Culture - Acid’s fall from grace

[Panth_Cocaine]

being, together with cannabis, the most popular drug of the 60s, is there any explanation why LSD has become so rare, as cannabis continues to be the most avaiable drug?

[Pinkavvy]

yeah there are many explinations. first of all, if you read the dea website 3 of the major lsd cooks in north amercia have been busted over the last 6 years. also, many of the lsd suppliers that used to travel the dead tour have been busted. (over 200 busts of dead tour lsd suppliers and traffickers have been busted since 1995.)

there is still lsd flowing around out there, just much much more discreet and in less quanity.

good luck

[Panth_Cocaine]

i heard someone (who had never tried lsd) come with the theory, that lsd just wasnt as good as it was made to be in the sixties, and partly i can see his point. cos if it's the way to save the world, as indicated in fx steppenwolf's 'magic carpet ride', jefferson airplane's 'white rabbit' and the beatles' 'lucy in the sky with diamonds', how come it was out already in the early 70s (3 cooks busted in the last 6 yrs doesn't explain that acid fell from grace already in the 70s and 80s)


is acid really wonderful or is it just... nice?

[Alfa]

The popularity of magic mushrooms may also have something to do with it. The effects of mushrooms are shorter and mushrooms are natural. Two reasons I sometimes hear to take shrooms instead of LSD.

[merry_prankster]

I think coke had a big part in it.
There is obviously some loss of demand (though I'm not saying there is a balance of demand and supply; trust me I demand and demand, but rarely am I supplied), and the drug is just as Great (!!!) as it was in the sixties. People would rather feel good than explore what they already feel.

It's also easier for people to get over the guilt of doing this 'terrible thing' (drugs) when it takes them back to the feeling they got from high school football than when it makes everything melt and throws them out of their heads. so coke and propaganda.

it's the populus' fall from grace, not acid's, by the way.

[D.U.M.B]

Personally it's all to do with culture

Acid was the drug of the 60's, then through the decades coke, heroin, pot and shrooms (to name a few) became the drug of choice.

I remember a few years ago here in ireland. When I was too young to take the drug but knew about, acid was so widely available. But this was during the long haired, flannel and combats, grunge music oriented era. Now the nation (in ireland) has become one with baseball caps, adidas and dance music and now xtc seems to be the drug of choice around here.

And since this happened, acid has become slightly more underground and harder to find.

Acid is out there, yeah hope you just get lucky and come across some. And people please think in advance, buy some extra acid and store it, if it might be a while till you get some again

[Pinkavvy]

no... seriously, it's due to the lack of suppliers, and the ability to get precursers. and it didn't have a "Fall from grace" in the 70's ... it was still going strong. just not as accepted publicly, and was made illegal (remember, was legal for part of the 60's) ... in the 70's it was flowing strong. in the 80's there was a drop in use due to propoganda but mostly because of the availability of "newer" club drugs and more addictive drugs became more available. in the early 90's it was masking a HUGE comeback espeically on the various 'tours'.... and then in the late 90's and early 2000's when the top 6 cooks (that produce 95%+ of north america's acid) were busted and the precursers were more heavily controlled and monitored, there has been a lack of supply.

and to answer your question, yes acid can save the world. lol it is great and is freeing and life changing .... it's not just "nice" nor is it really a party drug ... it is a great adventure into you phsyche and the universe.

[sands of time]

I would say that acids availablility and popularity was damaged by a great number of factors.

1. Acid was beat out by party drugs like ecstasy, which are much easier to make and much more profitable. The ingedients for many party drugs are also easier to obtain in many cases. Most pills can be impure with other junk to give a buzz where as this can't be done with acid.

2. The major suppliers have indeed been busted and they perfected the production of this supperior product. There really aren't many people who know how to make acid and are willing to take the risk. I doubt anyone is willing to take the risk of 40+ years in jail to become the nations next big supplier.

3. The idea of exploring ones mind through drugs is seen today by many as hippy bullshit. People who use drugs these days are generally more concerned with feeling good than tripping out and seeing shit, but if they want to do that they turn to magic mushrooms or perhaps the more modern research chemicals.

4. Parenting... Kid consume a great deal of drugs and what parent isn't going to be able to tell if they're kid is on acid???

5. Acid isn't excepted socially. Ever hear about the guy who thinks hes a glass of orange juice and he can't tip over??? He must be famous cause everyone claims to know him.

6. Music... I don't think the backstreet boys go back stage and drop acid to much and I don't think to many of they're fans go to they're concert high.

7. The hard drug image has turned many people away. In a sense, heroin and crack have destroyed the demand for acid since acid is lumped in the same catagory. Many people try hard drugs with the idea of doing them only once. Since acid is not addictive people have a greater chance of never doing it again where as crack and heroin pulls people in.

[Bodhisattva500]

Pinkavvy is right, the demand is still huge, It might have went to down very slightly because of rcs,culture, mushrooms. But the biggest reason is lack of chemists and availability of supplies. If their were people making it, their would be LOTs of people eating it.

[fletch]

ya it definatly has to be due to the lack of chemists, because lsd as stated by timothy leary is no more of a danger than colour television, and pretty much any drug finatic is trying to get their hands on some.. yes if it was widly available, most people would be eating it.

[searcher]

Kids these days don't want to trip. They would rather just smoke blunts and drink 40's. M & M and Snoop Dog don't trip, they just smoke weed.

