LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is a synthetic (man-made) drug that has been abused for its hallucinogenic properties since the 1960s. It is one of the major drugs making up the hallucinogen class of drugs. These drugs cause profound distortions in a person’s perception of reality by disrupting the interaction of nerve cells and the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Distributed throughout the brain and spinal cord, the serotonin system is involved in the control of behavioral, perceptual, and regulatory systems, including mood, hunger, body temperature, sexual behavior, muscle control, and sensory perception. Under the influence of LSD, people see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but do not exist. Some hallucinogens also produce rapid, intense emotional swings.
The effects of LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken; the user’s personality, mood, and expectations and the surroundings in which the drug is used. Usually, the user feels the first effects of the drug 30 to 90 minutes after taking it. The physical effects include dilated pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors.
Sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs. The user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. If taken in a large enough dose, the drug produces delusions and visual hallucinations. The user’s sense of time and self changes. Sensations may seem to “cross over,” giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic.
LSD is sold on the street in tablets, capsules, and occasionally in liquid form. It is an odorless and colorless substance with a slightly bitter taste that is usually ingested orally. It is a liquid and often added to absorbent paper, such as blotter paper, and divided into small decorated squares, with each square representing one dose. It has also been added to sugar cubes and gelatin squares.
Some LSD users experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings, fear of losing control, fear of insanity and death, and despair while using LSD. Some fatal accidents have occurred during states of LSD intoxication.
Many LSD users experience flashbacks, recurrence of certain aspects of a person’s experience, without the user having taken the drug again. A flashback occurs suddenly, often without warning, and may occur within a few days or more than a year after LSD use. Flashbacks usually occur in people who use hallucinogens chronically or have an underlying personality problem; however, otherwise healthy people who use LSD occasionally may also have flashbacks.
Bad trips and flashbacks are only part of the risks of LSD use. LSD users may experience relatively long-lasting psychoses, such as schizophrenia or severe depression. It is difficult to determine the extent and mechanism of the LSD involvement in these illnesses.
Street names for LSD:
100s, 25s, A, Acid, Aeon Flux, Acido (Spanish), Back breakers (LSD & Strychnine), Battery Acid, Beast, Beavis & Butthead, Birdhead, Black acid (LSD & PCP), Black Star, Black Sunshine, Black Tabs, Barrels, Big D, Blotter Cube, Blotter Acid, Blue (Acid, Barrels, Chairs, Cheers, Heaven, Microdot, Mist, Moons or Vials), Book (100 doses of LSD), Boomers, Brown Bombers, Brown Dots, California Sunshine, Candy Flipping (LSD & Ecstasy), Cap, Chief, Chocolate Chips, Cid, Coffee, Comic Book, Conductor, Contact Lens, Crackers, Crystal Tea, Cube (1 oz LSD), Cupcakes…
D, Deeda, Detergent, Domes, Doses, Dots, Double Dome, Electric Kool Aid, Elvis, Felix the Cat, Fields, Flash, Flat Blues, Frisco Special, Ghost, God’s Flesh, Golden Dragon, Goofy’s, Grape Parfait, Green Double Domes, Green Wedge, Grey Shields, Hats, Hawaiian Sunshine, Hawk, Haze, Headlight, Heavenly Blue, LBJ, Lens, Lime Acid, Loony Toons, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds…
Mellow Yellow, Mickey’s, Mighty Quinn, Microdots, Mind Detergent, One Way, Optical Illusions, Orange (Barrels, Cubes, Haze, Micro or Wedges), Outer Limits (Crack and LSD), Pane, Paper Acid, Peace, Pearly Gates, Pellets, Pink (Blotters, Panthers, Robots, Wedges or Witches), Potato, Pure Love, Purple (Barrels, Flats, Gel Tabs, Haze, Hearts or Ozoline)…
Rainbow, Recycle, Red Lips, Royal Blues, Russian Sickles, Sheet Rocking (Crack and LSD), Smears, Snowmen, Strawberry Fields, Sugar (cubes or lumps), Sunshine, Superman, Tabs, tail lights, Ten Pack (1,000 dosage units of LSD), Ticket, Timothy Leary, Vodka Acid, Watercolors, Wedding Bells, Wedge, White Dust, White Lightening, Window glass, Window Pane, Yellow, Yellow Dimples, Ying Yang, Zen.
Slang for LSD Users:
Amp head, Acid Head, Acid freak, Animal, Explorers club (Group of LSD users), Strawberry (female who trades sex for LSD, crack or money to buy crack & LSD), Travel agent (LSD supplier)
LSD Terms:
Come Home (end LSD trip), Banana Split (Combination of 2C-B (Nexus) with other illicit substances, particularly LSD)
LSD is abused by teenagers and young adults in connection with raves, nightclubs and concert settings. They are at deadly risk of combining LSD with PCP, 2C-B, Meth, Cocaine, Special K and other lethal drugs. While LSD is thought of as being “past its prime” and not a popular drug, it’s very popular at Raves and parties for its hallucinogenic properties…”the possibility of hearing color and seeing music.”
(source: White House Drug Policy)
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Pat Graham is the author of the eBook: “Child Drug Addicts – Save Them While You Can”
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