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LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

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Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read "What the Dormouse Said" by John Markoff you could reach the conclusion that a fellowship of LSD-fueled Übermenschen existed during the 60's and 70's and we had the personal computer revolution as a result. And no, I'm not talking just about Steve Jobs and Apple, there were many people involved with the nascent computer industry who turned on, tuned in and dropped out at that time.

Unless you can link other eras of technological advance to LSD use this seems like a poor argument.

The article mentions Kary Mullis' use of LSD helped him develop the polymerase chain reaction, which revolutionized genetics and for which he won a Nobel Prize.

But I suspect from your tone that I could give a thousand examples and you wouldn't change your mind. C'est la vie.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#52
post #38

So we have Lsd, amphetamine, mescaline, ritalin, provigil as mind drugs. Anyone tried Ritalin or provigil long term? The army uses amphetamine & provigil during long term flying missing during critical operations. So what is illegal for ordinary citizens is legal for the state. Side not Steve Jobs tried a lot of drugs in India probably a door opener for his mind as have a lot of brilliant rock artists danger being no…

I used to take Ritalin, and it had serious negative effects on me after a while. When it would wear off I would become depressed and unable to do anything until the next morning when I would take it again. Since then I've been diagnosed with depression in addition to my ADHD, so it's possible that the Ritalin simply exacerbated an existing condition.

I do sometimes wonder if the depression is caused by the fact that I've taken stimulants of one kind or another for most of my adult life, as I don't recall ever being depressed as a child or teenager, at least not in the same way that I recall having ADHD.

I could talk about recreational drugs too (I used psychedelics from time to time in college), but I don't have much profound to say, aside from that you get out of them what you put in, and setting has a large effect on whether it's a mind-opening experience or not.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#54
post #21

Is it the same six people that keep posting this every 6 to 12 weeks on here? The usual caveats apply: 1. lsd is illegal, so no quality control and no certainty that that is what you are ingesting. 2. lsd was and is a mythological drug in every sense of the word. Nothing you know about it is true either to the good or to the bad. 3. Just because there are 5 decades of propaganda about the evils of lsd does not mean t…

> 1. lsd is illegal, so no quality control and no certainty that that is what you are ingesting. Non sequitur. Its legality has no bearing on quality control or authenticity. LSD is illegal so you are taking a legal risk.

If someone purchases prescription medications from a non-regulated online pharmacy in a remote, third-world country is that simply a legal risk too?

Unless you synthesized it yourself or have the ability to analyze it in a lab, you absolutely cannot be certain of quality or authenticity. This is what legally enforced regulatory standards are all about ensuring. The illegal nature of the drug trade not only lacks provision for that, it influences and informs the behavior of participants on the supply side for economic reasons too.

In a logical vacuum, yes, it is a legal risk. In practical application, the legal risk is often correlated with the quality risk too.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#55
post #38

So we have Lsd, amphetamine, mescaline, ritalin, provigil as mind drugs. Anyone tried Ritalin or provigil long term? The army uses amphetamine & provigil during long term flying missing during critical operations. So what is illegal for ordinary citizens is legal for the state. Side not Steve Jobs tried a lot of drugs in India probably a door opener for his mind as have a lot of brilliant rock artists danger being no…

> The army uses amphetamine & provigil during long term flying missing during critical operations. So what is illegal for ordinary citizens is legal for the state. i have no military experience, but wouldn't the army administer these drugs through medical professionals in a narrow set of circumstances, like a civilian doctor would? i doubt soldiers are allowed to take these meds whenever they want. amphetamines (adde…

A doctor is usually involved, but, they are still handed out almost like candy.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. lsd is illegal, so no quality control and no certainty that that is what you are ingesting. Non sequitur. Its legality has no bearing on quality control or authenticity. LSD is illegal so you are taking a legal risk.

If someone purchases prescription medications from a non-regulated online pharmacy in a remote, third-world country is that simply a legal risk too? Unless you synthesized it yourself or have the ability to analyze it in a lab, you absolutely cannot be certain of quality or authenticity. This is what legally enforced regulatory standards are all about ensuring. The illegal nature of the drug trade not only lacks prov…

Risk of mis-prescription: "one in 12 visits to the doctor in the US results in the patient receiving dangerous medications"

http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/Drug-Delivery/No-improv...

Risk of prescription being mis-filled: "An estimated 51.5 million errors occur during the filling of 3 billion prescriptions each year."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12688437?dopt=Abstract

Risk of manufacturing error in prescription drugs: "Dr. Collazo recently worked with a drug manufacturer that had a baseline rate of 4.7 errors per thousand units manufactured."

http://www.fdanews.com/humanerrordrugdevice

Risk of ??????: "Three batches of Nurofen Plus in pharmacies in south London have been found to contain another drug, Seroquel XL 50mg, which is manufactured by AstraZeneca – a completely separate drug company."

http://metro.co.uk/2011/08/25/nurofen-plus-containing-antips...

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#57
post #32

I am just sad that this article would be illegal in my country, France.

Really? What is the law?

Article L.3421-4 of the "Code de la Santé Publique" (law concerning public health) forbids incitation/encouragement of the usage or traffic of classified narcotics, even if it does not lead to anyone actually using them. The sentence is heaviest if it's done near schools. Isn't there something vaguely equivalent in US law?

The interesting part is that the act of presenting classified narcotics under a favorable light (in press for example) is punishable under the same article.

In some regards this is pretty vague, and I've seen government-funded studies that end up presenting cannabis "in a favorable light", so I'm not sure how much this is enforced.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#58
post #38

So we have Lsd, amphetamine, mescaline, ritalin, provigil as mind drugs. Anyone tried Ritalin or provigil long term? The army uses amphetamine & provigil during long term flying missing during critical operations. So what is illegal for ordinary citizens is legal for the state. Side not Steve Jobs tried a lot of drugs in India probably a door opener for his mind as have a lot of brilliant rock artists danger being no…

I've been taking adderall(similar to Ritalin) since I was about 12, I'm 22 now. I have actual ADHD and cannot function at work without it, I cannot focus on one thing for more than a few minutes tops. I'm a software developer so this is a huge problem. I had hoped I would grow out of this so I didn't have to take it but I don't see that happening anymore. AFAIK it hasn't had any negative long term effects on me, shor…

There was an attempt to put me on Ritalin in school. This was quickly aborted because my mother was told about it and almost defenestrated the vice principal over it (third story window, so that counts for something).

Giving continued-used psychotropics to developing brains is an excellent recipe for fostering lifelong addiction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zidiWe9yq88

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

#59
An example of LSD's effect on art: [1] More details here [2]

Then there's the visionary art[3] of Alex Gray.[4]

There's a great book that documents studies done on LSD's effect on creativity.[5]

On the subject of music, LSD famously influenced the Beatles,[6] and many other 60's bands... and which, in turn influenced many others. In fact, there's a very good chance that most if not all of the contemporary music you like to was directly or indirectly influenced by drugs of one sort or another.

[1] - http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzp00sBETe1qa88x9.jpg

[2] - http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portrai...

[3] - https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=alex%20grey&t...

[4] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Grey

[5] - http://www.amazon.com/LSD-Spirituality-Creative-Process-Grou...

[6] - http://beatles.wikia.com/wiki/LSD

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