THE FACTS ABOUT LSD
LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide), commonly called "acid," was discovered in 1938 and is the most powerful known hallucinogen - a drug that radically changes a person's mental state by distorting the perception of reality to the point where, at high doses, hallucinations occur. Although it is derived from a fungus that grows on rye and other grains, LSD is semi-synthetic. It is chemically manufactured in illicit laboratories, except for a small amount which is produced legally for research.
LSD is sold on the street in tablets, capsules, and, occasionally, liquid form. It is odorless, colorless, and has a slightly bitter taste and is usually taken by mouth. Often LSD is added to absorbent paper, such as blotter paper, and divided into small decorated squares, with each square representing one dose.
SIDE EFFECTS OF LSD
The effects of LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken; the user's personality, mood, and expectations; and the surroundings in which the drug is used. Usually, the user feels the first effects of the drug 30 to 90 minutes after taking it. The physical effects include dilated pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors.
Sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs. The user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. If taken in a large enough dose, the drug produces delusions and visual hallucinations. The user's sense of time and self changes. Sensations may seem to "cross over," giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic.
Users refer to their experience with LSD as a "trip" and to acute adverse reactions as a "bad trip." These experiences are long - typically they begin to clear after about 12 hours.
Some LSD users experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings, fear of losing control, fear of insanity and death, and despair while using LSD. Some fatal accidents have occurred during states of LSD intoxication.
Many LSD users experience flashbacks, recurrence of certain aspects of a person's experience, without the user having taken the drug again. A flashback occurs suddenly, often without warning, and may occur within a few days or more than a year after LSD use. Flashbacks usually occur in people who use hallucinogens chronically or have an underlying personality problem; however, otherwise healthy people who use LSD occasionally may also have flashbacks. Bad trips and flashbacks are only part of the risks of LSD use. LSD users may manifest relatively long-lasting psychoses, such as schizophrenia or severe depression. It is difficult to determine the extent and mechanism of the LSD involvement in these illnesses.
Dramatic changes in perception, thought, and mood occur shortly after the physical effects. These may include:
vivid, usually visual, "pseudo-hallucinations" that the user is aware are not real
distorted perceptions of: time (minutes seem like hours); distance (hazardous if operating motor vehicles or standing near balcony edges); gravity (sensations of floating or being pressed down); the space between oneself and one's environment (for some, a feeling of oneness with the universe, for others, a feeling of terror)
fusion of the senses (music is "seen," colors "heard")
diminished control over thought processes, resulting in recent or long-forgotten memories resurfacing and blending with current experience, or in insignificant thought or objects taking on deep meaning
STREET NAMES
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.a, acid, animal, barrels, battery acid, beast, Big D, black acid, black star, black sunshine, black tabs, blotter, blotter acid, blotter cube, blue acid, blue barrels, blue chairs, blue cheers, blue heaven, blue microdot, blue mist, blue moons, blue star, blue vials, brown bombers, brown dots, California sunshine, cap, chief, chocolate chips, cid, coffee, conductor, contact lens, crackers, crystal tea, cubes, cupcakes, d, deeda, domes, dots, double dome, electric Kool-Aid, fields, flash, flat blues, ghost, golden dragon, goofy's, grape parfait, green double domes, green single domes, green wedge, grey shields, hats, Hawaiian sunshine, hawk, haze, headlights, heavenly blue, instant zen, l, lason sa daga, LBJ, lysergide, mellow yellow, mickey's, microdot, mighty Quinn, mind detergent, one way, optical illusions, orange barrels, orange cubes, orange haze, orange micro, orange wedges, Owsley, Owsley's acid, pane, paper acid, peace, peace tablets, pearly gates, pellets, pink blotters, pink Owsley, pink panther, pink robots, pink wedge, pink witches, potato, pure love, purple barrels, purple flats, purple haze, purple hearts, purple ozoline, recycle, royal blues, Russian sickles, sacrament, sandoz, smears, snowmen, squirrel, strawberries, strawberry fields, sugar, sugar cubes, sugar lumps, sunshine, tabs, tail lights, ticket, trip, twenty-five, vodka acid, wedding bells, wedges, white dust, white lightning, white Owsley's, window glass, window pane, yellow, yellow dimples, yellow sunshine, zen, zig zag man.
APPEARANCE:
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).
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