Lysergic acid diethylamide, colloquially known as LSD or “acid”, is a popular hallucinogenic drug, but just what is it?
This drug was originally discovered in 1938, synthesized from ergot. The effects of LSD will vary depending on a number of factors that include the user’s settings, mood and expectation.
LSD as sold on the street takes the form of small tablets called “microdots”, but it can also be found in the form of a capsule as well. LSD is commonly sold in the form of small, absorbent papers with cartoon character designs on them. The LSD experience itself is a rather prolonged one at up to 12 hours in duration. The onset of the experience occurs after 20 to 30 minutes of having ingested the illicit substance.
LSD can induce feelings of greater self-awareness and inter-connectedness in the user and minor visual alterations. At times the user can experience quasi-spiritual feelings and even experience contact with what they experience to be entities.
Physical manifestations of this drug can include pupil dilation, increased wakefulness, and a reduction in the appetite of the user. A significant risk of ingesting LSD that cannot be discounted is the tendency of this drug to induce panic attacks in users of this drug. More disturbingly, LSD has been shown to possibly precipitate the advent of schizophrenia in otherwise healthy patients when they have a family history of schizophrenia.