The following large (200K) file is the updated LSD FAQ incorporating

various posts that I've collected since this faq first came out.

There is a "Changes" section near the top.  This also contains

info on other tryptamine psychedelics, viz. DMT and psilocybin.



(c) 1994 The reproduction for nonprofit use of this file is encouraged.





		The Usenet alt.drugs LSD FAQ







Last Update: 9 Aug 94

    Subject: LSD

       Size: Now 200K, 80K gzip'd



Formatting Info:



       topic break:	******************************

within-topic break:	..............................



Special DMT FAQ insert: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





******************************

	Caveat:



[NB: This FAQ provided to reduce the Net's bandwidth / confusion /

misinformation, as an informational resource ONLY.  There are some

very informed, and some very clueless people on the Net.  This

FAQ tries to shift the balance.  The truth shall set you free,

as they say.]





******************************



	Changes since Previous Version



- added synthesis notes, MAPS

- merged misc. files and references, organizations, the baseball

story, recipes I'm not competent to judge

- added scholarly section on creativity

- include more info on related active tryptamine derivatives

- traded off half-a-decibel of signal-to-noise for wider scope

- added mycological horticultural note

- added postscript stereoimage of structure



******************************



	Synopsis / Table of Contents:



LSD 		(definition, introduction)

Delysid 	(medical fact sheet for pharmaceutical LSD) (pharmacology)



	Cautions, Real And Imagined:



Addiction Potential (none)

Adulterants 	(including the strychnine myth, manufacturing impurities, etc.)

Bad Trips 	(what they are, how to avoid, what to do)

Myths 		(stamps for children, staring at the sun..)

Dangers 	(LSD isn't for morons...)

Flashbacks 	(what they are ---post-traumatic stress syndrome)

Insomnia 	(common, what to do)

Tolerance 	(aquired and lost quickly (3 days) harmlessly, no withdrawal)



	Backround:



Anthropology 		(and history)

Botany 			(sources in nature: mushrooms, ergot, morning glories,

				hawaiian baby woodrose, tropical plants)

Chemistry 		(structure)

Mechanism of Action 	(uncertain)

Related Compounds 	(indoles: psilocybin, DiMethylTryptamine (DMT) )

Manufacture 		(forget it)



Drug Testing 	 	(don't worry)

Legal Scheduling (sched. 1, no medical uses in US (despite past effective use))



	Pragmatics:



Set and Setting 	(how to have a positive experience; lsd != beer)

Storage 			(keep in a cool dark dry place)

Synergies, Bad Combinations 	(cannabis is good, otherwise be careful)



	References & Further Reading:



(Recommended)

 	_Psychedelic Encyclopedia_ by Peter Stafford

	_LSD: My Problem Child_  by Albert Hofmann

	_Licit & Illicit Drugs_ (Consumer Reports)

	_Storming heaven : LSD and the American dream_  by Jay Stevens



******************************







LSD

	Generic name for the hallucinogen lysergic acid

	diethylamide-25.  Discovered by Dr. Albert Hofmann in 1938, LSD is one

	of the most potent mind-altering chemicals known.  A white, odorless

	powder usually taken orally, its effects are highly variable and begin

	within one hour and generally last 8-12 hours, gradually tapering off.

	It has been used experimentally in the treatment of alcoholics and

	psychiatric patients.  [Where it showed some success.] It

	significantly alters perception, mood, and

	psychological processes, and can impair motor coordination and skills.

	During the 1950s and early 1960s, LSD experimentation was legally

	conducted by psychiatrists and others in the health and mental health

	professions.  Sometimes dramatic, unpleasant psychological reactions

	occur, including panic, great confusion, and anxiety.  Strongly

	affected by SET and SETTING.  Classification: hallucinogens.  Slang

	names: acid, sugar.  See also appendix B.  (RIS 27:211-52 entries)



	-- Research Issues 26, Guide to Drug Abuse Research Terminology,

		   available from NIDA or the GPO, page 54.



..............................



Common Drug Slang Terms (NB: many of these refer to the carrier, ie, "Blotter"

	or "Sugar Cubes".  Often the local names will refer to patterns printed

	on the blotter, eg, "Blue unicorn".):



	Acid, 'Cid, Sid, Bart Simpsons, Barrels, Tabs, Blotter, Heavenly blue,

	"L", Liquid, Liquid A, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Microdots,

	Mind detergent, Orange cubes, Orange micro,  Owsley, Hits,

	Paper acid,  Sacrament, Sandoz,  Sugar, Sugar lumps,

	Sunshine, Tabs, Ticket, Twenty-five, Wedding bells, Windowpane,

	etc.



..............................



from the data sheet accompanying product:

(see also Physician's Desk Reference from mid-60's)



                      Delysid (LSD 25)



           D-lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate



	Sugar-coated tablets containing 0.025 mg. (25 ug.)



	Ampoules of 1 ml. containing 0.1  mg.  (100  ug.)  for  oral

administration.



     The solution may also be injected  s.c.  or  i.v.   The

effect  is  identical  with  that of oral administration but

sets in more rapidly.



                         PROPERTIES



     The administration  of  very  small  doses  of  Delysid

(1/2-2  ug./kg.  body  weight) results in transitory distur-

bances of affect, hallucinations, depersonalization,  reliv-

ing  of  repressed memories, and mild neuro-vegetative symp-

toms.  The effect sets in after 30 to 90  minutes  and  gen-

erally  lasts  5 to 12 hours.  However, intermittent distur-

bances of affect may occasionally persist for several days.



                  METHOD OF ADMINISTRATION



     For oral administration the contents of  1  ampoule  of

Delysid  are  diluted with distilled water, a 1% solution of

tartaric acid or halogen-free tap water.



     The absorption of the solution is somewhat  more  rapid

and more constant that that of the tablets.



     Ampoules which have not been opened,  which  have  been

protected  against  light  and  stored  in  a cool place are

stable for an unlimited period.  Ampoules  which  have  been

opened or diluted solutions retain their effectiveness for 1

to 2 days, if stored in a refrigerator.



                   INDICATIONS AND DOSAGE



a)   Analytical  psychotherapy,   to   elicit   release   of

     repressed  material and provide mental relaxation, par-

     ticularly in anxiety states and obsessional neuroses.

     The initial dose is 25 ug. (1/4  of  an  ampoule  or  1

     tablet).   This  dose is increased at each treatment by

     25 ug. until the optimum dose (usually between 50  and

     200  ug.) is found.  The individual treatments are best

     given at intervals of one week.



b)   Experimental studies on the nature  of  psychoses:   By

     taking  Delysid  himself,  the  psychiatrist is able to

     gain an insight in the world of ideas and sensations of

     mental  patients.   Delysid can also be used to induced

     model psychoses of short duration in  normal  subjects,

     this facilitating studies on the pathogenesis of mental

     disease.



     In normal subjects, doses of 25 to 75 ug. are generally

     sufficient  to produce a hallucinatory psychosis (on an

     average 1 ug./kg. body weight).  In  certain  forms  of

     psychosis  and  in chronic alcoholism, higher doses are

     necessary (2 to 4 ug./kg. body weight).



                        PRECAUTIONS



     Pathological mental conditions may  be  intensified  by

Delysid.  Particular caution is necessary in subjects with a

suicidal tendency and  in  those  cases  where  a  psychotic

development appears imminent.  The psycho-affective lability

and the tendency to commit impulsive acts  may  occasionally

last for some days.



     Delysid should only be administered under strict  medi-

cal supervision.  The supervision should not be discontinued

until the effects of the drug have completely worn off.



                          ANTIDOTE



     The mental effects of Delysid can be  rapidly  reversed

by the i.m.  administration of 50 mg. chlorpromazine.



              Literature available on request.



              SANDOZ LTD., BASLE, SWITZERLAND



9792*-Z1540 e.-sp./d.-fr.

Printed in Switzerland.



..............................



From: An Introduction to Pharmacology  3rd edition, JJ Lewis, 1964   (p 385)



Peripheral Actions



These include an oxytocic action and constriction of the blood vessels

of isolated vascular beds.  In intact animals LSD causes a fall in

blood pressure, but its adrenergic blocking potency is low.



LSD causes mydriasis in man and other species.  It also causes

hyperglycaemia and mydriasis, has a hyperthermic action and causes

piloerection.  These effects are sympathetic in nature and are

abolished by ganglion blocking or adrenergic blocking agents.

Parasympathetic effects include salivation, lachyrmation, vomiting,

hypotension, and brachycardia.  Low doses stimulate respiration but

larger doses depress it.



(nb: mydriasis = pupillary dilation)

..............................



Hoffman thought the diethylamide version of the lysergic acid molecule

might be a respiratory stimulant... (see _Problem Child_ by Hoffman)



..............................



The "speedy" quality of unadulterated LSD is due to the pharmacological

actions of LSD itself, and not necessarily due to decomposition or impurities.

LSD typically causes early adrenergic effects such as sweating, nervousness,

jaw grinding and insomnia which are easily confused with the side effects

of amphetamine.



******************************



ADDICTION POTENTIAL:



Zero physical addiction potential.  Not something that makes you want to

do it again immediately.



Essentially zero psychological addiction potential.





Rarely people use it to escape in a negative way or as part of "polydrug

abuse" behavior or pattern of behavior.  Usually in this case other

drugs are causing more harm, and the fundamental problem is a personal

difficulty; the escapism/distraction is a symptom.



