Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Essays

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) commonly known in our culture as “acid” belongs to a group of drugs known as hallucinogens. Hallucinogens, when taken, may cause severe hallucinations that could last anywhere from six to twelve hours or even longer depending on purity & dosage. These hallucinations are by definition “profound distortions in a person’s perceptions of reality.” The use of hallucinogens is not a new phenomenon. Psilocybin (magic mushrooms), peyote, & mescaline (extracted from the peyote cactus) have been dated back thousands of years to ancient Indian religious ceremonies; that still continue to go on till this very day. An archeological excavation in Mexico uncovered ancient writings, preserved by lava, that indicate the use of hallucinogens as long as four thousand years ago. Hallucinogens are nothing new at all. Hallucinogenic drugs, especially LSD, were prominent in the hippie culture of the 1960s & 1970s, but their popularity declined during the 1980s, giving rise to harder drugs such as cocaine & heroin. In 1972 it was reported that five percent of our nation, mostly under the age of eighteen, had experimented at least once with LSD. In 1974 that number had leapt to seventeen percent, & by 1979 the numbers went up to twenty-five percent. These numbers dropped as heroin and cocaine gained popularity in the 1980’s, but in the 1990’s the popularity of LSD grew once again. In 1992 nine percent of high school seniors had experimented with LSD. By 1996 that number had rose to thirteen percent & in 2000 dropped to eleven percent. Acceptance of this drug had clearly risen as well. In 1991 ninety percent of high school students disapproved of even a single experimentation. By 1996 that number had dropped to eighty percent. As was the case in the sixties and seventies, the primary users were young white men and women, upper to middle class, who usually chose psychedelic substances instead of the harder drugs. Although the use of LSD was mainly white, young adults, use was also found in a small percentage of young Blacks and Hispanics. Albert Hofmann, a chemist working at the Sandoz Corporation pharmaceutical laboratory in Switzerland, was the first to have synthesized LSD in 1938. Hofmann was doing research on the medical uses of lysergic acid, a derivative or ergot (fungus that develops on rye grass). Hofmann had developed many lysergic acid compounds, the one that made him famous though was the 25th called, in German, “Lyserg-Säure-Diäthylamid 25”, or “LSD-25”. Five years after creating LSD-25, Hofmann had ingested a small amount, being unaware of its psychotropic effects, & opened up a new world. In his book “LSD- My Problem Child” Hofmann gives the earliest account of an LSD “trip”: "My surroundings . . . transformed themselves in more terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms. They were in continuous motion, animated, as if driven by an inner restlessness . . . . Even worse than these demonic transformations of the outer world were the alterations that I perceived in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will, every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul.” Hofmann relayed his experience to his superiors, who at first doubted his account, but upon their replication of his experiment all doubts were eliminated. The effects of LSD may vary depending on the concentration of the substance. LSD causes its effects by disrupting the interaction of nerve cells & the neurotransmitter serotonin. LSD acts on certain groups of serotonin receptors designated to the 5-HT2 receptors. Its effects are most prominent in two brain regions: One is the cerebral cortex, an area involved in mood, cognition, and perception; the other is the locus cerulean,

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