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Why An LSD High Lasts For So Long (pbs.org)
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) has been credited, in part, for the creation of the iPhone, the polymerase chain reaction, as well as some pretty abstract artwork. Since the drug is classified as a Schedule 1 substance in the U.S., it's been more difficult for scientists to legally study the drug and learn about how it affects the brain. Therefore, when a study (or two) is published it makes the findings all the more fascinating. Two studies were published last week (one in Current Biology, the other in Cell) that examine how LSD produces such diverse effects and why the drug takes so long to wear off. The Scientist reports the findings from for the first study: For the Current Biology study, 21 volunteers were given a placebo, a small dose of LSD alone, or the same dose of LSD but with kentaserin, a serotonin 2A antagonist. Study participants who took the kentaserin reported virtually the same experiences as those who took the placebo, and fMRI brain scans confirmed similar brain activities across participants in both groups. The serotonin 2A antagonist "blocked all the effects of LSD, so it was like if people didn't take any drugs," coauthor Katrin Preller, neuroscientist at the Zurich University Hospital in Switzerland told The Verge. "All the typical symptoms -- hallucinations, everything -- were gone."
As for why an LSD high lasts for so long, Angus Chen has written an in-depth report on PBS Newshour about the findings from the study published in Cell: LSD and other psychoactive drugs work by binding to specialized proteins called receptors on the surfaces of neural cells. On the receptor protein is a sculpted "pocket," into which molecules with the right shape can fit and thus stick to the cell, where they initiate changes in the brain. But different substances can often fit into the same receptor. Many receptors that bind LSD and DMT, for example, also fit the natural chemical messenger serotonin -- which is produced in the body and helps regulate mood. Figuring out how each drug interacts with the same receptor in a different way is key to understanding why an LSD trip lasts all day whereas an experience with extracted DMT is often over in 15 minutes or less. By freezing an LSD molecule bound to a single brain cell receptor as a crystal in a lab, researchers were able to get a 3-D x-ray image of the drug and the protein locked together. The image showed Bryan Rother, a pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and senior author on the paper, and his co-authors something strange about the way LSD fit inside this receptor. Drugs typically come and go from receptor proteins like ships pulling in and out of a port. But when an LSD molecule lands on the receptor, the molecule snags onto a portion of the protein and folds it over itself as the molecule binds to the receptor. LSD seems to stimulate the receptor for the entire time it is trapped underneath the protein "lid," Roth says. Proteins are in constant motion, so he thinks the lid eventually flops open, allowing the drug to fly out and the effects to wear off. But the team ran computer models that suggest it could take hours for that to happen. Until then, the trip goes on.
LSD is all fun and games right up to the point you are standing in your best friends kitchen on Xmas night talking to his mum. She has a wasps head and you can't work out if you're whispering to her or shouting at her.
Never liked acid. While other drugs tend to amplify or enhance mind states that you normally experience to a lesser degree without drugs, acid always made me feel like my brain was doing shit it fundamentally shouldn't be doing at all, not really related to any normal mind state. If I had to do psychedelics again, I'd stick to mushrooms, I always found they had more euphoric effects to go with the trippy shit, generally a much more fun experience. And yeah, acid did tend to go on a bit too long.
I know scientific method and all that, but I think it would be relatively easy to determine whether you were given the placebo or the actual LSD...
how about people who use illicit drugs?
On y va, qui mal y pense!
can be the life of the party.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Animals and insects eat psychedelic drugs in the wild - just to get wasted. Deers do it, so do some flies - and they repeat the experience, so it is not an accident.
It says a lot for how long the psychedelic experience has been around consciousness, that it is not unique to humans.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
So if it were made legal it would be fine? I guess people that take pot in states where it's legal don't disgust you? And people that drank during prohibition disgust you?
Yeah mushrooms are preferable for just a nice time. LSD for profound mind altering experiences that you need to plan a whole block of time for, at least it was for me. I never understand these people that have bad trips or see things that aren't there (as opposed to just simple visual effects) It really is all about set and setting as they say (and making sure you know exactly what your ingesting). You can absolutely take these drugs responsibly, like everything else it's the dumbasses that ruin it for everybody.
Creativity comes from many sources, absolutely it appears some highs may stimulate creativity and conversely some seem to suppress creativity. Interestingly, lack of sleep is supposed to stimulate creativity too.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Well no shit dumbass, so can "licit" drugs like alcohol, the legality of the substance has no bearing on the issue. If I want to take mushrooms or LSD in the comfort of my own home in a controlled setting (look up set and setting) and have a great time that's my business. Heck I don't even drink and really drunk people are the ones that disgust me.
> The first 4 hours were fun, but after that it just got kind of tedious.
WRONG DRUG.
If you experience an erection lasting more than four hours see your doctor immediately, or go to a party.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I've heard the same. I know somebody in town who's invited me to come give it a try some time when his daughter isn't home but I've yet to take him up on it. The nice things about LSD over mushrooms are price, longer trip, and (more) predictable onset. I can't think of any others. Mushrooms cost more, but aren't too tricky to grow - Plus I think growing them yourself adds something to the experience. The trip with shrooms is only 2/3 as long (or so), but coming down after that duration is usually welcome and seems to be as gentle with either psychedelic. The onset with mushrooms can be a kicker - It can take as long as an hour after ingestion before the first signs of a trip come on. Hopefully that hour's not up before somebody decides, "These must be bunk - Let's eat some more."
AC 'cuz, yeah.
Dude, how about operating machinery while sick with the stomach flu? I mean really, distraction is distraction.
Obviously the problem is not the drugs it is the choices that people make while on drugs. There's a difference. Just like you can't blame a gun for killing people. People kill people. Why don't we outlaw guns?
Why does everybody feel it's ok to blame the drugs? oooo the drugs made me do it... how about no, the drugs enabled you to do it... they didn't make you anything.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Except that doing an abortion have very little effect on the surroundings but doing drugs can have huge consequences for other people (operating vehicles or heavy machinery while under the influence of drugs, etc).
While I am not specifically against a person's right to choose what happens to their own body, it's tough to claim that an operation preventing a person from existing is without consequence for other people.
Aside: this is why I love me some Slashdot. In 20 comments or less, we're comparing tripping to abortions.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
hypothesis, in which proto-humans regularly ingested psychedelic plants or fungi, and it led to the rapid development of the higher mental functions found in humans.
http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/
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There are different kinds of hallucinogens. They usually fall into 3 broad categories : dissociatives, delirants and psychedelics.
- Dissociatives disconnect your mind from your body, causing things like out of body experiences, makes you feel light, etc... Ketamine and PCP are dissociatives.
- Delirants cause hallucinations that are indistinguishable from reality, no matter how strange they are. Making you talk to imaginary people, see monsters, etc... Datura as well as many plants associated with whichcraft are delirants. These effects are rarely enjoyable so these substances are not considered drugs of abuse.
- Psychedelics cause you to "see things differently". While the hallucinations are convincing, you are usually fully aware that things aren't as they normally are. Technically, they are pseudohallucinations. Common effects include light tracers, distorting shapes, divine revelations, etc... LSD, DMT and psylocibin mushrooms are psychedelics.
tl;dr : people under LSD know they are hallucinating.
Pretty much. Some people are just too "tightly wrapped" for psychedelics. Rather than surrendering to the experience, they try to fight it and end up having a really bad time.
Control freak personalities in particular are prone to this. I can only imagine the scene if somebody dosed the White House water cooler these days....
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associated with whichcraft
That craft. That one right there.