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LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

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Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#381

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

MayeulC wrote: post #353
kerkeslager wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who have taken LSD have never seen any LSD either, because the dosage is so small. A strong dose is something like 300 micrograms--this amount of crystal is almost invisible to the naked eye. This also presents problems for chemists, because measuring out such small amounts is prohibitively difficult. So typically they dissolve a measurable amount (say, 30mg) into a volume of liquid (water or alcohol) and…

Thanks a lot for this insightful comment. I guess it could be hidden in any liquid or absorbing medium (paper, cardboard, textile, sponge, whatever... thus making it easy to conceal). I had no idea the drug was that potent... Presumably some neurotoxins have the same potency? This is quite scary to think of.

LSD also seems to be extraordinary non-toxic.

This document (PDF) from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) claims:

The LD50 of LSD varies from species to species. The most sensitive species is the rabbit, with an LD50 of 0.3 mg/kg i.v. [52]. The LD50 for rats (16.5 mg/kg i.v.) is much higher [52,53], though mice tolerate doses of 46– 60 mg/kg i.v. [52,54]. These animals expired by paralysis and respiratory failure. Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) have been injected with doses as high as 1 mg/kg i.v. without any lasting somatic effects [55].

There have been no documented human deaths from an LSD overdose. Eight individuals who accidentally con- sumed a very high dose of LSD intranasally (mistaking it for cocaine) had plasma levels of 1000–7000 μg per 100 mL blood plasma and suffered from comatose states, hy- perthermia, vomiting, light gastric bleeding, and respira- tory problems. However, all survived with hospital treat- ment and without residual effects.

https://maps.org/research-archive/w3pb/2008/2008_Passie_2306...

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#382

Post by onemoresoop »

skosch wrote: post #221
onemoresoop wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The former Pink Floyd band member Syd Barret fried his brains from LSD but it is not clear whether he ODed or did too much of it over a long period of time. Once the initial paranoia subsided he became a complete recluse. Having said that, I think LSD is a fantastic drug but that is not for everyone. I’ve got a friend who did it constantly for over 2 years and he is a completely sane person. He claims it was one of t…

> fried his brains from LSD This, too, is an armchair diagnosis and unnecessarily sensational language. According to Wikipedia: > Asked if Barrett may have had Asperger's syndrome, his sister Rosemary Breen said that he and his siblings were "all on the spectrum". > Waters maintains that Barrett suffered "without a doubt" from schizophrenia. In an article published in 2006, Gilmour was quoted as saying: "In my opinio…

“Fried his brains” is a figure of speech and not a diagnosis. Not to be taken it literally that Syd fried his brains as in frying an omelette. But after doing a lot of LSD seemed to be a turning point in his life.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#383

Post by oefnak »

ElectricNoodle wrote: post #81
jowsie wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite this 1P-LSD is still being sold in the UK in a supposedly legal way. It's sold as micro dosing pills that are low enough dose to not produce any psychedelic effects if you just take one. There's nothing stopping you from taking 10, though. (I have no idea if this supposed workaround would actually be seen as legal if taken to court, but the company has been active and selling in the UK for over a year now, th…

Looks like they ship from the Netherlands. Always worrying ordering anything from there although I've never had any issues.

Why is that worrying?

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#384

Post by gverrilla »

filoeleven wrote: post #367
gverrilla wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 99,9% positive demand for LSD is not higher than it has ever been in the US because of the hippie era, when it was huge. The problem with LSD as a product is not only that few people use it. Amongst those that use it, most won't use many times. Compared to my social circle I'm a pretty heavy user, had around 30 trips in the span of almost 15 years. Most people I have met didn't trip more than 3 or 4 times in thei…

You’re probably right about the demand. Our population is higher now, and there’s the microdosing trend to account for, but it’s certainly not in the public consciousness in the same way cannabis is—I’m almost as certain that that IS higher than ever. I’m curious about your last statement. Scaling makes sense as a cost factor, but are you saying that lower barriers for production would increase the cost? That seems b…

I perceive microdosing as a very fast dying fad, but it's only an opinion of course.

About the cost, the way I understand it, the definitive factor is scalability. It's MUCH more scalable than the production of other drugs. If this was not the case, it probably would be VERY expensive, because of the very high barriers to entry and very low and distributed demand.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#386

Post by james_s_tayler »

rdmirza wrote: post #363
newbie789 wrote: post #341

This is delightful news. I really hope in the coming decades the research of organizations like MAPS get more attention and become completely mainstream. Making psychedelics Schedule 1 set us back decades that could have been spent doing important research on a large number of mental health conditions.

