Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

Imagine seeing radiant colors, rippling surfaces, and inanimate objects come to life. One of the most controversial, well known, and most used hallucinogens is lysergic acid diethylamide- LSD. It has influenced hundreds of thousands including The Beatles, famous chemist Laureate Kary Mullis; even the founder of Microsoft has admitted, "Computers would not have advanced as quickly as they have without it" (Hunt). Hallucinogenic drugs alter a person's perceptions of reality as well as the senses. The question is: why?

LSD is a compound found in the ergot fungus that grows on damp rye grain (Hoffmann). It is the most potent and widely used hallucinogen in the United States. The chemical LSD was discovered by accident in 1943 by Dr. Albert Hoffmann. After accidentally absorbing some through his fingertips, Hoffmann began to feel its psychedelic effects. His experience led him to ingest 250 micrograms of the substance the next day for personal study. That very same day, he rode his bicycle home and began to experience hallucinations. That day became known to him as bicycle day. The following is his account:

I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world

became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain inrelief;

they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing.

Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the

eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing

kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation,

which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared.

what had caused this condition

- - Laboratory Notes (1943)

(Hoffmann)

The drug itself is quickly absorbed and almost as quickly eliminated from the body. After two hours, "less than 10 percent of the drug is still active" (Parker). Although the drug has weakened, it is still traveling throughout the blood stream causing effects similar to the fight or flight response of adrenaline. Pupils dilate, blood vessels tighten, and heart rate and body temperature increases.

Serotonin is the one of the 4 neurotransmitters of the brain. It is located in the highest part of the vertebrae. Few molecules can penetrate what is known in biology as the "blood brain barrier" (McClay). The neurotransmitters have a unique molecular shape and can only fit in a specific slot on the synaptic surface. Mind-altering drugs "all operate on mimicking one of the neurotransmitters" (McClay).

*Wikipedia

McClay explains that LSD not only penetrates the blood brain barrier but slips into the transmission site inside the nerve cells themselves. It can mimic serotonin to the point where the body thinks it's serotonin and consequently shoots it across the "synaptic gap." On the other side, the LSD is accepted, but the impulse of electricity is redirected to pathways that have been used less frequently. "Specifically, LSD affects the oldest parts of the brain first" (McClay). Then the bloodstream takes it to the back of the brain to the location of sight interpretation, and then up through the area of hearing, the cerebellum, other sense interpretive centers, and the motor areas.

Today, a typical dose of LSD ranges between 20 and 80 micrograms (millionths of a gram). It can be absorbed through any part of the body. Jack Cowan, a mathematician and neuroscientist at the University of Chicago says an LSD trip is really a journey into the brain (Hunt). "It's just the innate tendency of the brain to make patterns when it goes unstable"(Mackenzie). No matter how it gets in there, once it's inside the body, LSD sets out on an incredible microscopic trip of its own. Hallucinations come in an "endless variety, as individual as dreams" (Mackenzie).

Patterns of Clinical Effects for Hallucinogens of the LSD Group*

Time Clinical Effects

0-30 minutes Dizziness, nausea, weakness, twitches, anxiety,

30-60 minutes Blurred vision, increased contrasts, visual patterns,

Feelings of unreality, lack of coordination, tremulous

speech

1-4hr Increased visual effects, wavelike motions, impaired

Distance perception, euphoria, slow passage of time

...