wheres the lsd, oh the dea has it

Who's Got the Acid?
These days, almost nobody.
By Ryan Grim
Updated Thursday, April 1, 2004, at 10:38 AM PT


Researchers at the University of Michigan started tracking the illicit drug habits of America's high-schoolers in 1975. Despite the inherent difficulty of conducting such surveysâ??kids are excellent liars and exaggeratorsâ??the Michigan team has established "Monitoring the Future" as the most reliable guide to drug-use trends in the United States.

MTF has documented the rise and decline of many drugs, but lead researcher Dr. Lloyd Johnston says the group has never seen such a dramatic drop in the use of an established illicit drug as they're seeing now with LSD. In both the 2000 and 2001 surveys, 6.6 percent of high-school seniors reported that they'd used LSD in the previous year. In 2002, the figure dropped to 3.5 percent. And in the most recent survey, from 2003, only 1.9 percent of high-school seniors claim to have dropped acid. (The standard error for this LSD survey is 0.25 percentage points.)

Evidence of acid's decline can be found practically everywhere you look: in the number of emergency room mentions of the drug; in an ongoing federal survey of drug use; in a huge drop in federal arrests; and in anecdotal reports from the field that the once ubiquitous psychedelic is exceedingly difficult to score. In major cities and college towns where LSD was once plentiful, it can't be had at all.

University of Maryland professor Peter Reuter, a leading drug-policy expert, is flabbergasted by the new LSD data.

"We have literally never seen anything like this," Reuter says. "This isn't a trend. This is an event."

Obviously, the LSD market isn't as easy to understand as, say, the coffee bean market because criminal sanctions against LSD's manufacture, sale, possession, and use drive most of the useful data underground. But while our knowledge of the LSD market may be imperfect, a variety of available yardsticks, such as the MTF survey, give us some sense of its workings.

For instance, data from the federal Drug Abuse Warning Network, which charts emergency room data in 21 major cities, second MTF's LSD surveys. DAWN, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, isn't a scientific survey: It merely records the "mentions" of drugs by patients entering emergency rooms. (For instance, if you visited the ER with a broken finger, and they asked if you were on drugs, and you said, "Yes, LSD," you'd go down as an LSD mention, even if you were fibbing. If you answered, "Yes, LSD and pot," they'd record both drug mentions.) But DAWN data is still a good rough measure of drug use. Between 1995 and 2000, LSD mentions remained relatively stable, hovering around 2,500 during each six-month period. But in the second half of 2001, DAWN's LSD mentions dropped below 1,000 for the first time. In the next six-month period, mentions fell below 500.

DAWN Project Director Dr. Judy Ball says what's unique about the LSD findings is that they show a consistent decline in every metropolitan area measured, not just common regional fluctuations.

Another HHS initiative started surveying LSD use in the general population in 1965. It now does business as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the most recent results register a decline among 18- to 25-year-olds who say they have ever used the drug (16.6 percent to 15.9 percent). In the 12 to 17 range, use fell from 3.3 percent to 2.7 percent. NSDUH changed its methodology for the most recent survey in such a way that had LSD use stayed constant, the survey should have shown an uptick in use. This means the decline in LSD use is greater than the NSDUH numbers reflect.

Nobody collects national arrest data for LSD cases, but federal arrests for LSD trafficking and possession have tumbled in recent years. The Drug Enforcement Administration recorded 203 arrests in FY2000, 95 in FY2001, 41 in FY2002, and 19 in FY2003. In the first quarter of 2004, the feds have arrested only three people on LSD charges. In the LSD haven of San Francisco, the DEA recorded 20 arrests in 2000 versus zero in 2002, according to DEA Special Agent Richard Meyer of the agency's San Francisco office.

One possible explanation for the decline could be changed attitudes about LSD. But MTF's Johnston says a shift in drug habits is "generally explainable by the disapproval or risk data, but in this case we didn't have that." Indeed, the perceived risk and disapproval rates for LSD among the MTF population have dropped steadily since 1975.

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 convicted of 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. At the more common dosage level of 20 micrograms, the two were sitting on 2 billion hits. Apperson got 30 years in prison, and Pickard got two life sentences. The Kansas bust marked the third time in four years that the DEA had arrested Apperson and Pickard on LSD lab charges.

