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LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

psymposia.com

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Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#221

Post by skosch »

onemoresoop wrote: post #129
plmu wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been reports of huge overdosis, e.g. by miscalculation by a factor of 1000 or even more. The physical harm was little to none. The mental harm varied greatly, there were even some people who got improvements in pre-existing mental conditions; with lsd in general, but also with large overdoses in particular.

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 opinion, his nervous breakdown would have happened anyway. It was a deep-rooted thing. But I'll say the psychedelic experience might well have acted as a catalyst. Still, I just don't think he could deal with the vision of success and all the things that went with it."

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#222

Post by devenblake »

vikramkr wrote: post #137
peroporque wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand how people in the US are okay with this. Don't people care about justice at all over there?

You see giant protests occupying cities for weeks and your first thought is that americans are totally OK with the state of things? All those folks on the street in Hong kong - they must just be out there celebrating their loss of liberties! It's a big party!

There may be giant protests, but Americans continue to elect leaders that refuse to serve their interests.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#223

Post by refurb »

zelly wrote: post #13
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.

To make an example out of them and discourage others, prevent a cottage industry from forming. LSD manufacturing scales immensely. One lone wolf could create enough LSD to serve the whole United States demand, maybe even the global demand. LSD is also harder to manufacture. You generally need at least a MS degree and lab experience. The people who fit that profile tend to think about the future enough to respond to t…

My friend who is a pharmaceutical chemist said LSD is actually quite difficult to make, compared to other illicit drugs:

- Lysergic acid is a relatively fragile molecule and will fall apart if exposed to harsh reaction conditions. Compare that to say methamphetamine which can survive strong acids/bases.

- It’s also light sensitive, so you need to protect from light which is why you see the red light setup in LSD labs

- Purification is challenging as well.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#224

Post by 1024core »

yaktubi wrote: post #193
worldsayshi wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 20 years for each one That is incredible. For a crime that harms noone.

Not sure I’d agree with “harms noone.” I have taken LSD and easily walk in the middle of the road with no cause for concern. Imagine a child accidentally eating some of it, etc. Could be worse than a loaded gun. I’m all for legalizing natural stuff (mushrooms, cannabis, even coca plants) but once chemists start concentrating things or turning them into droplets it becomes extremely dangerous. For instance, mushrooms…

> Imagine a child accidentally eating some of it,..

When all else fails, won't somebody think of the children!!

That just goes to show how weak your argument is.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#225

Post by atom-morgan »

dEnigma wrote: post #218
marcrosoft wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be no victimless crimes! This man made a product that others willingly wanted for themselves. There are no victims here. This can be applied to seatbelts, helmet laws, etc.

I don't know. It could be traumatizing to kill someone in a rather unspectacular car crash just because they weren't using their seatbelt. Same for helmets.

The possibility of someone else's trauma shouldn't infringe on my freedom to ride a bike without a helmet.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#226

Post by mistermann »

CivBase wrote: post #105
tazjin wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The common miscommunication here is that people perceive the statement as saying "psychedelics are the ONLY way of learning certain things", whereas what they should perceive is "psychedelics are ONE (very efficient) way of learning certain things". The thing is that for people whose normal life does not include pursuing knowledge and understanding just for the sake of it (and I think this might be most people), it's…

Is there any credible evidence that psychedelics reliably and "efficiently" help people learn things?

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" (standards double blind placebo-controlled, etc) approach, it does not logically follow that it is therefore incorrect.

As for where to point skeptical-minded people, I agree with others that Sam Harris is one of the better resources.

Here is an article on his recent 5g "heroic dose" mushroom trip:

https://thethirdwave.co/neuroscientist-sam-harris-reports-on...

> “There’s no denying that there were parts of the experience that felt like an encounter with something other than my own mind,” Harris says, something that guided him “across the landscape of mind.” Many trippers, Harris notes, interpret this something as god or a universal consciousness. Harris suspends judgment. “My day job is not to be fooled by spurious ideas passed down from our ignorant ancestors, so I’m very slow to make claims about what I think is going on here,” he says. “I’m just reporting the character of the experience.” In the end, Harris says, “I thought of this as the mushroom itself.”

> Thus Harris captures the magic and intrigue of psychedelics: the parsimonious explanation for the encounters you feel on a big mushroom trip is that you’re being guided by a fungus. Harris himself is astounded. “The fact that there are landscapes of mind this vast lurking on the other side of a mushroom is simply preposterous,” Harris goes on. “It’s as though we lived in a universe where, if you just reached into your right pocket with your left hand, rather than pull out your wallet, you’d pull out the Andromeda Galaxy.”

His full trip report (19 minutes long):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKGddvmU0fA

Other trip report resources, etc:

https://michaelpollan.com/resources/psychedelics-resources/

https://maps.org/research

https://erowid.org/experiences/exp_list.shtml (37,822 Reports Total)

https://erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Mushrooms.shtml (2,763 Total)

https://erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_LSD.shtml (2,195 Total)

https://www.shroomery.org/6255/Trip-Reports

https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Experience_index

https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Subjective_effects_index

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#227

Post by seamyb88 »

closeparen wrote: post #219
baron816 wrote: post #191

Government policy: prevent people from ruining their lives with drugs by ruining it for them with prison.

This arguments applies to the criminalization of possession and use, not manufacture and distribution.

And give the criminal world one of the biggest markets globally. Enjoy the violent crime!

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#228

Post by ryanlol »

tazjin wrote: post #94
totony wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bottler usually has drawings and cutoff that make if very easy to recognize though.

Only if you buy it already in sheet form.

Yeah, but you aren’t going to be buying crystals lay blotter from unless you’re a dealer.

If you’re buying small quantities of lsd in a liquid you’d be silly to try and lay blotters from that.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#229

Post by dwater »

atom-morgan wrote: post #225
dEnigma wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. It could be traumatizing to kill someone in a rather unspectacular car crash just because they weren't using their seatbelt. Same for helmets.

The possibility of someone else's trauma shouldn't infringe on my freedom to ride a bike without a helmet.

You may do so on your own private property. If you wish to use public roadways, you must abide by the laws set by your state, which must balance the costs to society of your choices against your ability to make them.

Re: LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison

#230

Post by tazjin »

ryanlol wrote: post #228
tazjin wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you buy it already in sheet form.

Yeah, but you aren’t going to be buying crystals lay blotter from unless you’re a dealer. If you’re buying small quantities of lsd in a liquid you’d be silly to try and lay blotters from that.

YMMV
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