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Lysergically Yours
April 16th, 1945: Dr. Albert Hoffman's work on obstetrics pharmacology at Sandoz Laboratories is unexpectedly interrupted by a "stream of fantastic pictures and extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors."[1]
The following weeks saw Dr. Hoffman and his colleagues perform a series of self-experimentations which led to the discovery of the psychotropic effects of D-lysergic acid diethylamide 25, the most potent hallucinogen yet discovered -- and better known as LSD. The doors were suddenly flung open for a new age of exploration into the human mind. Government sanctions however quickly put an end to this line of research. Lysergically Yours, the first novel from Toronto-based author Duff supposes that this research program is still going strong, but not in the places one may traditionally think to look for it.
The reader is first introduced to Johnny, a computer science student at the University of Toronto and one-time high school acid dealer. It is through the lens of Johnny that the reader meets the book's delightfully diverse cast of supporting characters. From Lyle the punk-rock chemist to Tinka the manic witch and surprisingly affable career criminal Ivan, Duff continuously delivers with characters that you almost expect to run into the next time you're on campus despite the fact that they are so eccentric as to verge on unbelievable. As a former University of Toronto student myself, I must admit that the setting of the book was also wonderfully realized. From Convocation Hall to Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories to the basement of Hart House, Lysergically Yours romps across the university and the city bringing to life each locale that it touches.
The story itself is somewhat hard to classify. The opening throws Johnny and the reader into a very tense scene in which Johnny is the prisoner of Korean and Vietnamese mobsters and the building in which he is being held is being assaulted from outside by unknown forces. From this action-movie introduction, the story flashes back and begins to relate a decidedly non-action-movie drug culture caper story wherein Lyle and Johnny attempt to fund illegal research and a hedonistic lifestyle through the synthesis and sale of LSD. By the end however, as Johnny and Lyle find themselves deeper and deeper in trouble, the plot of Lysergically Yours verges strongly on the science fictional, yet Duff manages to wrap it all up into a bundle which leaves the reader feeling both entertained and satisfied.
At times the discussion of the technical details of drug synthesis and of various less than legal money-making schemes seem unnecessarily verbose, but perhaps they will be appreciated by those who are more familiar with the fields or even looking for a few pointers. In general however, Duff's prose is poetic in its spareness and simplicity. His dialogue also is unflowery and believable, conveying a real sense of character and situation. Even the far-sweeping conclusion of the novel, suggesting a world forever and fundamentally changed by the actions of a couple of punk rockers, is presented in a crisp and unapologetic style. As a reader, I could not help but be reminded of Neal Stephenson and, to a certain extent, Philip K. Dick.
My largest complaint with Lysergically Yours is that it is too short. Weighing in at 120 pages, the book is an easy read but leaves you feeling that it could have easily been expanded to fill twice as many. Still, in a time when most books seem to be guilty of the opposite sin, I am willing to forgive Frank Duff this indiscretion.
Another thing which makes this novel worth noticing is that it is released in affiliation with No Media Kings, an organization started by Toronto-based author Jim Munroe to promote a return to grass-roots media. In accordance with this "media of the people, by the people and for the people" ethos, Frank Duff has released the novel as a free e-text under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike license. This license not only allows the text of the novel to be freely distributed in any medium, but also explicitly allows for anyone to create derivative works from the novel for any non-commercial purpose. The use of this contract follows in the footsteps of successful science fiction author Cory Doctorow. The book is available as a physical artifact at a variety of small bookstores or directly from the author via his website where the e-book and several of his other shorter works are also available for free download.
[1] Hoffman, A. (1980) "LSD: My Problem Child," New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Very interesting to see this on slashdot.
Lysergically Yours is a good book, but is nothing compared to some of the other books available out there.
I would suggest TIHKAL and PIHKAL by Alexander and Ann Shulgin
That is, if you're interested in the chemistry... but for more casual psychonaughts, I would explore Erowid for information.
The best part both TIHKAL and PIHKAL's more interesting and (knowledgable) parts are available for FREE online via those two links. Have fun, and remember, psychoactives can be a valuable learning experience but to anything good there's equal if not more bad. Read everything with logic and don't go and turn out like Huxley.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Much more interesting, exciting and enlightening.
P.S. Since I advocated the use LSD or shrooms, please note: Never, ever, ever, ever take it alone and if you have never taken it, take it with some one who has. If you don't follow those rules, you will have a bad time. Guaranteed.
All of your questions (and more) can be answered right here. But I'll answer these ones directly:
-Getting the real thing? Only an issue if you choose to do shrooms, potency varies *greatly* between patches. LSD is always returns consistant results. On the other hand, the fungus gets you about 6 hours total, while acid is 12.
-Music/environment/people? Tough one. Complex subject. I personally like the following: Pink Floyd/outside in the woods (no one else around plus nature is a great setting)/1-2 other people max who are tripping with me as well
-Things going bad? Always remember you have complete control of the situation. At times you might lose yourself (you will if it's a good/strong enough trip) but keep in mind you can change the way the trip is going at any time. If you feel funny and don't like something almost guaranteed one of three things will change it: Change the music, change the lighting, or go to the bathroom.
Since you mentioned you have smoked before, I highly recommend doing so right after popping whatever substance you choose. It will make the voyage from reality much smoother and not quite as abrupt. It sorta smacks you hard and fast if you do it sober.
Only other advice I can give is: "relax, don't panic and enjoy it". Try to take your mind off of what you just did after you eat them so you're not thinking about it all the time. I like to take my watch off and if you're out in nature, take a walk somewhere that will last at least 30 mins, preferably an hour (you'll start to feel it definately by then).
# fuser -v
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That's interesting considering it's physically impossible to be allergic to marijuana
Why is it impossible? Allergies are not caused by ANY danger in the allergen itself. Allergies are caused by your own body's immune system falsely labeling a particular thing as being dangerous when it really isn't. All the symptoms of an allergy are the same as the symptoms of a cold or flu bug - extra mucus production, coughing, raised temperatures, nausea, swelling etc - are all actually being caused by your OWN body. Those reactions are ways you fight off the foreign intruder. Your body chooses to raise the temperature, because your body is better able to survive the ordeal of being too hot than a lot of foriegn microbes are. Your body chooses to produce extra mucus, to trap the microbes at the source and keep them from passing into the lungs. Your body initiates nausea to try to expell the bad microbes from your stomach. etc, etc etc. All an allergy is, is your own body choosing to kick in those reactions in response to something that wasn't actually a threat after all, but it has a bad pattern-recognition that has "learned" incorrectly that a particular thing is bad for you, and that mistake is now stuck in your system and it won't undo it.
So, sure, someone could be allergic to marijuana. People can be allergic to just about *anything* that enters the body through the air. Anything that gives off fumes, dust, or particles. This says nothing about the danger of the actual thing in question - just about the relative stupidity of the human immune system.
The reason it's so hard to find ways to cure an allergy is that the cure is to alter your immune system, telling it, "Please cross off Foo from your list of big bad dangerous things you like to fight against. It was added by mistake." And we haven't found a way to do that without also crossing off *other* things from that list - things that it would be dangerous to cross off, like "the common cold".
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.