The LSD market took an earlier blow in 1995, when Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia died and the band stopped touring. For 30 years, Dead tours were essential in keeping many LSD users and dealers connected, a correlation confirmed by the DEA in a divisional field assessment from the mid-'90s. The spring following Garcia's death (the season the MTF surveys are administered), annual LSD use among 12th-graders peaked at 8.8 percent and began their slide. Phish picked up part of the Dead's fan baseâ??and presumably vestiges of the LSD delivery system. At the end of 2000, Phish stopped touring as well, and perhaps not coincidentally, the MTF numbers for LSD began to plummet.

Where have all the acid-eaters gone? MTF records a stable interest in "hallucinogens other than LSD"â??the hallucinogen usually being psychoactive mushroomsâ??since the 2000 decline of acid. DAWN shows the same trend under the "miscellaneous hallucinogens" category. (Over the same period, use of both ecstasy and methamphetamine dropped in the MTF survey.) In other words, the decline in LSD use doesn't look like a demand-side phenomena: The cultural hunger for a substance that lets you hold affordable conversations with God, watch walls melt, breathe colors, and explore your psyche remains unsated.

When declining supply intersects with unchanged demand, an increase in price usually occursâ??this seems to be the case with LSD. While the DEA does not release price information for LSD, many acid aficionados say its once-steady price of $5 a hit now ranges as high as $20, and that's when the drug is available. Another market change: In 1995, one could easily purchase several sheets of 100 hits at selected rock concerts, but buying more than 10 doses at a time today is difficult.

Historically, illicit LSD production has been dominated by just a few operators, so if Apperson and Pickard were the United States' major LSD suppliers, taking them down may well have caused this major disruption. They won't be easily replaced. Synthesizing LSD is much more difficult than brewing methamphetamine, PCP, or even ecstasy. Also, LSD manufacture demands precision chemistry and difficult-to-obtain precursor chemicals that these other drugs don't.

How permanent is the acid drought? The history of drug prohibition indicates that the government can upset supply and demand at the margins. It can drive one drug into scarcity only to see users substitute it with another. But it never eliminates the market for drugs altogether. As the drug war enters its second century, LSD appears to be in retreat. But never bet against a comeback.

lsd is the hardest drug for me to find, no one has it, not one of the dealers i know, not one of the potheads i know. good old uncle sam has most of it, if they didnt destroy it.

Is because LSD isnt the flavour of the month any more (lightly used term). Every drug (with the exception of cannabis) has had a sudden massive increase in use, then a graduate fall. Right now its the E rush, i know far to many people who do pills, its stupid really.

LSD might have a comeback, possibly in a slightly different from, who knows.

I say research chemicals are next: 2C-I, 2C-B and the like phenethylamines maybe some tryptamines.

(addition to previous post)
This may present problems. Considering that they have similar names and effects there could be a shit load of confusion on the street until different slang/alterative names are given to each of the substances and are widely excepted. No one can be sure whether they have 2C-x or some other chemical and this could present problems for some people determining dosages and using these drugs.

Yer i agree with you there Nullific, what will be interesting to see is what drugs will be round in 30 years or so.

Yea but LSD is so hard to manufacture you keed lots of chemical reagents and expensive equipment. Ampthetamines and Designer drugs are easier and cheaper to produce.

If you pay 20$ for a roll of X or DMX or whatever your getting ripped off man. Pay 20$ for a hit of amphetamine, fuck that man.

See the problem is is that drugs are becoming so illegal and the technology for tracing and detecting drugs is so advanced that people are resorting to more and more desperate means of getting high. Amphetamines and designer drugs for instance. Before you know it, the only form of intoxication that will be availble aside from alcohol, will probably be inhalents.

ugh thats mad dirty

inhalents r disgusting

and fucked

later

ps. POT WILL NEVR B DESTROYED

Dont worry, theres always gonna be the odd scientist interested in makngi an interesting kick. and if there isnt, i'll be it

People use inhalents in mexico.

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See the problem is is that drugs are becoming so illegal and the technology for tracing and detecting drugs is so advanced that people are resorting to more and more desperate means of getting high. Amphetamines and designer drugs for instance. Before you know it, the only form of intoxication that will be availble aside from alcohol, will probably be inhalents.

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I disagree, the US government really sucks at preventing drug importation or use. They've tried pressuring other nations into destroying coca crops...so how has the street price of cocaine per pure gram dropped hundreds of dollars in the past decade?
A few years ago the US tried to prevent the growth of poppies in effort to halt the manufacture and importation of heroin from the middle east. Plan backfired and Afghanistan turned out more raw opium than ever before, heroin prices in north america are at an all time low of just $4 a bag in some cities.

