Culture - LSD: Your Human Right

[milklover6]

Hi guys, I wrote this paper as a social injustice topic for a paper I had to writing for a college class and I thought I'd share it with you guys to see what you think and to get a few reactions. Please feel free to knock it down or throw in your 2 cents. Thanks.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thank you for sharing/posting! good topic and overview!

[milklover6]

It's a little corny at times, more directed to the general public unaware of the positive effects of LSD.
LSD: Your Human Right

The controlling and criminalization of LSD by the Government and DEA not only prevents us from a life directing experience, but infringes upon our rights as human beings. Since the drug was made illegal in 1967, people have lost sight of the beauty of LSD, people have come to fear the thought of the experience rather than cherish it as they should. The fact that the connotation of Acid has become so negative shows us how much control we have lost to our government and how content we are playing by the rules they provide. LSD is not just a fun time in college or a bad trip, it allows you to be shifted to a different mindset, a mindset where artificial social inhibitions are lost and replaced by the honest world we see around us. It allows us a quick insight outside of the made up standards of our society and lets us view our daily routine from a different, more natural perspective. To give up our right to such an invaluable experience, we give up our rights to ourselves.
Acid's chemical name is d-lysergic acid diethylamide. It was first created in 1938 by Dr. Albert Hofmann as part of a research program searching for medical uses for ergot alkaloid derivatives. Ergot is a type of fungus that grows on rye, its main medical use nowadays is in the form of ergotamine which is used to increase the intensity and frequency of contractions in the uterus, stimulating labor. It wasn’t until five years later that the hallucinogenic properties of LSD were discovered. In April of 1943, Hofmann was doing research on the medicinal properties of many plants and fungi. After conjuring up a mixture that he had discovered almost five years before, he accidentally got a very small amount of it on his skin. Soon after, he became dizzy and ceased working. In his journal he described the experience later that day as “remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness” and with his eyes closed could see “fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.” This experience lasted a mere two hours for him, but a couple days later he would revisit the substance with much more intensity. The first intentional experience with LSD was on April 19th, 1943, this is also known as the Bicycle Day since wartime restrictions made cars unavailable, Hofmann was forced to ride his bicycle home. On this day, Dr. Albert Hofmann ingested 250ug (micrograms) of LSD, quite a bit more than the regular dose we find today. Hofmann’s trip was quite typical as he states in his journal, with a great emphasis on the visual aspects of Acid such as over pronounced colors, plays of shapes, and many optical illusions. Obviously, as no one knew what to expect, Hofmann’s neighbors believed him to be possessed by a demon and he himself deduced that he might have gone crazy. After many hours he was able to sleep and woke up with a new sensation of well being and renewed life. During a walk in his garden he noted that his senses were “vibrating in a condition of highest sensitivity, which then persisted for the entire day.” And so the first intentional trip on LSD was concluded.
In America, LSD is considered a Schedule I drug by the DEA. This means that the drug is highly susceptible to abuse and has no medical uses. Also on this list is marijuana, a drug commonly used today in medical practices, a drug that the Government grows and stores their own supply for medicinal purposes. So not only is the DEA scheduling of drugs a very disordered way of organizing levels of danger, but Acid itself was originally used for its medicinal qualities in psychoanalysis up until it was made illegal in 1967. Since the drug was made illegal, there have been multitudes of studies around the world that have pointed out the absolute non-existence of chemical related long term effects of Acid. Many LSD and other hallucinogenic studies have been done by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), an IRS approved non-profit research organization that assists scientists with funding and research design.
There are so many misconceptions of LSD that need to be cleared up before one can even attempt to take or consider taking it. Since Acid became popular there have been hundreds of anti-LSD groups attempting to discredit the drug through fear. The most popular one we come across is “If you drop Acid there’s a chance you’ll go crazy forever!” This is entirely false. Contrary to many of these beliefs, it has been discovered that one microgram of LSD has a half-life of 5.1 hours, which adds up to about 10-12 hours before the drug is out of your system. This also debunks the hearsay “Acid stays in your spinal cord forever and if you crack your back you might start tripping.” Another common misconception is that it is easy to overdose and die on Acid. This is entirely untrue, due to the chemical make-up of LSD, your body won’t allow itself to intake more than it can handle. You can take as much as you’d like, and yes, the effects will be intensified, but your body reaches a limit and after this limit is reached the LSD sits in your body, waiting patiently for its queue in line. In other words, the more Acid you take, the longer the trip will be. The third misconception to be cleared up is that there is Strychnine, a toxic alkaloid causing muscular convulsions and eventually death, in LSD. People were told that Strychnine was commonly used as filler on blotters to save money for the dealers, but the incredibly low cost and high potency of Acid made its purity not an issue, the only thing on a blotter is LSD or nothing. Strychnine is specifically used to get people to steer clear of Acid because of its dramatic and painful symptoms, often considered the worst of any toxic reaction.
Now that we’ve cleared up the negative effects of Acid, we move on what positive effects remain for us to draw from. Many people take Acid just to have a blast, to “trip balls”, to see things that aren’t really there and yes, these effects are there and it does make it an entertaining recreational drug for many users, but believing that these are the only things to value from Acid is a big mistake. What Acid does for you is beyond what you can see visually: Acid allows us to drop the social guidelines that have been ingrained in us since we were born; it puts us in almost infantile, innocent state. Of course, I’m not saying that we should all run around acting like babies, but it is near impossible (for the majority of our society) to see the world from such a pure, untainted angle as you do on Acid. It is hard to be specific about how it changes your mindset and exactly what it leads you to differ from person to person, but it can not be denied that Acid allows you to view your everyday world from a totally new perspective. In the 1960s, during the time Acid was legal and by far most popular, many people experienced this new take on our society. Being able to see how adulterated and tainted our lives had become through consumerism and propaganda, there was a small revolution against the people who controlled our normal societal paths, i.e. the Government. Soon after in 1967, Acid was made illegal to possess and those who did were not only put in jail, but often mental institutions. Since then, Acid has become much scarcer and less popular among the general public through even more Government funded propaganda.
This unadulterated insight is not the only positive thing to come out of Acid. There have been many great thinkers and scientists who have sworn by this drug. One in particular that many people may know of is Francis Crick. Francis Crick was a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and considered the father of modern genetics for his deduction of the double-helix structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as the secret of life or the curvy ladder that comes to mind when we think of DNA. According to an article written on Crick by Alun Rees, “Crick … later told a fellow scientist that he often used small doses of LSD then an experimental drug used in psychotherapy to boost his powers of thought. He said it was LSD … that helped to unravel the structure of DNA, the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize.” Crick was a part of a social circle involving writer David Solomon and LSD guru Timothy Leary. While most of the people in this group were arrested during the later 1960s after Acid was made illegal, Garrod Harker, whose home has been raided but was not arrested, gave us some insight into these great minds of LSD. He has relayed that this group believed that industrial society would fall as soon as the oil resources ran dry and that the only way to get people to change was Acid. “They believe LSD can help people to see that a return to a natural society based on self-sufficiency is the only way to save themselves.” This group was not the only set of intellectuals to take use of LSD, as Francis Crick states “ … some Cambridge academics used LSD in tiny amounts as a thinking tool, to liberate them from preconceptions and let their genius wander freely to new ideas.” So we see that LSD can be used not only as an instrument to relieve ourselves from the preset structures of our society, but to re-examine integral scientific points.
The most important thing, though, is that there is always knowledge to be gained from new experience. Acid is a very intense experience, even if it is not pleasurable during the trip, you will learn something, even if you disagree with what it tries to teach you, you will have walked away with a new perspective under your belt. Our natural quest is for knowledge, to gain an understanding of our surroundings; Acid is not the key to understanding the world, but it is a progression in the right direction. No one has the right to retain any knowledge from you; no one has the right to control what you do with your mind and your body. You may still disapprove of LSD (hopefully not, but maybe so), but how can you say that someone else has the right to tell you not to put it in your body. If they were preventing you from some danger, yes, it could be accepted, but in this case what you are being prevented from is seeing the world from a perspective that isn’t according to the guidelines of the Administration. Since we were born the Government has attempted to install an innate trust in their laws and in their decisions, but the truth is that often times these rules don’t make sense for the individual, they are for the good of maintaining an easy flowing society where our minds are sculpted by political con-artists such as Edward Bernays, a man who believes we are incapable of handling ourselves without being brainwashed. The administrations that tell you that LSD is bad for you do not want you to see through them, they have carefully set up social barricades in order to placate your existence, they view you as an animal that needs to be caged and entertained. For the sake of yourself, not for anyone else, don’t let anyone infringe upon your right to an experience, your right to learn, it is your right to being a human.

