What is LSD?

LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide), commonly called "acid," 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.

Even in very minute doses (for example, 50 to 100 micrograms - a microgram is 1/1,000,000 of a gram), LSD can significantly alter one's perceptions to the point of hallucination - that is, one sees or hears things that don't, in reality, exist. Hence LSD's classification as a hallucinogen.

Pure LSD is a white, odorless crystalline powder that dissolves in water. Because an effective dose of the pure drug is almost invisible, it is mixed with other substances, such as sugar, and packaged in capsules, tablets, or solutions, or spotted on to gelatin sheets or pieces of blotting paper.

The availability of LSD has increased in the United States in the last 2 to 3 years; the hallucinogen is available in at least retail quantities in virtually every state. The sources of supply for most of the LSD available in the United States are believed to be centered in northern California.

At the wholesale production and trafficking levels, LSD remains tightly controlled by relatively small, fraternal California-based organizations that have evaded drug law enforcement operations successfully for over two decades. Mid-level distribution networks generally are comprised of individuals who have known each other through long years of association and common interests.

Over the past several years, an increasing number of individuals have attempted to manufacture LSD. Many of these individuals are not associated with the traditional northern California groups that are believed to have produced most of the LSD available in the United States since the late 1960's.

Compared with methamphetamine, PCP, and other illicit drugs manufactured in the United States, few LSD laboratories have been located or seized. Six illegal LSD laboratories have been confiscated by the DEA since 1981; however, there have been no seizures since 1987. This is due primarily to the shifting of law enforcement focus to target and dismantle the rising number of cocaine trafficking organizations established during the crack epidemic that began during the mid-1980's and continues into the present.

Public and private mail systems appear to be the primary means used for the transportation and distribution of wholesale and retail quantities of LSD. LSD is relatively inexpensive with an average street dosage unit or "hit" costing about $5 and often as little as $1 or $2. Retail-level doses are available primarily in paper form; microdot tablets and gelatin squares also have been encountered.

LSD is ingested orally. A microdot tablet or square of the perforated LSD paper is placed in the user's mouth, chewed or swallowed. Paper squares are most common because their small size makes them easy to conceal and ingest. Also, because LSD is not injected or smoked, paraphernalia are not required.

Physical Signs of LSD Usage

 The effects of any drug depend on several factors:

• the amount taken at one time
• the user's past drug experience
• the manner in which the drug is taken
• the circumstances under which the drug is taken (the place, the user's psychological and emotional stability, the presence of other people, the simultaneous use of alcohol or other drugs, etc.).

These factors are especially important with LSD. In fact, the effects of LSD on any user, or even on the same user at different times, are difficult to predict.

Short-term effects appear soon after a single dose and disappear within a few hours. Appearing first are physical effects including: numbness; muscle weakness and trembling; rapid reflexes; increased blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature; impaired motor skills and coordination; dilated pupils; and, occasionally, nausea and seizures. One of most noticable signs is laughter, often at things that aren't particularly funny and often uncontrolable.

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

But many users experience unpleasant reactions to LSD. Fear, anxiety, and depression may occur, even with experienced users who have had no prior adverse reactions. Calling these reaction "bad trips," users feel that they are losing their identity, disintegrating into nothingness, and that there is no reality.

Pseudo-hallucinations give way to terrifying true hallucinations, sometimes resulting in violence, homicide, or suicide. In some cases, this psychotic state lasts several days or even longer. Because adverse effects are particularly common among new users, early LSD trips are usually taken in the company of experienced users who can often curb acute panic reactions.

No deaths resulting exclusively from LSD overdose have been reported. Cases of suicide, however, have occurred during or following LSD intoxication. Other results of violent or hazardous behavior include accidental (sometimes bizarre) fatalities, homicides, and self-mutilations.

Long-term effects appear after repeated use over a lengthy period, or some time after the short-term effects of a single dose have worn off. "Flashbacks" (unpredictable, spontaneous recurrences of the original LSD experience without the user's taking the drug again) can occur weeks, months, or even up to a year after the last encounter with the drug. Typically, flashbacks last only a few minutes or less and are usually visual images ranging from formless colors to frightening hallucinations. The cause of the flashbacks is unknown, but they frequently occur after an LSD user smokes marijuana.

Chronic LSD use may result in prolonged depression and anxiety.

Tolerance and Dependence

Tolerance to LSD's hallucinatory and physical effects develops rapidly, making larger amounts of the drug necessary to produce the same effects. Often, within a few days of consecutive daily doses, no amount of the drug will produce the desired effects.

Although some scientific research seems to indicate that using LSD doesn't produce physical dependency, there is no question that LSD is psychologically addicting. In fact, some regular LSD users become so psychologically dependent on the drug that the need to keep taking it becomes a compulsion.

Common Nicknames for LSD

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.