******************************



ADULTERANTS:



Several problems are associated with street drugs: their unknown

purity and their unknown strength.  Because of its extreme cheapness

and potency, the purity of LSD in blotter form is not an issue: either

it's lsd or untreated paper.  The purity of powders, pills, and liquids

cannot be assumed as safe.  With regards to uncertain strength, the

strength of hits these days is low, 100 micrograms or so.  One should

be careful and assume that the smallest square in a tiling of a sheet

is a dose, even if a printed pattern covers several.  An experienced

person could judge the strength of a dose, and if it is assumed all

doses on a sheet have been processed equivalently, those doses would

be calibrated for others, much like anything else.



..............................



From _Psychedelic Chemistry_ by M.V.Smith,  2nd edition p 5:



"There is a great deal of superstition regarding purification of

psychedelics.  Actually, any impurities which may be present as a

result of synthetic procedures will almost certainly be without any

effect on the trip.  If there are 200 micrograms of LSD in a tablet,

there could only be 200 mics of impurities present even if the LSD was

originally only 50% pure (assuming nothing else has been added), and

few compounds will produce a significant effect until a hundred to a

thousand times this amount has been ingested.  Even mescaline, which

has a rather specific psychedelic effect, requires about a thousand

thimes this amount."



..............................



Note that: 1) on a piece of paper, vs. a tablet, you can't even add

significant amounts of adulterants 2) adulterants would cost, whereas

blank paper will rip someone off just as well.



LSD itself has some "body-kinks" on some people some times.  Nausea is

one of them.  its usually mild and transient.  It also has speedlike

(ie, adrenergic stimulation) effects, etc.



(It is common for the uninformed to harbor fears (e.g., about adulterants)

instilled by ignorance and the current hysteria/propoganda.  That's why this

FAQ exists.)



..............................



[Referring to strychnine] 15 mg has been fatal, but a more typical fatal

dose is on the order of 50mg.  [Another post indicates 25 mg. as the LD50] 1

mg of strychnine orally probably has no observable pharmacological effects

in a typical adult.  [1 mg being ten times the effective dose of LSD, by the

way.]



From: Handbook of Poisoning, 10th ed, R.H. Dreisbach, M.D., PhD, Lange Med.

Pub. Co. Los Altos, Ca.: strychnine is lethal in 15-30 mg amounts to adult

humans.  (Pure nicotine is fatal at 40 mg./person; cyanide salts are fatal

at about 100 mg./person) Strychnine causes death by respitory failure, via

increased spinal reflex excitability.





Actually, I think the fact that PharmChem analyzed something on the order of

2,000 LSD samples between 1972 and 1979 and never found one with strychnine

in it would be better.  I'm going over all their data with a toothpick and

I'll get back to you on exactly what I find.  It looks like the percent of

LSD with strychnine in it is, however, at least under .05%.  More a little

later.





..............................



According to Alexander Shulgin the difinitive answer is that strychnine is

neither used in the synthesis, produced by the synthesis, or a possible

contaminant of the synthesis.  But just look at the structures of strychnine

vs Lysergic acid/LSD/etc and you should be able to understand that readily.







..............................



From "The PharmChem Newsletter" (vol 3, no 3), 1973:



Summary of Street Drug Results - 1973: "Of 189 samples of LSD quantitatively

analyzed, the average dose was 67.25ug LSD.  Of the 32 samples of alleged

mescaline actually containing mescaline, [...stuff about mescaline and

mushrooms deleted...]  It is interesting to note the low incidence of

deception among the less sought after psychotomimetics LSD and PCP."





Most likely "good" acid is N-acetyl-LSD (ALD-52) [according to

_Psychedelic Encyclopedia_ it produces a smoother trip and is somewhat

commonly found in analysis -- references to the latter were provided].  while

"speedy" acid is LSD-25.  You might want to inform her that those "speedy"

effects are also commonly reported side effects of legal drugs which

effect the 5-HT neurotransmitter system.  And ditto on the potency issue --

you'd need mg quantities of strychnine to feel anything.  And what you would

feel (according to descriptions I've read) does not match descriptions of

LSD "speed" effects.  Most significantly because strychnine muscular effects

tend to fade in & out, while LSD "speed" effects are typically reported as

being consistent -- and there are other qualitative differences.



"actual experience"? ... no one here is likely to post descriptions of that

over the net, even in e-mail...  I'm *quite* sure that some people could

though...



> Well, hypothetically speaking, I bought some from her friends, and I could

> probably surrender half a hit or a whole one, maybe, in the interest of

> science.  Does anyone have facilities to perform a REAL (hypothetical)

> analysis of blotter to find out exactly what's in it?



Its been done....



> > Schnoll SH  Vogel WH

> > Analysis of "street drugs".

> > N Engl J Med (1971 Apr 8) 284(14):791



This reference sucks.



> > Brown JK  Shapazian L  Griffin GD

> > A rapid screening procedure for some "street drugs" by thin-layer

> >      chromatography.

> > J Chromatogr (1972 Jan 19) 64(1):129-33



Nope.



There's a LA County analysis of street drugs I've got (Clin Tox ~1984 I think)

that reports LSD as being >96% pure or blank (If I remember correctly) --

the rest most likely is substitutes, but it wasn't reported in the analysis.









..............................



This is the PharmChem analysis of LSD from 1972 (vol 1, no 1) up to the time

that the DEA no longer allowed them to make quantitative measurements (1974-

vol 3, no 2 included).  NOTE:  NO STRYCHNINE! also note that PharmChem found

a sample of Shrooms contaminated with Strychnine in 1972 (vol 1, no 7), and

I would think it safe to assume that they also checked LSD for Strychnine.





******************************



BAD TRIPS:



 A person on LSD who becomes depressed, agitated, or confused may

experience these feelings in an overwhelming manner that grows on

itself.  The best solution is to remove disturbing influences, get to

a safe, comforting environment, and reassure the tripper that things

are alright.  It may comfort those who fear that they are losing their

minds to be reminded that it will end in several hours.



Authorities are fond of administering injections of anti-psychotic

drugs.  Recovery in the presence of authorities, in hospitals or

police stations, is not pleasant.  Sedatives or tranquilizers such as

Valium may help reduce panic and anxiety, but the best solution is

calm talking.  Some claim that niacin (an over the counter vitamin

supplement) can abort a trip, but this may be due to a placebo effect

(niacin produces a flushing effect).



Remember that odd bodily sensations are normal and not harmful.



******************************



From page 8 of Robert Anton Wilson's Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits



"The distinction between psycholytic and psychedelic doses of LSD is used in

many scientific publications but seems to be ignored by popularizers who

either preach the "LSD utopia" or warn of the "decline of the West." A

psycholitic does, generally 75 or 100 - or at most 200 - micrograms, causes

a rush of thoughts, a lot of free association, some visualization

(hallucination) and abreaction (memories so vivid that one seems to relive

the experience). A psychedelic dose, around 500 micrograms, produces total

but temporary breakdown of usual ways of perceiving self and world and

(usually) some form of "peak experience" or mystic transcendence of ego.

"Bad trips" usually occur only on psychedelic doses."



******************************



The best review of this question is Rick Strassman's "Adverse Reactions

to Psychedelic Drugs: a Review of the Literature" in _J. Nerv and Mental

Disease_ 172(10):577-595.  He writes:



The most common adverse reaction is a temporary (less than 24 hours)

episode of panic --the "bad trip".  Symptoms include frightening illusions/

hallucinations (usually visual and/or auditory); overwhelming anxiety

to the point of panic; aggression with possible violent acting-out behavior;

depression with suicidcal ideations, gestures, or attempts; confusion; and

fearfulness to the point of paranoid delusions.



Reactions that are prolonged (days to months) and/or require hospitalization

are often referred to as "LSD psychosis," and include a heterogenous

population and group of symptoms.  Although there are no hard and

fast rules, some trends have been noted in these patients.  There is a

tendency for people with poorer premorbid adjusment, a history of

psychiatric illness and/or treatment, a greater number of exposure to

psychedelic drugs (and correlatively, a great average total

cumulative dosage taken over time), drug-taking in an unsupervised

setting, a history of polydrug abuse, and self-therapeutic and/or

peer-pressure-submission motive for drug use, to suffer these consequences.



In spite of the impressive degree of prior problems noted in many of these

patients, there are occasional reports of severe and prolonged reactions

occuring in basically well adjusted individuals.  In the same vein,

there are many instance of faily poorly adapted individuals who suffer

_no_ ill effects from repeated psychedelic drug use.  In fact, it has been

hypothesized that some schizophrenics do not suffer adverse reactions

because of their familiarity with such acute altered states.  Another

possibility is that there individuals may be "protected" by possible "down-

regulation" of the receptors for LSD, bu the (over-)production of some

endogenous compound.  _Individual_ prediction of adverse reactions,

therefore, is quite difficult...

...



Major "functional" psychosis vs. "LSD psychosis"

-----------------------------------------------



A diagnostic issue dealth with explicitly in only a few papers is that of

LSD-precipitated major functional illnesses, e.g. affective disorders

or schizophrenia.  In other words, many of these so called LSD psychoses

could be other illnesses that were triggered by the stress of a traumatic

psychedelic drug experience.  Some of the same methodological issues

described earlier affect these studies, but they are, on the averagem

better controlled, with more family and past psychiatric history available

for comparison.



Hensala et al. compared LSD-using and non-LSD-using psychiatric inpatients.

They found that this group of patients was generally of a younger age and

contained more characteristically disordered individuals than the non-

LSD-using group.  Patients with specific diagnoses with or without LSD

histories were not compared.  Based on their observations, they concluded

that LSD was basically just another drug of abuse in a population of

frequently hospitalized individuals in the San Francisco area, and that

it was unlikely that psychedelic use could be deemed etiological in the

development of their psychiatric disorders.



