LSD

What is LSD?

LSD stands for: Dextro lysergic acid diethylamide tartarate-25. It is a man made drug. It was a little known curiosity up to a few years ago. Toda LSD is among the most potent -and most lethal- of the dangerous drugs. It is as Time magazine described it, "a brain eater"

It is non-addctive. But like opium and heroin, it is very hazardous, very dangerous. it is at the top of the psychedelic ladder.

LSD is so potent, laboratory test show, that a single ounce can gie 300,00 doses. It is 100 times more powerful than cocaine or peyote. A pin point of LSD is enough to blast a user's mind off to an uncertain journey.

It affects the central nervous system primaly. It works, therefore, in the brain. It creates, in its action, changes in the user's mood and behavior, perception and sensation.

LSD is aken orally. But it is also injected. Its effects last as long as 72 hours.

How Is LSD Taken?

LSD is usually taken orally. But it is also injected.

It is put in sugar cubes, candies, cookies, asperins, bufferins, colored tablets, liquor, bread and backs of postage stamps when taken orally.

It is not a quick-action drug, except when "mainline~' or injected into a vein and blood stream. When taken orally, it takes effect within 20 minutes to one hour; when injected, it activates in several minutes.

Its effects last as long as 72 hours.

Acidheads prefer to make their LSD trips out of doors (by the sea or a lake, in the mountains or woods). They also set up "sounds" (music, like Ravi Shankar's) and colors (strobe lights) when they take LSD. These make, they explain, for "good trips."

LSD, like any abuse drug's, depends upon the mood and makeup (emotional, intellectual, mental) of the abuser, the amount or dose of the drug, the atmosphere or setting in which the drug is taken. Secondly, LSD, more than any other drug, has a most unpredictable effect. Given these, it has been shown: the presence of a "sitter" or "guide" is no guarantee against trouble; "bad trips" are common in "acid" sessions where "sitters" are present.

It is a false reliance, therefore, to think that an LSD abuser, particularly the starter, is safe when he takes LSD under the guidance of a "travel guide." There, too, is the danger that the so called "guide" may not be that experienced and only worsen a "bad trip" by giving the "bad trip" victim all kinds of counteragents. What Are LSD's Common Dangers?

Hospitals have flashed "LSD dangers." These include:

Panic. An LSD user cannot stop the LSD action. He may fear he is losing his mind, especially if the LSD effect is a "bad trip." When this happens, he may panic, cause injury or death to himself.

Paranoia. The LSD user may feel someone wants to control his mind, harm or kill him. He becomes increasingly suspicious. He may hurt or kill the object of his LSD-made fear. This feeling lasts 72 hours after the LSD has worn off.
Mental Unbalance. As a result of panic and paranoia, the LSD user may get mentally unbalanced. This lasts weeks, months, even years. It requires psychiatric care to cure.
Flashback. When a flashback occurs, the LSD victim may become insane or driven to suicide. (See What Is a Flash- back? above).
Heart Failure. LSD has led to fatal convulsions. "His heart couldn't take it," as a doctor diagnosed an LSD death. It was: heart failure. Cause: LSD.

Accidental Death or Injury. When the LSD user is on a "trip," he may feel he can fly or float, leap out of a high window or tree, fall to his death. Or he may think lie is invincible, walk in front of a car and suffer injuries or even get killed.
Recently, in the U.S.: a young mother beheaded her baby. She was on a "bad trip." In another case, a young man in Brooklyn murdered his mother-jn4aw for no reason that was apparent to him after his LSD episode. In yet another case, an erstwhile "A" law student dug his eyeballs out of their sockets with his bare fingers; he was on LSD.

What Are LSD's Physical Effects?

An average LSD dose is a mere speck in size. But this small speck is powerful enough to keep the LSD user on a "trip" for 8 to 16 hours.

The physical effects are:

A speeding of heart and pulse beats.
A rise in blood pressure and body temperature.
Cold and sweaty palms; shaking of hands and feet.
A flushed face or paleness.
Widely dilated eye pupils.
Chills with goose pirnples.
Nausea, convulsions, vomiting.
Loss of appetite.
The effects disappear as the LSD action subsides.

What Are LSD's Mental Effects?

The psychological or mental effects of LSD may be divided into three groupings:

Changes in the Senses. The impact of LSD on the senses is striking: initially, the outlines of objects begin to waver and distort; in LSD's full effects, flat objects look luminous, colors appear to "run," a glow or halo may appear over another person's head. This phenomenon is a loosening of the normal boundaries of perception; the function of perceiving, organizing and interpreting sense impressions are severely affected by LSD as they reach the brain.

"Hallucinations," which LSD takers report, are among LSD's effects in this grouping. Sounds are "seen" or "felt," colors are "heard" or "tasted," objects "take life" and "pulsate," 3-D forms unfold in geometric or psychedelic patterns. It is, as Dr. Jerome Levine of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health puts it, "a false sensory perception without a basis in external reality." In plain talk, what the LSD abuser sees, hears or feels "arises from within oneself," is not rooted in objective reality.

Changes in Emotions. Emotionally, the effect of LSD is to sharpen or exaggerate the ups and downs a person normally experiences. The usual balancing of emotions is diminished, if not totally shattered. He becomes less stable, if not completely mentally unstable. Thus, LSD abusers are given to rapid and sharp shifts of mood, like: breaking into uproarious laughter for no apparent reason, then suddenly becoming very sad and depressed over no cause.

Actually, it is all in his personality and mood. It is enhanced by the action of LSD. In the LSD state, he can be gripped by emotional chaos; he can be seized by overwhelming fright, break into irrational out bursts of temper. He has no control over his emotions; he s fueled and propelled by the "acid" in him. He can suffer, terefpre, a mental breakdown, which is common among LSD trippers.

Changes in Thinking. LSD's effects on the LSD abuser's thought processes are just as marked as on his percep- tions and emotions. His thinking is impaired, yielding: a false sense of time, disconcern about the future, altered mental images of himself and others, damaged capacity of mental recall and performance. Contrary to claims of the sc-called "priests" of LSD, LSD does not expand and, rather, restricts the range of the LSD abuser's consciousness. LSD abusers, for example, have been found to be unable to make simple arithmetical computations.

A mark of the LSD persons is: wistful thinking. They see

in their LSD experiences only what they wish to be true. This truth, their LSD truth, they hold, is the truth above all truths. It does not square off, of course, with reality; but that's how the LSD abuser, or acidhead, sees it.

How to Spot an LSD User?

An LSD user can be spotted by an alert person. Telltale signs of an LSD user are his strange behavior patterns:

Abrupt changes in personality.
Hallucinations.
Unusually profound statements involving self-awarness, God, the universe.
A sudden comprehension of life.
His physical surroundings become very important.
A widely varying mood. He may sit quietly. Or he may be seized by fear and tremor fits.
Signs are found, as well, in the LSD user's physical condition. He shows:

Widely dilated pupils.
Extreme sensitivity to light. (Thus, LSD users wear dark glasses even at night; they protect their eyes agalnst lights).
Sharp reflexes.
A marked sensitivity to colors.
A high body temperature. He gets sweaty.
Galloping hearbeat, irregular breathing.
Chills, fits, tremors.
Nausea, vomiting.
There, too, is: he looks drunk, but there is no smell of alcohol in hts breath.



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