychotic episodes usually include hallucinations and delusions.
LSD-fueled psychotic episodes are like bad trips that don't end when the drug wears off. Such reactions may be linked to the "unmasking" of pre-existing problems and may require professional intervention.
Another occasional effect of LSD are flashbacks: the reemergence of effects -- usually panic -- days or weeks later. Since LSD is not retained in the body, flashbacks are probably psychological rather than physical in origin. Triggers can include stress, drug use, or cues associated with a past trip.
Although acid flashbacks -- like other anxiety reactions -- seldom last longer than 90 minutes, they can seem unendurable, since they tend to focus on unpleasant aspects of bad trips.
Road Rules
Flashing back to the here-and-now, it might seem strange that LSD is still around and so widely used today. But it probably shouldn't be that surprising. Because LSD and drugs like it have been tickets to ride on the Grand Tour of human consciousness for eons.
They've guided the visions of shamans and seers and helped shape philosophies and cosmologies across the world and throughout history.
That's one reason LSD still fascinates us (and still attracts willing new test subjects) today. Because it promises -- in a single, paradigm-busting session inside a user's own head -- a journey filled with awe and mystery to people whose lives have been bleached white with conformism and consumerism and every other kind of -ism, except self-determinism and love.
Not much wrong with that -- or there wouldn't be if the awe from acid didn't so often turn awful. When that happens, the only real mystery is why we ever feel the need to get away from the only place we belong.
Perhaps the best final word on LSD today is simply this: It takes users to places that aren't on maps, where self-examination is unavoidable and passengers double as both navigator and pilot, with each accountable for the trip.
And if you're not aware of the risks of the ride and comfortable with the rules of the road, you really don't have any business going there at all.
So now you know what LSD/Acid can do to you. *phew* that was alot to type.
Post edited at 2:20 pm on April 17, 2008 by lally
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