Roy, Breakey et al., and Vardy and Kay have attempted to relate LSD use to

the onset and revelopment of a schizophrenia-like syndrome.  A few comments

regarding this conceptual framework seem in order, before their findings

are discussed.  The major factor here is that of choosing schizophrenia,

or in the Vardy and Kay study, schizophreniform disorders, as the

comparison group.  There is an implication here that LSD psychoses are

comparable, phenomenologically, to schizophrenia-like disorders, and that

LSD can "cause" the development of such disorders.  The multiplicity of

symptoms and syndromes described in the "adverse reaction" literature

should make it clear that LSD can cause a number of reactions that can last

for any amount of time--from minutes to, possibly, years.  I believe what

is being studied here is the question of the potential role of LSD in

accelerating or precipitating the onset of an illness that was "programmed"

to develop ultimately in a particular individual--in a manner comparable

to the major physical or emotional stress that often precipitates a bona

fide myocardial infarction in an individual with advanced coronary

atheresclerosis.  The stress did not _cause_ the heart disease; it was

only the stimulus that accelerated the inexorable process to manifest

illness.



In looking at the relevant studies, Breakey et al. found that schizophrenics

who "used drugs" had an earlier onset of symptoms and hospitalization than

non-drug-using schizophrenics, and had possibly better premorbid personal-

ities than non-drug using patients (although Vardy and KAy have challenged

this analysis of Breakey's data).



Bowers compared 12 first-admission patients with psychosis related to LSD

use, requiring hospitalization and phenothiazines, to 26 patients hospital-

ized and treated with phenothiazines with no history of drug use.  Six

of these controls had been previously hospitalized.  Drug-induced psychotic

patients were found to have better premorbib histories and prognostic

indicators than the nondrug groups.  There was no difference in rates of

family history of psychiatric illness.  However, several issues flaw

this study.  One is the poly-drug abusing nature of the "LSD-induced"

psychotic patients, compared to the controls.  The role of LSD, therefore,

in causing or precipitating these symptomatic disorders, is open to dispute.

The other is the lack of an adequate comparison control group, i.e. the

controls were specified only as "psychotic," and did not necessarily

match the LSD group in either symptoms or diagnostic classification.

A follow-up study of the patients occured between 2 and 6 years later.

One half did well and one half did poorly, although the lack of a control

group for a follow-up in a similarly symptomatic control group makes

interpretation of the data difficult.



Roy, in a somewhat different design, compared chronic schizophrenic

patients (diagnosed according to DSM-III criteria) who had used LSD

within the week preceding hospitalization, and found no difference

in age of symptom onset or hospitalization compared to patients without

a history of illicit drug use.



Vardy and Kay, in an elegant study with a 3- and 5- year follow-up period,

demonstrated that patients hospitalized for a schizophrenic picture

that developed within two weeks of LSD use (patients with other diagnoses

were explicitly excluded form comparisons with non-drug-using

schizophrenics) were "fundamentally similar to schizophrenics in

geneology, phenomenology, and course of illness (165, p. 877).  Pre-

morbid adjustment, age of onset of symptoms and hospitalization, family

history of psychosis or suicide, and most cognitive features were also

equal between groups.  Family histories of alcohol abuse were markedly

great in the LSD group.



I believe these data, taken as a whole, limited as they are in terms of

comparing subgroups (i.e. LSD-using vs. non-LSD-using) of "schizophrenia-

like" disorders, point towar, at most, a possible precipitory role in

the development of these disorders, in a non specific and not

etiologically related manner.







MYTHS:



LSD does not form "crystals" that reside in the body to be "dislodged"

later, causing flashbacks.  LSD is a crystalline solid (though it is

unlikely that one would ever have enough to be visible to the naked

eye) but it is easily water soluble, thus cannot form bodily

deposits.  Furthermore, it is metabolized and excreted in hours.  The

bogus "loosened crystal" description in not necessary to explain

flashbacks, which are psychological phenomena (see FLASHBACKS).



LSD does not cause chromosome damage.



In Science 30 April 1972, Volume 172 Number 3982 p. 431-440 there was an

article by Norman I. Dishotsky, William D. Loughman, Robert E. Mogar and

Wendell R. Lipscomb titled "LSD and Genetic Damage - Is LSD chromosome

damaging, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic?". They reviewed 68

studies and case reports published 1967-1972, concluding "From our own

work and from a review of literature, we believe that pure LSD ingested

in moderate doses does not damage chromosomes in vivo, does not cause

detectable genetic damage, and is not a teratogen or carcinogen in man."



Well, there's the study by Sidney Cohen which was cited here

recently, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 130, 1960. The

following is from Jay Stevens' Storming Heaven: "Cohen surveyed a sample

of five thousand individuals who had taken LSD twenty-five thousand

times. He found and average of 1.8 psychotic episodes per thousand

ingestions, 1.2 attempted suicides, and 0.4 completed suicides.

'Considering the enormous scope of the psychic responses it induces,'

he concluded, 'LSD is an astonishingly safe drug.'"





Some urban legends: I've heard two "stories" about people blinding

themselves on "drugs". One was revealed as a hoax by the person who

perpetrated it (apparently it was intended to "illustrate" the dangers

of LSD), another is trotted out by anti-drug speakers at high schools:



1) Seven people on LSD stared at the sun and lost 90% of their reading

   vision.



2) A teenager arrested while on LSD plucked out his eyeballs in his

   jail cell, and felt no pain.



While these are bogus, the drug has powerful effects on the mind

and the consumer should be aware of the hazards, and act appropriately.



..............................



There is an occasionally circulated fake warning from some police department

about LSD-laced "tattoos" or stickers (the "blue star tattoo" story) being

given to children.  This probably originated with some hick cop or ignorant

and panicky parent not understanding some children-cartoon (eg, mickey mouse

in sorcerer's garb) printed on a sheet of blotter.



..............................



See also myths about testing in DRUG TESTING





******************************



DANGERS:



Purely psychological hazards, not harmful to body.  May release latent

psychosis or exacerbate depression, leading to irrational behavior.  There

is also a danger of foolish or incautious behavior, e.g, misjudging

distances or thinking one can fly.  Physical overdose is not a hazard,

though one may easily ingest more than one may be able to handle

psychologically.



..............................



Because the "LSD psychosis" is not distinguishable from non-drug-

induced psychosis, we have reasonable evidence to conclude that LSD

was not the sole cause of psychosis.  Instead, it would seem that the

drug brought on the problems in vulnerable individuals.

Interestingly, the rate of parental alcoholism was found to be much

higher in LSD patients than in other patients or in the general

population by one study (Vardy and Kay, Arch-Gen-Psych, 1983 40(8):

877-83).



..............................



Lethal (toxic) doses of LSD are conservatively several tens of

thousands of times as much as a normal dose, making it (in the toxic

sense) one of the safest drugs known.  See section on Pharmacology for

description of bodily  side-effects.



    The LD50 for psilocybin (active ingredient in mushrooms) is 275 mg/kg

i.v. in mice.  Of course, it would take lots more p.o. to kill someone.



    The reported LD50 values for LSD are 46, 16.5, 0.3 mg/kg I.V. for mice,

rats, and rabbits, respectively.  Again, it's hard to accurately translate

these numbers to oral values.



Note that an average human dose is 0.001 mg/kg, ie, 1 microgram/kg, ie,

1 part per billion by weight.



..............................



Never take any drugs while pregnant.  Best to be prudent.



******************************



FLASHBACKS:



   Quoted without permission from 'Licit and Illicit Drugs,' written by

Edward M. Brecher and the editors of Consumer Reports. ISBN: 0-316-15340-0



   A simple explanation of LSD flashbacks, and of their changed character

after 1967, is available.  According to this theory, almost everybody

suffers flashbacks with or without LSD.  Any intense emotional

experience--the death of a loved one, the moment of discovery that one is in

love, the moment of an automobile smashup or of a narrow escape from a

smashup--may subsequently and unexpectedly return vividly to consciousness

weeks or months later.  Since the LSD trip is often an intense emotional

experience, it is hardly surprising that it may similarly "flash back."



   <end quote>



"Post-traumatic stress disorder has been commonly associated with war

veterans, but it also affects victims of disasters and violence... Experts

estimate that 1% of the population suffers from the disorder."

---LA Times, Feb 18 1992, p A3, "Journey For Better Life Hell For Some Women."



..............................





   Can smoking marijuana induce a flashback?

   Also are you more likely to suffer flashbacks from having a bad trip?



Apparently yes and yes.  The following is reproduced without

permission from Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar, "Psychedelic

Drugs Reconsidered," Basic Books, Inc.  New York, 1979. pp. 159-163.

I highly recommend this book, and if you find it please buy me one

too.



I typed this in a while ago and didn't type in the references at the

time (slap!).  If you want them i'll see what i can do.  Typos are

mine.



	-	-	-	-	-	-	-



	... Studies of flashbacks are hard to evaluate because the

term has been used so loosely and variably.  On the broadest

definition, it means the transitory recurrence of emotions and

perceptions originally experienced while under the influence of a

psychedelic drug.  It can last seconds or hours; it can mimic any of

the myriad aspects of a trip; and it can be blissful, interesting,

annoying, or frightening.  Most flashbacks are episodes of visual

distortion, time distortion, physical symptoms, loss of ego

boundaries, or relived intense emotion lasting a few seconds to a few

minutes.  Ordinarily they are only slightly disturbing, especially

since the drug user usually recognizes them for what they are; they

may even be regarded lightheartedly as "free trips."  Occasionally

they last longer, and in a small minority of cases they turn into

repeated frightening images or thoughts.  They usually decrease

quickly in number and intensity with time, and rarely occur more than

a few months after the original trip.



