LSD

LSD is an abbreviation for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, one of the strongest hallucinatory drugs. LSD is measured it in thousandths of a gram (milligrams) with as little as 25 milligrams needed to produce hallucinations. Illegal drug dealers sell LSD in tablets, capsule, or liquid form. Users usually swallow it by putting it on a sugar cube or licking it off paper, but a minority injects it.

LSD is defined by the U.S. government as a Schedule I substance. This means that LSD has been determined to have no approved medical use, to be unsafe to use under any circumstances, and to have a high potential for abuse.

Because LSD is a Schedule I drug, state and federal penalties for possessing and trafficking in it are severe. For example, dealers can receive life in prison for a third offense.

LSD Hallucinations

Most users take between 50 and 100mg. The effect of LSD lasts about eight to 12 hours and wears off gradually. LSD is usually derived from a fungus, but natural versions can be found in certain plants, such as morning glory seeds and rye.

People under the influence of LSD enter a distorted reality. Colors may become sounds, and their sense of time and space changes. The person often has delusions along with visual hallucinations. Users’ body temperature rises and their heart rate increases. They will often sweat, lose their appetite, and experience body tremors and dry mouth.

LSD was extremely popular in the 1960’s among American youth, many of whom embraced the popular motto “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” The idea was that once you took a mind-altering “trip” on LSD and opened “the doors of perception,” as Aldous Huxley put it, you would never be content to work in corporate America in a gray flannel suit. Instead, you would “drop out” of the establishment and lead an authentic life. Proponents of this philosophy made it their mission to “turn on” an entire generation.

As more people started using LSD, experts gained further insights into the drug’s effects and damages.

Negative Effects of LSD

Not everyone has an enjoyable experience with LSD. People on “bad acid trips” have had nightmarish experiences. Many LSD users experience “flashbacks” days, months, or even years after tripping. Flashbacks are a reoccurrence of the original “trip,” and can happen at inopportune times, such as when a person is driving. If the original LSD experience was negative, the flashback comes back in that same nightmarish way.

LSD can also cause strange mental states that mimic mental illness. Some people experience paranoia, or the terrible feeling that someone or something is out to get them. Others lose all sense of identity and believe they are merging into walls or other people. Still others feel they are superhuman and impervious to pain. Some go into convulsions or even catatonic states.

People who frequently abuse LSD may develop abnormal brain wave patterns that can been observed via an electroencephalogram. LSD is particularly dangerous to use during pregnancy, because it increases the risk of stillbirths and miscarriages.

LSD, Teens, & Adolescents

New government research indicates that LSD seems to be making a comeback. Members of the younger generation may not be aware of the problems LSD has been associated with in the past:

• According to the annual Monitoring the Future survey of drug behaviors among U.S. youth 11.3 percent of teens and adolescents reported having tried LSD in 1975.
• By 1998, the usage rate had risen to12.6 percent.
• The 2004 version of the MTF study revealed that  9.7 percent of teens and adolescents age 12 and above had tried LSD at least once, and 0.2 had had used the drug in the past year.
• Among 12th graders who were surveyed in 2004, two percent reported having used LSD in the previous 12 months.

People tend to stop or decrease their use of LSD over time, and the drug is not considered to be addictive. However, users can build up a tolerance to it, meaning that they need to take increasingly larger doses of the drug to achieve the desired effect. This is a dangerous practice because the effects of LSD are so unpredictable.