Acid is still out there, you just need to know people.

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Originally Posted by Nullific

I disagree, the US government really sucks at preventing drug importation or use. They've tried pressuring other nations into destroying coca crops...so how has the street price of cocaine per pure gram dropped hundreds of dollars in the past decade?
A few years ago the US tried to prevent the growth of poppies in effort to halt the manufacture and importation of heroin from the middle east. Plan backfired and Afghanistan turned out more raw opium than ever before, heroin prices in north america are at an all time low of just $4 a bag in some cities.

Acid is still out there, you just need to know people.

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ya man so tru. its all abut who u no. like i can only get weed thru my dealer. i talk to my friend and his buddy can hook me up with a hit of acid for 5$. one day ill try it. ya guy all government and any other opression sucks ass at preventing traffciing of illegal drugs. $ 4 for a bag of herione :eek: wow

later

I woulden't use heroine all those needles, overdoses, AIDS, too much (-) compaired to (+). I Don't like the middle east either, I've studied Islam, It's the worst culture there is, so I can't support Poppy.

And I support George Bush because He is a Great President and I firmly support G.B.

Smoke on.

I woulden't use heroine all those needles, overdoses, AIDS, too much (-) compaired to (+). I Don't like the middle east either, I've studied Islam, It's the worst culture there is, so I can't support Poppy.

And I support George Bush because He is a Great President and I firmly support G.B.

Smoke on.

Not only that there were more marijuana arrests when Clinton was president.

dude im not even go bother saying anything about goerge bush. and btw, who gives a fuck where the drugs r coming from, hit that shit anyways man. if i was offered herioine or any other opiate ( ive done codiene and its sick ) id diffinately take them. Herione is a lot healthier then other hardcore drugs ( Crack, Meth )

anyways

later

You've 'done' codeine, shit...Heroin's cut with all sorts of shit...read http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/hero...in_info5.shtml

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Originally Posted by Nullific

I disagree, the US government really sucks at preventing drug importation or use. They've tried pressuring other nations into destroying coca crops...so how has the street price of cocaine per pure gram dropped hundreds of dollars in the past decade?
A few years ago the US tried to prevent the growth of poppies in effort to halt the manufacture and importation of heroin from the middle east. Plan backfired and Afghanistan turned out more raw opium than ever before, heroin prices in north america are at an all time low of just $4 a bag in some cities.

Acid is still out there, you just need to know people.

---

I totally agree with you Nullific. People are just alot more paranoid these days and theres alot of pussies. But if you want something you can get it, no drug has ever gone extinct (correct me if im wrong..). In fact alot of old drugs are starting to make a comeback, and obscure drugs around the world are being deiscovered (salvia, khat, kratom, ect.). Look at Absinthe and Opium..

Nationwide they tried to stop them back in the day, yet they still remain here today!

that's cool, It's just my personal belief. My belief is stronger than my drug use.
I know what that sounds like to a addict but it's just my hypocritical view. I don't every wan't to kneel before 'Allah' or any other disgusting Saudi Arabian Demigod.

It's just the poppy trade involves slavery just like the cotton trade did in the south before the civil war. Thats the last thing I wanna' see is a bunch of enslaved women with veils, getting beaten with sticks if they go outside without veils on their faces. I wan't to be able to have a beer on sunday and watch football. I wan't to be able to develope more oil wells and agricultural sites.

It's from pakistan.

South America. I have no problem with South American drugs, just no arabian shit.

It's also that East Aisa is fucked up, and Poppy is an East Asian Product, And I Boycott East Asian Products, Pakistan, Afganistan, Indoenisa, Malaysia, Iran, Arabia, They are all the most disgusting countries and cultures on the face of the planet.

It's not about land with those people, It's about Killing Jewish people.

If I was In charge of this country I wouden't send aid to the Hurriican victims,
but, George Bush is a very caring man, and he has compassion for east asia.
Thats something that I could not have.

Because I have hardened my Heart, And You should Harden yours as well.

If a person gets caught with any amount of heroin in Singapore The punishment is death. In Pakistan Children work in ammunitions factories making weapons. They don't have any other means aside from selling weapons and drugs to finance their war against United States. It's just I live in America and they are ready to fight and kill me, so I must be ready to fight and kill them.