	A typical minor and pleasant flashback is the following:



--



	... Frequently afterward there is a momentary "opening"

("flash" would be too spastic a word) when for maybe a couple of

seconds an area one is looking at casually, and indeed unthinkingly,

suddenly takes on the intense vividness, composition, and significance

of things seen while in the psychedelic condition.  This "scene" is

nearly always a small field of vision -- sometimes a patch of grass, a

spray of twigs, even a piece of newspaper in the street or the remains

of a meal on a plate (Cohen 1970[1965], pp. 114-115)



--



	Here are two more troublesome examples:



--



	For about a week I couldn't walk through the lobby of A-entry

at the dorm without getting really scared, because of the goblin I saw

there when I was tripping. (Pope 1971, p. 93)



--



	A man in his late twenties came to the admitting office in a

state of panic.  Althought he had not taken any drug in approximately

2 moths he was beginning to re-experience some of the illusory

phenomena, perceptual distortions, and the feeling of union with the

things areound him that had previously occurred only under the

influence of LSD.  In addition, his wife had told him that he was

beginning to "talk crazy," and he had become frightened ... He was

concerned lest LSD have some permanent effect on him.  He wished

reassurance so that he could take it again.  His symptoms have

subsided but tend to reappear in anxiety-provoking situations.

(Frosch et al. 1965, p. 1237)



--



	Flashbacks are most likely to occur under emotional stress or

at a time of altered ego functioning; they are often induced by

conditions like fatigue, drunkenness, marihuana intoxication, and even

meditative states.  Falling asleep is one of those times of

consciousness change and diminished ego control; an increase in the

hypnagogic imagery common at the edge of sleep often follows

psychedelic drug use and can be regarded as a kind of flashback.

Dreams too may take on the vividness, intensity, and perceptual

peculiarities of drug trips; this spontaneous recurrence of

psychedelic experience in sleep (often very pleasant) has been called

the high dream (Tart 1972).  Marihuana smoking is probably the most

common single source of flashbacks.  Many people become more sensitive

to the psychedelic qualities of marihuana after using more powerful

drugs, and some have flashbacks only when smoking marihuana (Weil

1970).  In one study frequency of marihuana use was found to be the

only factor related to drugs that was correlated with number of

psychedelic flashbacks (Stanton et al. 1976).



	How common flashbacks are said to be depeds on how they are

defined.  By the broad definition we have been using, they occur very

often; probably a quarter or more of all psychedelic drug users have

experienced them.  A questionanaire survey of 2,256 soldiers (Stanton

and Bardoni 1972), leaving the definition to the respondents, revealed

that 23 percent of the men who used LSD had flashbacks.  In a 1972

survey of 235 LSD users, Murray P. Naditch and Sheridan Fenwick found

that 28 percent had flashbacks.  Eleven percent of this group (seven

men in all) called them very frightening, 32 percent called them

somewhat frightening, 36 percent called them pleasant, and 21 percent

called them very pleasant.  Sixty-four percent said that their

flashbacks did not disrupt their lives in any way; 16 percent (4

percent of the whole LSD-using group) had sought psychiatric help for

them (Naditch and Fenwick 1977).  In a study of 247 subjects who had

taken LSD in psychotherapy, William H. McGlothlin and David O. Arnold

found 36 cases of flashbacks, only one of which was seriously

disturbing (McGlothlin and Arnold 1971).  McGlothlin, defining

flashbacks narrowly for clinical purposes as "repeated intrusions of

frightening images in spite of volitional efforts to avoid them"

(McGlothlin 1974b, p. 291), estimates that 5 percent of habitual

psychedelic users have experienced them.



	There are few studies on the question of who is most

susceptible.  In 1974, R. E. Matefy and R. Krall compared psychedelic

drug users who had flashbacks with those who did not, and found no

significant differences in their biographies or on personality tests.

The main causes of flashbacks were stress and anxiety.  About 35

percent found them more or less pleasant, and the same proportion

thought they could control them.  Most accepted them as an inevitable

part of their lives as members of the psychedelic fraternity and did

not want help from psychiatry (Matefy and Krall 1974).  Naditch and

Fenwick found that the number of flashbacks, both pleasant and

unpleasant, was highly correlated with the number and intensity of bad

trips and the use of psychedelic drugs as self-prescribed

psychotherapy.  Those who enjoyed flashbacks and those who were

frightened by them did not differ significantly on tests of ego

functioning.



	A case seen in an outpatient setting in the late sixties

illustrates the kind of set and setting that may create flashback

problems.  PQ was a thirty-six-year-old single man who entered therapy

because of depression and anxiety.  He was a heavy drinker who was

passive, slovenly, and spent most of his time in bed.  Just before

taking to alcohol and his bed he had failed in an attempt to parlay a

gift from his wealthy father into a fortune on the stock market.

Despite a remarkable incapacity for insight, during a year in

psychotherapy he managed to give up alcohol and start a promising

business.  But his anxiety continued, and in order to allay it he had

to keep himself very busy wheeling and dealing.  Imitating his father,

a successful self-made man who had married a woman twenty years

younger than himself, PQ dated only women under the age of nineteen.

Being attractive to young women was so imporant to him that much of

his time was spent in the company of teenagers.  During business hours

he would wear a conservative three-piece suit and drive a new sedan,

but when he was with his young friends he would wear a leather jacket

and drive a motorcycle.  Anxiety and fears of inadequacy dominated

both of these lives.  Several months after therapy began, during a

weekend in a small resort town, his young friends decided to take LSD,

and he felt obliged to dissemble his fears and join them; it was his

first and only trip.  He felt a panic he had never known before; he

thought that he was losing his mind and going "out of control."  His

friends were so concerned thet they took him to a small hospital,

where he was given chlorpromazine and after six hours released in

their care.  The next day he had a flashback that lasted one or two

hours and was almost as frightening as the original experience.

Flashbacks continued for six months, their frequency, duration, and

severity eventually diminishing to the point where it was difficult

for him to determine whether they were related to the LSD trip or

merely an intensification of his usual anxiety.  In fact, the patient

described the flashbacks as being like very much enhanced anxiety

episodes.  Even several years after this experience, when he became

very anxious, he was reminded of the trip and these flashbacks.  He

denied that these experiences had any perceptual or cognitive aspect;

both during the LSD trip and later, the only symptom was panic.  There

is no question that the nature of his trip was influenced by the

unfortunate set and setting.  It is a matter of speculation what part

his underlying chronic anxiety played in the development and form of

the flashback phenomena.



	Several explanations for flashbacks have been proposed.  One

is that the drug has lowered the threshold for imagery and fantasy and

made them less subject to voluntary control; in another version of

this explanation, flashbacks are caused by a heightened attention to

certain aspects of immediate sensory experience suggested by drug

trips and reinforced by the community of drug users.  Something more

seems to be needed to account for repeated fearful relivings of

sequences from past drug trips, and these have been explained as

similar to traumatic neuroses precipitated by fright: disturbing

unconscious material has risen to consciousness during the drug trip

and can be neither accepted nor repressed.  For example, D. F. Saidel

and R. Babineau (1976) have reported a case of recurrent flashbacks --

three years of blurring images and auditory distortions, with some

anxiety and confusion -- which they regard as a neurosis founded on

the patient's problems with his career and his relationship to his

mother. (See also Horowitz 1969; Shick and Smith 1970; Heaton 1975.)

Another explanation treats the flashback as an example of recall

associated with a particular level of arousal. (Fischer 1971).  In

this conception the memory of an experience is best retrieved when the

rate of mental data-processing is the same as it was during the

original experience -- in other words, when the state of consciousness

in similar.  Therefore, psychedelic experiences are likely to be

recalled and relived when the ego's sorting and control of sensory

information is disturbed by drugs, stress, or the state of half-sleep.



	For a critique of flashback studies, see Stanton et al. 1976



	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

















******************************



INSOMNIA:



Insomnia occurs frequently after the trip.  A mild, over-the-counter

sleeping aid can help, and these antihistamines do not produce adverse

interactions.  Also, some people like to consume a small amount of alcoholic

beverage to "smooth the jitteries".  The usual precautions about sleeping

aids if alcohol has been consumed apply of course.





******************************



TOLERANCE:



Aquired rapidly, within 3 days.  Tolerance dissipates equally rapidly,

without withdrawal, craving, or symptoms of addiction.



Cross-tolerance can and is developed between other indole hallucinogens, eg,

DMT, LSD and Psilocybin.



******************************



BOTANY:



Lysergic compounds appear in ergot, a fungal parasite of cereal grains;

morning glory and hawaiian baby wood rose seeds; psychedelic tryptamines

also occur in psilocybe mushrooms, in some south american trees and the

poison glands of the cane toad.  (Mescaline is not in this chemical family).



..............................







"Indole Alkaloids In Plant Hallucinogens"  Richard Evans Schultes, PhD.

Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol.8(No.1) Jan-Mar 1976



"The main constituent of the seeds of Rivea corymbosa is ergine or d-lysergic

acid amide. Minor alkaloids present are the related d-isolysergic acid amide

(isoergine), chanoclavine, elymoclavine and lysergol. The seeds of Ipomoea

violacea have a similar composition, but instead of lysergol, they have

ergometrine (ergonovine). Later, very minor amounts of two alkaloids

ergometrinine and penniclavine - were found in I. violacea by chromatography.

the total alkaloid content of the seeds of Ipomoea viloacea is approximately

five times as great as that of the seeds of Rivea corymbosa: 0.06% in the

former; 0.012% in the latter. This difference in the alkaloid content

explains why Indians employ smaller doses of seeds of the Ipomoea than of the

Rivea.



"Ethnopharmacology and Taxonomy of Mexican Psychodysleptic Plants"

 Jose Luis Diaz M.D.

 Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol. 11(1-2) Jan-Jun 1979



Seeds of various Morning Glories contain

 Ergolines:  ergine,isoergine,ergonovine

 Glucosides: turbicoryn [apparently in Rivea corymbosa only]



called Tlitlitzen (Aztec word for "The Divine Black One")

to the Aztecs, Black is a "hot" color,

a property of psychotropics associated with light



..............................



"The Botanical and Chemical Distribution of Hallucinogens"

Richard Evans Schultes, PhD.

Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol.9(No.3) Jul-Sep 1977



"I. violacea, often referred to by it's synonyms I. rubro-caerulea and

I. tricolor, is represented in horticulture by a number of "varieties,"

such as: Heavenly Blue, Pearly Gates, Flying Saucers, Wedding Bells,

Summer Skies, and Blue Stars - all of which contain the hallucinogenic

ergot alkaloids."



>In the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 1980, there is an article

>on an ergot derivative used in obstetrics which is an hallucinogen.

>Although the dose required is ten times the ED50 (.2 mg) no

>significant ill effects were reported.

>I believe the name of this drug is methyl ergovine(?)  The drug

>without the methyl group is supposed to be more effective.  It

>was (is?) a Sandoz drug, for those with a PDR.



Ergonovine and methylergonovine are both oxytocic agents: they increase

uterine tone and are used (rarely) to assist in delivery and (more

frequently) to stop post-partum uterine hemorrhage.  Less frequently,

they can be used to abort a migraine headache.  If they have any

hallucinogenic effects, it is certainly a well-kept secret.



I would be quite concerned about taking 10x the therapeutic dose

of a drug like ergonovine, since it can cause arterial spasm and

precordial distress even in healthy persons, and intense vaso-

constriction and gangrene can follow from an overdose.  These

are not drugs to fool around with.



Another related drug, 1-methyl-methylergonovine, or methysergide

(Sansert), is used in migraine prophylaxis, and is claimed to have

LSD-like actions when high doses are taken.  The methyl group on

the indole nitrogen reduces the drug's vasoconstrictive actions.

Chronic, uninterrupted use of the drug causes a fibrosis of the

heart valves and the lungs.





..............................



"Burger's Medicinal Chemistry" Fourth Edition, Volume III

Chapter: "Hallucinogens"  Alexander Shulgin



                  Composition, % of total alkaloids present

                  =========================================

Compound          R. corymbosa       I. violacea

===============   ================   ======================

Ergine (LA-111)   54, 48             58, 10-16, 5-10

Isoergine         17, 35             8, 18-26, 9-17

Ergometrine                          8

Elymoclavine      4                  4

Chanoclavine      4                  4

Lysergol          4



Total Alkaloids   .012, .04          .06, .04-.08, .02-.04

(% of dry weight

 of seeds)







******************************



ANTHROPOLOGY:





_The Road to Eleusius_ by Hoffman, Wasson, and Ruck.



Summary: A secret religion existed for 2,000 years in Greece (until

the christians displaced it around 400 AD).  The initiation was open

to anyone who spoke Greek and hadn't committed murder, once in their

life.  After 6 month long preparatory rituals, members walked to

Eleusius whereupon they underwent secret rituals.  The rituals

remained secret until the 1970's.



Wasson, an ethnomycological scholar and former banker (and the first

white to trip on shrooms with the mexican indians) proposed the

following explanation of the Eleusian mysteries to Hoffman, an

ergot-alkaloid expert chemist, and Ruck, a greek scholar:



The Secret of the ritual involved the personal visions induced by

drinking the grain decoction administered to the initiates.  The

domestication of grains permitted the development of greek

civilization; it also brought ergot fungus (of St. Anthony's fire

infamy).



The thin book contains their argument for the use of the ergot fungus

in Eleusian rites, Wasson providing some background on the use of

mushrooms and grains and their role in the culture; Hoffman on the

psychoactivity of ergot strains; and Ruck on the mythological and

cultural backround of the sect.



Evidence includes: Hoffman dosed himself with large (ergot-derived)

doses of obstetric compounds to assay their hallucinogenic potential,

and found them to possess such activity.  The Eleusian temple site still

remains, but there is no room to view theatric performances, just rows of

tripping initiates, further supporting their argument.



An interesting read, and its neat to think that the culture that

more or less lead to the western industrial one had psychedelic rites.

(Various greek prominant figures attended the rituals, including Plato).



..............................





IPOMOEA PURPUREA: A NATURALLY OCCURRING PSYCHEDELIC



Charles Savage, Willis W. Harman and James Fadiman



>From  "Altered States of Consciousness, A Book of Readings"

       edited by Charles Tart   BF311.T28



Of the naturally occurring plant alkaloids used in ancient and modern

religious rites and divination one of the least studied is ololiuqui. The

earliest known description of its use is by Hernandez, the King of Spain's

personal physician, who spent a number of years in Mexico studying the

medicinal plants of the Indians and "accurately illustrated ololiuqui as a

morning glory in his work which was not published until 1651" (Schultes,

1960). In his words, "When a person takes ololiuqui, in a short time he loses

clear reasoning because of the strength of the seed, and he believes he is in

communion with the devil" (Alacon, 1945). Schultes (1941) and Wasson (1961)

have reported in detail on the religious and divinatory use of two kinds of

morning-glory seeds, Rivea corymbosa and Ipomoea violacea, among the Mazatec

and Zapotec indians. The first of these is assumed to be the ololiuqui of the

ancient Aztecs.



In 1955 Osmond described personal experiments with Rivea corymbosa seeds and

reported that the effects were similar to those of d-lysergic acid

diethylamide (LSD-25). He suggested (1957) that the word psychedelic (meaning

mind-manifesting) be used as a generic term for this class of substances to

refer to their consciousness-expanding and psychotherapeutic function as

contrasted  with the hallucinogenic aspect. In 1960 Hoffman reported that he

had isolated d-lysergic acid amide (LA) and d-isolysergic acid amide from the

seed of both Rivea corymbosa and Ipomoea violacea. LA is very similar to LSD

in its psychological and physiological manifestations but is reported to have

about one twentieth the psychological effectiveness of LSD (Cerletti &

Doepfner, 1958).



The work of these investigators led us to a preliminary study of the

psychedelic properties of species of Ipomoea which are commonly found within

the continental United States. The seeds of Ipomoea purpurea, the common

climbing morning glory, resemble the seeds of Ipomoea violacea and have been

found to have similar psychedelic properties. Recent analysis by Taber et al.

(1963) has verified that LA is present in the varieties used and is probably

the primary active agent.



The effects of the seeds of Ipomoea purpurea (varieties Heavenly Blue and

Pearly Gates) in a total of 45 cases are summarized below. The subjects are

all normally functioning adults and the majority had previous experience with

LSD. The onset of effects is about half an hour after the seeds have been

chewed and swallowed and they last from five to eight hours.





               Low Dose, 20-50 Seeds (11 Subjects)



This dosage rarely produces any visual distortions, although with eyes

closed there may be beginning imagery. Restlessness, evidenced by alternating

periods of pacing about and lying down, may be present. There tends to be a

heightened awareness of objects and of nature, and enhanced rapport with

other persons. A feeling of emotional clarity and of relaxation is likely to

persist for several hours after other effects are no longer noticeable.



              Medium Dose, 100-150 Seeds (22 Subjects)



In this range the effects resemble those reported for medium-dose (75-150

micrograms) LSD experiences, including spatial distortions, visual and

auditory hallucinations, intense imagery with eyes closed, synaesthesia and

mood elevation. These effects, which occur mainly during the period of 1 to 4

hours after ingestion, are typically followed by a period of alert calmness

which may last until the subject goes to sleep.



              High Dose, 200-500 Seeds (12 Subjects)



In this range the first few hours may resemble the medium-dose effects

described above. However, there is usually a period during which the

subjective states are of a sort not describable in terms of images or

distortions, states characterized by loss of ego boundaries coupled with

feelings of euphoria and philosophical insight. These seem to parallel the

published descriptions of experiences with high doses (200-500 micrograms) of

LSD given in a supportive, therapeutic setting as reported by Sherwood et al.

(1962).



All the subjects who had previous experience with LSD claimed the effects of

the seeds were similar to those of LSD. Transient nausea was the most

commonly reported side effect, beginning about one half hour after ingestion

and lasting a few minutes to several hours. Other reported side effects not

commonly found with LSD were a drowsiness or torpor (possibly due to a

glucoside also present in the seeds) and a coldness in the extremities

suggesting that the ergine content of the seeds may be causing some vascular

constriction. (If this is the case, there may be some danger of ergot

poisoning resulting from excessive dosages of the seeds.) The only untoward

psychic effect was a prolonged (eight hours) disassociative reaction which

was terminate with chlorpromazine [Thorazine]. The possibility of prolonged

adverse reactions to the psychological effects of the seeds is essentially

the same as with LSD, and the same precautions should be observed (Cohen &

Ditman, 1963).