[Expat98]

Originally Posted by milklover6

The controlling and criminalization of LSD by the Government and DEA not only prevents us from a life directing experience, but infringes upon our rights as human beings. Since the drug was made illegal in 1967, people have lost sight of the beauty of LSD, people have come to fear the thought of the experience rather than cherish it as they should. The fact that the connotation of Acid has become so negative shows us how much control we have lost to our government and how content we are playing by the rules they provide.

Just some quick comments on your opener. You have placed the entire blame for the stigmatization of LSD on the government. My first thought is, "What about the media?" The media plays a huge role in propagating and reinforcing the negative perception of LSD and other drugs. My second thought is that the blame should be placed not only on the government and media, but on the sectors of society which the government and media cater to and represent...and depend on. I will leave it to you to think about what those sectors of society are.

[Panthers007]

My problem with this piece is that it makes a lot of statements, but does not go into detail. Each statement, acting as a premise, needs to be supported (defended).

One could be faced with critics saying you make bold assertions. But do not then go on to prove them - which would require a much longer and detailed work.

I like where it's going and the content. If it were mine I'd regard it as a first draft and start burning the midnight oil.

[EntheogenicTruth]

Thanks man that was an interesting read. i particularly agree with the points you made about the administration that continues to keep up and continue to build the barricades between ourselves and our personal psychedelic exploration.

i think that another point you could have made here is the emergence of newer psychedelic drugs; foxy, 2c-b etc in comparison to things like BZP.

why is it that as soon as this administration realises that a drug is "psychedelic" (literally meaning "mind opening") they ban it to the fullest extent that they can. wheras things that tend to make people more productive are slooooooooowly put into higher restriction states?

because that administration doesnt want you to have your mind opened. having people become aware would be terrible and would impact regulated, unbalanced society in a "negative" way.

anyway i have stopped making as much sense as i would like.