I have the right to bear arms in America, I have the right to personally represent and defend myself. I have the right to free speech, I can say whatever I wan't about anyone I feel like. I don't not have to abide by protest rules or standardized laws, because this is a goddamn free country, and I can be a goddamn bigot if I wan't to. I can write what I please, I can Smoke as I please. I can make weapons of steel and iron. I can braze copper into stills and produce diethyl ether from ethanol and sulfuric acid (burn herbs). I can create hookas of glass ans silicon and burn herbs. I can wipe my ass with bibles and hate Iranians.

one word: Hypocrit

America a free country? Haha, I wish.
Our rights to free speech and privacy have been raped by the PATRIOT ACT...which not only did Bush pass, but he also vetoed several other bills that would have reversed it.

Powder heroin these days is 80-98% pure depending on location, a decade ago it was 2-10% pure. Now it is more often insufflated these days, it can also be smoked, no need to shoot up. The more direct method of ingestion the more likely you are to overdose, it is harder to overdose by snorting than injection or smoking. It doesn't only come from the middle east but also Southamerica, Asia, south africa...
Interestingly enough Bush praised Afghanistan in banning opium poppy growth in 2001 by giving THE TALIBAN $43 MILLION. This didn't stop heroin manufacture however because

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Despite U.S. and UN reports that the Taliban had virtually wiped out the poppy crop in 2000-2001, authorities in neighboring Tajikistan reported that the amounts coming across the border were actually increasing. In reality, the Taliban gave its order to halt cultivation merely to drive up the price of opium the regime had already stockpiled.

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Even if the US got no heroin from the middle east it would only encourage more production elsewhere and the trade routes would shift to make up for it.

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0304d.pdf

I would also like to note:

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If you pay 20$ for a roll of X or DMX or whatever your getting ripped off man. Pay 20$ for a hit of amphetamine, fuck that man.

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MDMA is so very much more enjoyable than amphetamine.

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Originally Posted by juggalo420

lsd is the hardest drug for me to find, no one has it, not one of the dealers i know, not one of the potheads i know. good old uncle sam has most of it, if they didnt destroy it.

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the gov. is probably taking it themselves....(as in ingesting it) if not then i bet anything they are testing it on soldiers again lmao

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Originally Posted by Delta9

I woulden't use heroine all those needles, overdoses, AIDS, too much (-) compaired to (+). I Don't like the middle east either, I've studied Islam, It's the worst culture there is, so I can't support Poppy.

And I support George Bush because He is a Great President and I firmly support G.B.

Smoke on.

Not only that there were more marijuana arrests when Clinton was president.

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ok lets not even go into all the everyday mistakes bush makes in his speeches (which shows he's not too bright to begin with...)....let me just say this...you can't like drugs and support bush at the same time.....bush wants to wipe out drugs period...so by supporting him you are supporting the extinction of drugs (which will never happen it's just not physically possible there's always going to be someone manufacturing hardcore drugs and growing others....so make up your mind....the dumb fuck president you claim to be a great president or drugs....personally i'd rather have clinton back cuz he was too worried about getting a blow job to come down hard on drugs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nullific

(addition to previous post)
This may present problems. Considering that they have similar names and effects there could be a shit load of confusion on the street until different slang/alterative names are given to each of the substances and are widely excepted. No one can be sure whether they have 2C-x or some other chemical and this could present problems for some people determining dosages and using these drugs.

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And purity......I could not ever imagine buying cut 2c-i or 2c-e on the street. That'll really be hard to measure an accurate dose. Used to be ridiciously cheap, now the only places I know charge double what it use to be.

Damn the man.

I definitely see 2c-xs becoming mainstream drugs in 7-10 years. Still many people never heard, let alone seen and tried 2c-xs. I'm glad I joined the RC bandwagon several months before the busts to have a gift of happiness :D .

delta 9 u r the most racist fuck ive ever met.

how can u say that someone else's relegion is disgusting

how would u like it if i took ur beliefs and pissed all over them?

and btw

bush sucks, and he is a dam hypacrit for wanting to get rid of drugs bc if memory serves me he got kicked out of the army for cocaine

anyways

later

yeah i cant score acid ne more i been able to get it like 3 times ever!!! :( And only had the money 2x :(:(... Its shit (the lack of, not the drug)

i agree. but i can score acid here :)

ill probly try it one day

gotta expienrece with shrooms first tho

later

i had my first trip last night,
its quite difficult to get here.