The Truth About LSD(lysergic acid diethylamide)

By Alix Templeman, Taylor Raphael, and Ben Overzat

What is LSD?

• LSD is the most potent hallucinogen known to man. It comes on a little piece of paper called a blotter and can be taken in tab form. The consumer puts the piece of paper on their tongue and lets it dissolve. When under the influence of LSD, you have no control over your body.

History

• Albert Hoffman was a chemist for Sandoz Pharmaceutical. He created LSD for the first time in 1938 in Basel, Switzerland. He was trying to create a blood stimulant.

• LSD’s hallucinogenic effects were unknown until 1943 when Hoffman accidentally consumed the drug.

• 1940s-1960s: LSD was used in experiments by psychiatrists; failed to discover any medical use for the drug

• Free samples were given out by Sandoz Pharmaceutical for the experiments. The broad distribution lead to a wide use of the substance.

History: How it spread

• In the 1960s, LSD was popularized by a psychologist, Timothy Leary. He encouraged American students to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” This created an entire counterculture of

drug abuse.

•The drug spread from America to the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. The use of LSD in the UK is significantly higher than any other part of the world.

• The Western Intelligence Community and military saw LSD as a potential chemical weapon.

• 1951: These organization began experiments.• They noted that the drug “is capable of rendering

whole groups of people, including military forces, indifferent to their surroundings and situations, interfering with planning and judgment, and even creating apprehension, uncontrollable confusion and terror.”

• This continued until the US banned the drug in 1967.

• The use of the drug declined in the 1980s, but picked up again in the 1990s. For a few years after 1998, LSD was used at dance clubs and all night raves by teens and young adults.

• Then in 2000, LSD usage dropped significantly.

Street Names

• Acid• Battery Acid• Boomers• Doses• Dots• Golden Dragon• Hippie• Loony Toons• Microdot

• Pane• Superman• Tab• Window Pane• Yellow Sunshine• Zen

Effects• You feel the effects of LSD 30 to 90

minutes after taking it.

•Dilated pupils

•Body temp. higher/lower

•Blood pressure/heart rate increase & decrease

•Sweating and chills

•Loss of appetite

•Sleeplessness

•Tremors

•Visual changes

•Dry mouth

•Fixated on intensity of colors

•Spaced out bliss/ terror

•“enlightenment feeling”

•Terrifying thoughts

•Despair

•Change of sense of time and self

•Sensations “cross-over”

Risks

• Depends on amount taken

• Bad trips can go on up to 12 hrs – some people never recover

• Can fall into psychosis

• Can get flashbacks of previous LSD trips

• Can fall into deep depression

• People get addicted because they want to recreate previous experiences

Facts!

• Europe – 4.2% of 15yr – 24yr have taken LSD at least once

• The percent of people in this age group have exceeded 1% in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Hungary, and Poland

• Since 1975, the National Institute on Drugs Abuse annually surveys highscool seniors on drug usage

• Between 1975 and 1997, the lowest period of LSD usage was in 1986 at 7.2% of hs seniors using LSD

• It went from 4.4% in 1985 to 8.4% in 1997.

• It was recorded that in January of 2008, 3.1 million people in the US from 12yrs to 25 yrs said they’ve used LSD.