[Ziro]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098109/fr/rss/


So what explains the LSD drought? The best explanation is a bust, a really big bust. The DEA claims it reduced the LSD supply by "95 percent" with two arrests in rural Kansas in November 2000. Clyde Apperson and William Leonard Pickard were charged with and eventually convictedof possession and conspiracy to distribute LSD. According to court testimony, the DEA seized the largest operable LSD laboratory in agency history, as well as 91 pounds of LSD and precursor compounds for the potential manufacture of nearly 27 pounds more. If you define a dose of LSD as 100 micrograms, Apperson and Pickard had around 400 million hits in stock.

[xctico]

The market will balance it self.

High prices on the US are going to make Europe distribuitors start
supplying more and more over the Atlantic. So what the DEA acomplished
was to make european distribuitors stronger.

[Bodhisattva500]

exactly

[mariecurie]

I can affirm that this is definitely true. As I have posted in a
separate part of this forum, twenty eight grams of pure LSD was brought
to the east coast of the US from Russia and boy is it pretty. I can
affirm that people are eating it because people I know have already
gone through thirty sheets of really nice stuff

[Eirias]

It is still out there, but it's not like it was in the early
90's when SWIM could get nearly 4 different kinds of blotter every day
at school, and knew someone who was tripping on LSD almost every
day. Also, I have heard that it when it pops up, it can fetch a
price of 10-15$ USD per hit nowadays, whereas back in the early 90's
2-4 dolars was more like it, unless it was really good stuff.

LSD is much more difficult to synth than MDMA or even 2C-B, so
it's going to be a certain caliber of clandestine chemist who can make
such things.

Also, I do believe that it is more available in other western
countries such Canada and also in Europe, since the chemists there
didn't get nailed by the DEA. It's a major tragedy to lose
someone like Pickard, but even while he was going strong some of the PsyTrance
communities around the world, including the US had their own chemists. Same thing
with Burning Man and the Rainbow Family. So it's still out there,
to at least some degree, amongst the cultures and groups that use it as
a central part of their "being".

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Edited by: Eirias

[MycoGlow]

its difficult to synth, and yes the dea busted most the ppl making in cheap in the US. but also people have created a stigma with lsd. there are so many rumors about its "negative side effects". because of these rumors acid is only sought out be an elite group of dedicated psychonauts. there are many who just do shrooms, most ppl claim they are similar. they are in someways similar, but there is no way to get such animated visuals of mushrooms like u would get on a solid dose of L. I never experianced nausea with acid. i dont like to chew down a disgusting 5 grams of indigestable fungus [ the bulk of which isnt active at all] when i could eat 500 micrograms of good lsd and get better visuals/ all around more pleasent trip.

[Eirias]

The nausea thing is a good point-- SWIM has never become
nauseous on LSD either, and while SWIM enjoys the effects of
psilocybin, SWIM also has issues with chewing up and then attempting to
digest psilocybian mushrooms. This has prevented SWIM from
enjoying psilocybin more than once, even if it was homegrown, dried in
a food dehydrator, and encapsulated in gelcaps.

However, SWIM distinctly remembers when mushrooms were harder to
get that people would incessantly praise how "visual" or otherwise
uniquely psychedelic they were, and how "dirty" LSD was, no matter
where it came from or how pure it was. The rarer substance is
almost always touted to be the superior one-- 2C-B is another example.

LSD chemistry definitely seems to be on the rise in some Slavic
nations and former Russian republics, perhaps they will become "source
nations" for the substance coing into America, much like how the
Benelux low countries are for MDMA, typically via the Russian
"Organisatya" or the Israeli mafia (the two of which are often
interconnected BTW).

How is "LSD" pronounced in Russian? "ill-esht-dyos"-- I believe? <!--
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[bman1]

Does anyone else think the increasing poularity of RCs has helpped the decline of LSD? People no longer need a "dealer" to buy a substance that makes them "trip" RCshave become available to anyone with a computer who knows how to use it. One no longer needs to look for a hook up on the streets. SO swim thinks there is less of a demand

[Joy_of_Salad]

If anything, i would think it was the other way around, being that the
low supply of LSD has been a large factor in the popularity of research
chemicals. Many many people I have spoken to (although I am
definately not included in this group) believe that LSD is far superior
to any research chemical, and many had been using research chemicals
only as a placeholder for LSD. Since the reappearance of LSD, I
have admittedly noticed a decrease of RC consumption in my community.



Of course I dont think the absence of LSD is the only reason for the
popularity of RCs; just thought i'd provide some anecdotal evidence
from my own small test group.

[mariecurie]

I know that friends of mine have remarked to me that everytime they do
a compound like 2C-I they spend the entire trip thinking "wow...this is
really trying to be LSD...but it's not."



I think some research chemicals will remain popular, but the vast majority of them will decline in use as LSD returns.

[whatsinaname]

I'm waaaay to young to really know, but I always thought it was due largely in part to Timothy Leary..

[mariecurie]

I don't think Leary was scaring away anyone who had tried LSD, but
perhaps he did convince some people not try it for the first time. I've
seen that now that acid is returning, people are starting to consume it
again quickly. People are convinced to try it one night and then
they're hooked. Drinking just doesn't hold up after your first trip as
a way to get "altered." More like getting retarded if you ask me...

[Bodhisattva500]

leary advocated lsd use!

[mariecurie]

I think whatsinaname meant that Leary was so cracked out and crazy at
times that he may have seemed like a poor role model for LSD use. I
don't particularly agree, but I can see how this could very possibly be
true.