..............................



IPOMOEA.003   7-MAY-90



Additional Notes:

Ipomoea purpurea is sold as the "Heavenly Blue" variety of morning glory.

"Ipomoea tricolor" is the trade name used for that variety. It is identical

with the species of morning glory described above.



The seeds must be chewed or ground in order to be effective. Soaking the

ground seeds in water for several hours, filtering out the grounds,

and then drinking only the water portion of the mixture can reduce

some of the stomach-upset symptoms if such occur.



Unpleasant LSD and morning glory trips can be smoothed out or even

stopped by taking niacin (in the form of nicotinic acid, vitamin B-3 or

"niacin"). Vitamin C has been shown to reduce the incidence of paranoia and

prevent depletion of the vitamin from the adrenal glands during LSD trips.



There have been reports that commercially available packets of morning

glory seeds from some distributors are coated with fungicides or

other chemicals to increase shelf life or discourage the practice

of eating them. Seeds from plants grown in one's own garden will

be safe as long as you do not spray them with insecticides.



The last few notes about Niacin and Vitamin C are based on

a paperback edition of Hoffer & Osmonds "The Psychedelics"



It's pretty clear that the latin names of this plant are somewhat

confused (which is typical). Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea tricolor,

Ipomoea violacea and Ipomoea rubro-caerulea are all the same plant.



The other variety of morning glory, "Ololiuhqui" has at least two

Latin names as well: Rivea corymbosa, and Turbina corymbosa.



..............................



"Recreational use of Ergoline Alkaloids from Argyreia Nervosa"

William E. Shawcross

Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol. 15(4) Oct-Dec 1983



CHEMISTRY AND EFFECT OF THE SEEDS

The Hawaiian baby woodrose entered the drug scene in 1965 with the

publication of a paper in "Science" entitled "Ergoline Alkaloids in Tropical

Wood Roses" by Hylin and Watson. The wide circulation of this journal assured

thorough dissemination of the information they presented. They wrote, "The

possible health and legal problems associated with the presence of similar

compounds in commercially cultivated plants led us to examine the ornamental

wood roses, Ipomoea tuberosa and Argyreia nervosa, both common Hawaiian crops

that have assumed commerical importance as components of [the] dried tropical

flower industry." Comparing the seeds of these two plants with those of the

morning glory varieties Pearly Gates and Heavenly Blue, they found the

following yield of alkaloids (mg of alkaloid/g of seed material):



     Heavenly Blue        0.813

     Pearly Gates         0.423

     I. tuberosa          [None]

     A. nervosa           3.050



The seed of A. nervosa is the best plant source of ergoline alkaloids

discovered; it contains approximately 3 mg of alkaloidal material per gram of

seed. Approximately one-eighth of this is lysergamide.



Hylin and Watson found the major alkaloidal constituents in A. nervosa seeds to

be ergine (780 mcg/g of fresh seed) and isoergine and penniclavine (555 mcg).



[Note: Argyreia nervosa has NO history of shamanic use as a hallucinogen]



This is an excerpt from the article cited.

There's no record of Argyreia being used as an hallucinogen in

India, but it was used externally as some kind of skin medicine.

There's been speculation that Argyreia might have been a component

of "Soma", but there's no evidence for that, apparently.

Because there's not a long history of human usage of Argyreia,

it may be that there are glycosides not mentioned here that

take effect at higher doses or might cause stomach upset, tachycardia

etc. The article mentioned intestinal complaints in one or two

cases at higher experimental doses.













******************************



CHEMISTRY:



lysergic acid diethylamide _is_ lysergic acid diethylamide (or...

N,N-diethyl-D-lysergamide or...

9,10-Didehydo-N,N-diethyl-6-methylergoline-8B-carboxamide).



Only one stereoisomer (the d-) is psychoactive.  Thus, racemic (l/d 50-50 mix)

lsd shows half the potency of the dextro form.  In synthesis it is possible

to recover the l-form for the lysergic acid.



Lysergic Acid Diethylamide is LSD rather than LAD because the German word

for acid is saeure (sp).



	LSD-25				Lysergic acid



        O      CH2-CH3                  O

       ||     /                        ||

       ||    /                         ||

        -C--N                           C---OH

        |    \                          |

        |     \                         |

        |___   CH2-CH3                  |___

       /    \                          /    \

      /      \                        /      \

    <<        N---CH3               <<        N---CH3

     \\      /                       \\      /

      \\____/                         \\____/

      /     \                         /     \

     /       \                       /       \

    <         >                     <         >

  // \       /                    // \       /

 //   \_____/                    //   \_____/

 |    ||   ||                    |    ||   ||

 |    ||   ||                    |    ||   ||

 |    ||   ||                    |    ||   ||

 \\   /\   /                     \\   /\   /

  \\ /  \ /                       \\ /  \ /

         N                               N

         H                               H



Ergot is a product of the fungus Claviceps purpurea.  The bio-active

ingredients of ergot are all derivatives of lysergic acid.  LSD is a

semisynthetic derivative of lysergic acid.  Thus LSD is an

"ergot"-like substance.



******************************





MECHANISM OF ACTION:



(Note: the mechanism of action of LSD and other psychedelics is uncertain.)



From a chapter titled Hallucinogens and Other Psychotomimetics: Biological

Mechanisms by S.J.Watson



"The current thesis of the effect of indole hallucinogens on

5-hydroxytrypamine might be stated as follows: LSD acts to preferentially

inhibit serotonergic cell firing and seems to spare postsynaptic serotnergic

receptors.  This preference is shared by other simillar hallucinogens but in

a limited fashion.  Nonhallucinogenic analogs of LSD show no preference.

These results suggest that there are two different steric conformation of

serotonergic receptors, one of which has higher affinity for LSD than the

other.  In general, 5-ht is an inhibitory transmitter; thus, when its

activity is decreased, the next neuron in the chain is freed from inhibition

and becomes more active.  Since serotnergic systems appear to be intimately

involved int eh control of sensation, sleep, attention, and mood, it may be

possible to explain the actions of LSD and other hallucinogens by their

disinhibition of these critical systems.



There is also evidence for interaction with dopaminergic systems.



..............................



LSD acts as a 5HT autoreceptor agonist in the raphe nucleus.  These

autoreceptors are typically considered to be 5HT1As.  It also acts as a 5HT2

agonist, which is thought to be the main site of hallucinogenic activity.

It's probably best called a a mixed 5HT2/5HT1 receptor partial agonist.



I don't know of its effects on dopamine.  Wouldn't be surprised if it has

'em; the systems aren't really functionally separable.  The DA effects

wouldn't be necessary for hallucinogenic activity, I'd bet.



..............................



(From Snyder, "Drugs and the Brain", 1986, Sci Am Books Inc., Reprinted w/o

permission, blah, blah, blah... )



  In more recent studies, Aghajanian has focuses not on the serotonin neu-

rons of the raphe nuclei but on the norepinephrine neurons of the locus

coeruleus. As we saw in Chapter 6, the locus coeruleus cell bodies give rise to

axons that ramify all over the brain and provide the majority of the norepi-

nephrine neuronal input in most brain regions. Amphetamine releases norepi-

nephrine from these nerve terminals by diplacing the norepinephrine from the

neurotransmitter storage vesicles. Presumably, the overall influence of amphet-

amine on brain function is therefore somewhat different than what occurs

when the locus coeruleus fires rapidly.  The amphetamine-induced seepage of

norepinephrine out of nerve terminals probably elicts a milder type of activa-

tion than does the repetitive and presumably more robust ejection of norepi-

nephrine that occurs with rapid firing of the locus coeruleus. Drug-induced

changes in animal behavior support this conceptual model.  Amphetamine elic-

its behavioral activation, represented by the rats or mice running about the

cage. In contrast, electrical stimulation of the locus coeruleus produces a more

dramatic startle response. It is difficult to observe a rat and make inferences

about what the animal is feeling, but rats in whom the locus coeruleus has been

stimulated seem to go into a state of panic. They stare about, hyper-responsive

to all stimuli in the enviornment, whether visual, auditory, or tactile.

  Rats show the same hyper-responsiveness to environmental-stimuli--

jumping abruptly at the sound of fingers snapping or in response to a puff of

air in the face--when they have been treated with a psychedelic drug.  And as

you will recall, hyper-responsiveness to sensory stimuli of all modalities is

just what one observes in humans under the influence of psychedelic drugs.  At-

tracted by the similarity between the behavior of rats on LSD and their reac-

tion to stimulation of the locus coeruleus, Aghajanian embarked in 1980 upon

a series of studies to evaluate how psychedelic drugs affect the locus

coeruleus. He showed that any kind of sensory stimulation--sight, sound, smell,

taste, or tactile sensation--speeds up the firing of locus coeruleus neurons in

rats, and that the accelerated firing is greatly enhanced by treating the

animals with LSD or mescaline.  In contrast, nonpsychedelic drugs, such as

amphetamines and antidepressants, fail to exert this effect.  Moreover, the LSD

analogue methysergide, which has no psychedelic effects in humans, is

correspondingly ineffective in enhancing the reactivity of locus coeruleus

neurons to sensory stimulation.

  Although psychedelic drugs increase the response of locus coeruleus cells to

sensory stimulation, they do not cause the neurons to fire spontaneously in the

absence of such stimulation.  Moreover, directly applying LSD or mescaline to

locus coeruleus neurons does not enhance the neurons' reponse to sensory

stimulation. We must therefore conclude that the effect of psychedelic drugs on

sensory stimulation is indirect--the drugs presumably interact with a different

set of neurons that in turn make direct contact with the locus coeruleus.

