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LSD |
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D-lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly called acid, LSD, or LSD-25, is a powerful semisynthetic psychedelic drug. A typical dose of LSD is only 100 to 150 micrograms, a tiny amount roughly equal to one-tenth the weight of a grain of sand. Threshold effects can be felt with as little as 20 micrograms. LSD causes a powerful intensification and alteration of senses, feelings, memories, and self-awareness for 6 to 14 hours. In addition, LSD usually produces visual effects such as moving geometric patterns, "trails" behind moving objects, and brilliant colors. LSD usually does not produce hallucinations in the strict sense, but instead illusions and vivid daydream-like fantasies. At higher concentrations it can cause synaesthesia. LSD first became popular recreationally among a small group of mental health professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists during the 1950s, as well as by socially prominent and politically powerful individuals such as Henry and Clare Boothe Luce to whom the early LSD researchers were connected socially. Since 1967, underground recreational and therapeutic LSD use has continued in many countries, supported by a black market and popular demand for the drug. Legal, academic research experiments on the effects and mechanisms of LSD are also conducted on occasion, but rarely involve human subjects. LSD manufacturers and traffickers can be categorized into two groups: A few Large scale producers and an equally limited number of small, clandestine chemists. Overall, LSD production in the United States is extremely limited, with very few individuals or groups capabable of production. One large scale organization was identified by the DEA as run by chemists (referred to as cooks) William Leonard Pickard, a Harvard-educated organic chemist, and Clyde Apperson. These men worked in close association with organized traffickers. The government claims that these two men were responsible for the vast majority of LSD sold illegally in the United States and a significant amount of the LSD sold in Europe, and that black market LSD availability dropped by 95% after the two were arrested in 2000
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