MAPS (multidisciplinary association of psychedelic studies) is systematically demonstrating the positive effects of psychedelics. Their most impressive work is in PTSD. In Phase 2 trials, they took people with established PTSD (for years) and undertook ~3 guided psychotherapy sessions with MDMA. Within 2 months, 53% no longer met criteria for PTSD and at 12 months 68% didn't. Far more efficacious that anything else w…

EMDR also works.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#387

Post by kerkeslager »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #381
MayeulC wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks a lot for this insightful comment. I guess it could be hidden in any liquid or absorbing medium (paper, cardboard, textile, sponge, whatever... thus making it easy to conceal). I had no idea the drug was that potent... Presumably some neurotoxins have the same potency? This is quite scary to think of.

LSD also seems to be extraordinary non-toxic. This document (PDF) from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) claims: The LD50 of LSD varies from species to species. The most sensitive species is the rabbit, with an LD50 of 0.3 mg/kg i.v. [52]. The LD50 for rats (16.5 mg/kg i.v.) is much higher [52,53], though mice tolerate doses of 46– 60 mg/kg i.v. [52,54]. These animals expired by paralys…

You're correct that no one dies from LSD overdose, but there are other serious concerns here. High doses of LSD can result in hallucinations so extreme that the person is not seeing reality--they're literally blind. A rational reaction to this might be to sit down and wait for the trip to pass, but people on giant doses on hallucinogens may also be experiencing high energy and restlessness which cause them to move around and run into things, fall down stairs, etc.

I met a person who, while on a ~1/2 lb dose of psylocybin mushrooms, fell face first down stairs onto a train platform without even putting his hands out, breaking his nose, smashing out all his front teeth, and getting a severe concussion--it's easy to see how this could have been much worse had he fallen off the train platform.

And that's just the physical effects. I've met a few people who were fingerprinted (moisten a finger, press it into a tray of crystalline LSD, and consume whatever sticks to your finger) and at those doses, they all reported long-term hallucinations (in medical parlance, hallucinatory persisting perception disorder or HPPD). Others were diagnosed with PTSD after bad trips (one reported being "psychically attacked" by evil spirits, another was convinced that everyone was trying to kill him).

There are numerous cases of people being assaulted sexually or violently while on hallucinogens, and feeling that they could have defended themselves had they not been tripping. That's not to say they are to blame for the actions of their attackers. People who are on drugs are vulnerable, but the reaction I'd like to see is not to blame them, but instead for communities to care for them and protect them while they're vulnerable.

Now, I'm well aware that as someone volunteering in harm reduction, I only got to see the bad cases. For every patient reporting a negative experience, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who use hallucinogens and have positive experiences. I'm not against drug use, I'm merely advocating that people do so in an educated, responsible manner, understanding the very real risks they're taking. Just because the LD50s of LSD and psilocybin are very high, doesn't mean that a high dose of these drugs is not risky.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#388

Post by dfalzone »

pmoriarty wrote: post #333
mistermann wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's tons of evidence available online, but a big problem is a lack of agreement on what constitutes "credible evidence". There is a fairly significant amount of clinical evidence available (despite it being effectively banned from study for decades), but the vast majority of evidence available is anecdotal reports from users. It should be noted that while it's true that this class of evidence lacks a "proper" (st…

What a fascinating trip report. When I first heard of Harris about 15 years ago, back when psychedelic use was still a relatively underground phenomenon and the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance was just beginning, I never dreamed I'd ever see a militant atheist like him transform in to a psychedelic advocate taking "heroic" mushroom doses and having what could be described as powerful mystical experience, even if he…

> about 15 years ago, back when psychedelic use was still a relatively underground phenomenon and the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance was just beginning,

15 years ago? Huh, I thought it had only started a couple years ago.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#389

Post by dfalzone »

masklinn wrote: post #69
non-entity wrote: post #26

Jesus 2 life sentences for manufacturing LSD? Wonder what people were getting for drugs that actually kill people.

As zelly notes below the US has mandatory life sentence for certain amounts of drug production. Under 21 USC § 848(b), a life sentence is automatic for the principal administrator of a "continuing criminal enterprise" involving in excess of 300 times the quantities listed at 21 USC § 841(b)(1)(B), which for LSD would be (v): > 1 gram or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of lysergic acid di…

Kilos? Jesus, what would that even look like? I can't imagine that that much LSD would exist in the world at the same time. Amazing

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#390

Post by Doxin »

kitteh wrote: post #10
smabie wrote: post #8

For some reasons the feds in the 90s were unusually interested in prosecuting psychedelics. I'm of the opinion that all drugs should be legal, but even if I wasn't, I think I would still question why LSD manufacturers were getting such long sentences around that time. Never really made sense to me.

Friend of a friend got caught with two sheets in the 90s and I think he got 20 years for each one. Downstate Illinois. My recollection was the weight of the blotter paper was considered as the drug itself and that easily increased the federal sentencing guidelines.

> My recollection was the weight of the blotter paper was considered as the drug itself and that easily increased the federal sentencing guidelines.

Which is of course the entire reason for switching away from using sugar cubes and to blotter paper as delivery media.

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