  What is particularly fascinating about Aghajanian's findings is how nicely

they correspond to what we know about the effects of psychedelic drugs in

humans, and how readily they explain the way psychedelic drugs accentuate all

our sensory perceptions. The locus coeruleus is a funneling mechanism that

integrates all sensory input. Viewed in this way, the observations of

Aghajanian can explain synesthesia. If the locus coeruleus lumps all types of

sensory messages--from sights, sounds, tactile pressures, smells, tastes--into

a generalized excitation system within the brain, one can readily appreciate

that stimulation of the locus coeruleus will cause the drug user to feel that

sensations are crossing the boundaries between different modalities.

  Aghajanian's research may also illuminate how LSD influences the user's

sence of self. The greatly accelerated firing of the locus coeruleus presumably

provokes a powerful, patterned release of norepinephrine from nerve terminals

throughout the brain. As we discussed earlier, the consequent alerting action

would be much more pronounced than what occurs with the far more gradual

leaking out of norepinephrine produced when amphetamine displaces the

transmitter from the storage vesicles. This extremely enhanced level of alert-

ness might possibly account for the "transendent" mental state produced by

psychedelic drugs. In other words, in a state of such heightened awareness, the

drug user may become conscious of an "inner self" to which he or she is

normally oblivious.



Did that answer any of your questions?  Probably not, but I thought it was

interesting.



P.S. Snyder has tripped before =)



..............................



>"If there's no documentation, you can't tell bugs from features." ---C.P.



..............................





>>Lysergic-acid diethylamide >> >>When ingested into the human body, LSD act

as 5-HT (Serotonin) autoreceptor >>inhibitor, thus it is a 5-HT agonist.

LSD increases the level of active 5-HT >>molecules by disaffecting their

autoreceptors (a safeguard type feature in the >>brain which reduces levels

of certain neurotransmitter and the like).



That "thus" in the first sentence should be an "and."  I'm not certain

what "disaffecting" should be (autoreceptors' only true loyalty is

to the laws of chemistry & physics) for the second sentence to be

true.



The autoreceptors in question are 5-HT1As.  5-HT2s, which are not

autoreceptors and which hallucinogens agonize, seem to be the more

important ones for hallucinogenic activity. Hallucinogens need not

affect 1As directly (some definitely don't).  However, 5-HT2 receptor

activation seems to facilitate presynaptic 1A function (such that,

for example, hallucinogen use produces rapid 5-HT2 downregulation

which, in turn, decreases 5-HT1A function).  So hallucinogens would

inhibit autorecetpor activity, but not necessarily directly.



>LSD also has effects on 5-HT1C receptors, and its not entirely sure what the

>specific receptor mechanism is -- there's also the question of why the

>psychological effects seem to last much longer than the presence of the LSD

>molecule.  One thing that is fairly sure is that LSD shuts down the firing of

>the seratonin neurons in the raphe, though.



It is difficult to separate 1Cs from 2s because of their great similarity.

However, hallucinogens seem to be all 2 & 1C agonists.  Molecules which (like

LSD) are partial 2 agonists, and which (unlike LSD) are 1c antagonists

are not hallucinogenic.



I believe that the effects of DOI (and probably LSD) on firing in the

raphe nucleus are not blocked by 5-HT2 antagonists (like ketanserin),

implying that these effects are not mediated by 5-HT2 receptors.

Oddly enough, ritanserin (which antagonizes 2 and 1C) doesn't block

'em either.  That's kind of mysterious to me.



>  5-HT has been implicated in

>>certain behaviors, notably dreaming and sleep, which explains the hallucinatory

>>effect.  We are in effect dreaming while completely awake and aware.



>Actually, a better explanation is the increased firing of the locus coereleus

>by its disinhibition due to the neurons in the raphe slowing down (since you

>are inhibiting an inhibitory neuron the result is excitation...).  The l.c.

>has been associated with being a "sensory highway" in the brain, and has also

>been associated with feelings of anxiety, and theorized that its invovled

>with depression.  My guess is that the hallucinations and stimulatory effects

>of LSD come from potentiating the l.c., while the effect on the 5-HT neurons

>in the raphe is responsible for its entheogenic effect on the mind.



This isn't the full story since this decrease in firing (in the raphe) is still

produced by hallucinogens even after chronic treatment with hallucinogens.

Since tolerance does develop to hallucinogens, we would have

expected to see it in the firing.  Of course, rate of firing and amount

of 5-HT released _are_ two different things.  Besides, tolerance may

occur via another route.











******************************



RELATED COMPOUNDS:







Related compounds are the indole hallucinogens including DMT

(dimethyl-tryptamine), DET (diethyl-), etc.; psilocybin; lysergic acid.  DMT

is very fast acting, lasting less than an hour.  Psilocybin, found in

hallucinogenic (aka magic or mexican) mushrooms, has effects similar to LSD

but they work for approximately half the duration.  These are all indole

derivatives like the neurotransmitter serotonin, 5-hydroxy-tryptamine.

"Indole" is the name of the 6-carbon ring attached to the 5-ring containing

a nitrogen. The lysergic acid molecule contains an indole structure plus

additional rings.



LSD's two ethyl groups hanging off the amine may be replaced with

other carbon chains for compounds with different durations, potencies,

and effects.



While LSD is semi-synthetic, DMT and psilocybin are found in nature.

See the sections on BOTANY and ANTHROPOLOGY for info on related

natural (plant) compounds and their uses.



..............................



   1) DMT, DET, psylocin, psylocybin, : The mushroom psylocybin cubensis

contains all four of these indole derivatives, as well as others. DMT is

dimethyltryptamine, an indole derivative which has functionalized at the 3

position with the dimethyl ethylamine group.  It is a close relative to the

amino acid, tryptophan, which until recently was available in bulk at

vitamin shops, until some jerk poisoned himself by taking a wonga dose of

it. [Actually it may have been a single toxic batch mistakenly produced in

Japan.] A prep came out in 1984 for LSD using l--tryptophan as the

precursor, so this may have facilitated the government's pullin it from the

shelves. I can't find tryptophan anywhere, now, and I've tried, bud.

     DMT, and it's brother DET (diethyltryptamine), have no oral activity,

so have to be smoked. They stink like fish oil when lit, though. Both have

hallucinogenic effects within 2-3 minutes of toking, wand while DMT lasts

for only a half hour, DET is a smoother, more euphoric high, lasting twice

as long. DET has effects similar to psylocybin.

     Psylocybin is DMT which has a functional group, phosphoryloxy-, at the

4 position on the indole ring. This group is immediately converted to

hydroxyl- as soon as the stuff hits your stomach to give the cousin,

psylocin. In preparing the drug, then, it is not necessary to proceed beyond

the psylocin.

     DMT and DET are easily derived from many indole derivatives, the

easiest of which is indole-3-acetic acid. I've done this reaction and it

stinks to high heaven of indole gunge, skatoles (methylindoles), and

indenes. Bad news if you want to make it at home, because the stench is

pervasive. Other derivatives, using phenyl or butyl groups have been

reported as having oral activity, so it is not necessary to smoke the stuff.

Doses run at about a hundred mgs for smoked drug, while psylocin is orally

active at about 5 mgs.



[this warning was recently posted to alt.drugs -cak]



Message-ID: <221302Z24111994@anon.penet.fi>

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

From: an152823@anon.penet.fi

Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 22:11:17 UTC

Subject: !! DMT WARNING !!



DMT WARNING!!



Under the heading "related compunds" in the LSD.FAQ, where it refers to the

tryptamines, specifically smoked DMT, it says, "Doses run at about a hundred

mgs for smoked drug," Smoking 100mg of DMT is a very bad idea. Realistically

20-30mg is a low-end average dose and 50-60mg gets pretty hairy.



The faq needs fixin big time.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------

To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.

Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized,

and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.

Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.



[back to the regularly scheduled FAQ -cak]



     For a good reference work on these compounds, their preps, and effects,

see Michael Valentine Smith's "Psychedelic Chemistry," publisher unknown.





                                   Your Friendly Neighborhood Chemical

                                                Dude,

                                   St. Theo





..............................



             DMT

                                CH

                              /   3

        // \\---  --- CH CH N

        || ||   ||      2  2  \

        \\ //\ /                CH

              N                   3

              H







 When DMT is smoked or injected, effects begin in seconds, reach a peak in

five to twenty minutes and end after a half hour or so. This has earned it the

name "businessman's trip." The brevity of the experience make its intensity

bearable, and, for some, desirable.



 At least two synthetic drugs in which the methyl group of DMT is replaced by

a higher radical are psychedelic:



              /\       (CH2)2-N(C2H5)2     /\      (CH2)2-N(CH2CH2CH2)2

             // \ ____/                   // \ ____/

            |   ||   ||                  |   ||   ||

            |   ||   ||                  |   ||   ||

             \\ /\   /                    \\ /\   /

              \/  \N/                      \/  \N/

                   H                            H



        N,N-diethyltryptamine          N,N-dipropyltryptamine



 The drug DET is active at the same dose as DMT and the effects last slightly

longer, about one and a half to two hours. DPT is longer-acting still and has

fewer autonomic side effects. In therapeutic experiments its action continues

for one and a half to two hours at the lowest effective dose, 15 to 30mg, and

for four to six hours at doses in the range of 60 to 150mg. Both DET and DPT

are milder than DMT. The drug 6-FDET (6-fluorodiethyltryptamine) resembles DET

in its effects. All these drugs, like DMT, are inactive orally and must be

smoked or injected. Dibutyltryptamine (DBT) and higher substitutions are

inert, but other synthetic drugs related to DMT may be psychoactive.





..............................







From the Merck Medical Manual, 16th edition, page 2652:



"Serotonin (5-HT) is the neurotransmitter of many central neruons (eg raphe

nucleus).  ITs synthesis begins with the uptake of tryptophan into

serotonergic neurons.  Tryptophan is hydroxylated by the enzyme

tryptophan hydroxylase to 5-hydroxytryptophan and then decarboxylated

to serotontin (5-hydroxytryptamine) by the enzyme aromatic L-amino

acid decarboxylase.  Levels of 5-HT are controlled by the uptake

of tryptophan and intraneuronal MAO.  Metabolism occurs mainly via

MAO to 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid."



The Merck also states that tyrosine is the precursor of norepinephrine,

acetylcholine's precursor is choline, tyrosine is the precursor of

dopamine, GABA is made from glutamic acid.





..............................







++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





DMT FAQ (Draft, inserted into LSD FAQ)

8 Aug 94







DMT, DiMethylTryptamine, or 3-(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)-indole is a chemical

in the same class of drugs as Psilocybin and LSD.  Structurally related to

serotonin, their effects on the body are similar and cross-tolerance can and

is developed between DMT, LSD and Psilocybin.



DMT is not absorbed into the blood stream when taken orally and therefore is

usually inhaled as a powder or smoked.













 A little drivel from your neighborhood chemist regarding some

questions recently asked. If I'm erroneous in anything I spout,

let me know. Thanks.

   1) DMT, DET, psylocin, psylocybin, : The mushroom psylocybin

cubensis contains all four of these indole derivatives, as well as

others. DMT is dimethyltryptamine, an indole derivative which has

functionalized at the 3 position with the dimethyl ethylamine group.

It is a close relative to the amino acid, tryptophan, which until

recently was available in bulk at vitamin shops, until some jerk

poisoned himself by taking a wonga dose of it. A prep came out in

1984 for LSD using l--tryptophan as the precursor, so this may have

facilitated the government's pullin it from the shelves. I can't find

tryptophan anywhere, now, and I've tried, bud.

     DMT, and it's brother DET (diethyltryptamine), have no oral

activity, so have to be smoked. They stink like fish oil when

lit, though. Both have hallucinogenic effects within 2-3 minutes of

toking, wand while DMT lasts for only a half hour, DET is a smoother,

more euphoric high, lasting twice as long. DET has effects similar

to psylocybin.

     Psylocybin is DMT which has a functional group, phosphoryloxy-,

at the 4 position on the indole ring. This group is immediately converted

to hydroxyl- as soon as the stuff hits your stomache to give the

cousin, psylocin. In preparing the drug, then, it is not necessary

to proceed beyond the psylocin.

     DMT and DET are easily derived from many indole derivatives, the

easiest of which is indole-3-acetic acid. I've done this reaction and it

stinks to high heaven of indole gunge, skatoles (methylindoles), and

indenes. Bad news if you want to make it at home, because the stench is

pervasive. Other derivatives, using phenyl or butyl groups have been

reported as having oral activity, so it is not necessary to smoke the

stuff. Doses run at about a hundred mgs for smoked drug, while psylocin

is orally active at about 5 mgs.



[this warning was recently posted to alt.drugs -cak]



Message-ID: <221302Z24111994@anon.penet.fi>

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

From: an152823@anon.penet.fi

Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 22:11:17 UTC

Subject: !! DMT WARNING !!



DMT WARNING!!



Under the heading "related compunds" in the LSD.FAQ, where it refers to the

tryptamines, specifically smoked DMT, it says, "Doses run at about a hundred

mgs for smoked drug," Smoking 100mg of DMT is a very bad idea. Realistically

20-30mg is a low-end average dose and 50-60mg gets pretty hairy.



The faq needs fixin big time.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------

To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.

Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized,

and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.

Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.



[back to the regularly scheduled FAQ -cak]



     For a good reference work on these compounds, their preps, and

effects, see Michael Valentine Smith's "Psychedelic Chemistry," publisher

unknown.



                                   Your Friendly Neighborhood Chemical

                                                Dude,

                                   St. Theo





..............................





existing literature on each drug (some would have hundreds of references and

some perhaps two), the facts that are known concerning history, human

pharmacology and human psychopharmacology will be amalgamated into a

"profile." The drugs to be presented will be chosen randomly, rather than with

preference given to popularity, unusual potency, or current availability.

Botanical mixtures will not be considered as such, but as their known active

compnents. As there are upwards of a hundred psychedelic drugs currently

known, it is expected that these "profiles" will eventually form an extensive

reference atlas of compactly prsented drug information.



                               1. DMT



Description and properties:



 DMT, N,N-diemethyltryptamine, Nigerine, desoxybufotenine,

3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-indole is a white, pungent-smelling, crystalline

solid with a melting point of 49-50 degrees Celsius, hydrochloride salt

hygroscopic, picrate m.p. 171-172 degrees Celsius and methiodide m.p. 215-216

degrees Celsius. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in organic solvents and

aqueous acids.



History:



 DMT was first synthesized  in 1931, and demonstrated to be hallucinogenic in

1956. It has been shown to be present in many plant genera (Acacia,

Anandenanthera, Mimosa, Piptadenia, Virola) and is a major component of

several hallucinogenic snuffs (cohoba, parica, yopo). It is also present in

the intoxicating beverage "ayahuasca" made from Banisteriopsis caapi, and it

may have oral effectiveness due to the presence of several naturally occuring

inhibitors of catabolic deamination.



Human Biochemistry and Pharmacology:



 Both the parent compound tryptamine and the N-methyltransferase system which

is capable of converting it to DMT, occur in humans, but there is as yet no

evidence that DMT is formed "in vivo". DMT has nonetheless been identified in

trace amounts in the blood and urine of both normals and of schizophrenic

patients, but its origins and functions are unknown. Following intramuscular

administration, maximum blood levels of about 100 ng/ml are observed in 10

minutes, coincident with the maximum changes in electroencephalographic

responses. The plasma clearance t-1/2 [half-life] is about 15 minutes.

Elevated blood levels of indoleacetic acid (IAA) are seen during the time of

peak effects, implying its role as a metabolite. Urine levels of IAA are also

elevated and account for about 30% of the administered drug. An increase in

5-hydroxy-IAA excretion suggests the involvement of serotonin in DMT action.

Unchanged DMT is not excreted.



Human Psychopharmacology:



 DMT is inactive orally at dosages of over 1000mg. With intramuscular

injection, there is an abrupt threshold of activity shown with 30mg, and a

complete psychedelic experience results from the administration of 50-70mg

(75mg subcutaneously, 30mg by inhalation). An unusual feature of the induced

intoxication is the speed of onset and short duration. Within 5 minutes of

administration there is mydriasis [dilated pupils], tachycardia [rapid heart

beat], a measurable increase in blood pressure, and related vegetative

disturbances which usually persist througout the drug experience. In 10-15

minutes, the full intoxication is realized, generally characterized by

hallucinations with the eyes either open or closed, and extensive movement

within the visual field. There is difficulty in the expression of one's

thoughts, and in concentration on a given subject. There is usually a mood

change to the euphoric with unmotivated laughter, but instances have been

reported in which paranoid ideation has promoted anxieties and feelings of

forboding into a state of panic. The subject is largely symptom-free at 60

minutes, although some residual effects have been seen in the second hour.

With the inhalation route of administration the time scale is contracted, with

onset of effects noted in 10 seconds, a short period of full intoxication at

2-3 minute, and a complete freedom from any residual effects within 10

minutes. At higher drug levels, there are increased vegetative symptoms, and

these effectively overwhelm the psychedelic experience at dosages of 150mg

i.m.  Interactions with other drugs are rarely seen; a sensitivity has been

observed with pretreatment with methlysergide, but there is no cross-tolerance

with LSD. Repeated usage does not appear to lead to either physical or

psychological dependency.



Legal Status:



 DMT is explicitly named as a Schedule I drug in the Federal Controlled

Substances Act; registry number 7435.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\



                                 DMT



         [Excerpt from a pharmacology textbook published in 1988]



Chemical structure and source:



 This is the prototype member of the tryptamine subclass of indole

derivatives. The structural formula is:



                         /\       (CH2)2-N(CH3)2

                        // \ ____/

                       |   ||   ||

                       |   ||   ||

                        \\ /\   /

                         \/  \N/

                              H



                   N,N-dimethyltryptamine





The drug is a constituent of many of the same South American snuffs and drinks

that contain other psychedelic indole deriviatives, it is often found in the

same plants as 5-MeO-DMT, and Indians add a substance containing it to drinks

containing harmala alkaloids. DMT is the major constituent of the bark of

Virola calophylla, mentioned above; it is also found in the seeds of

Anadenanthera peregina; in the seeds of the vine Mimosa hostilis, used in

easter Brazil to make a drink called "ajuca" or "jurema"; in the leaves of

Banisteriopsis rusbyana, which are added to the harmaline drinks derived from

other plants of the Banisteriopsis genus to make "oco-yage"; and in the leaves

of Psychotria viridis, also added to the Banisteriopsis drinks. Like

5-MeO-DMT, DMT must be combined with monoamine oxydase inhibitors to become

active orally.



Dose:



 First strong effects are felt at about 50mg, whether it is smoked or

injected. Tolerance develops only after extremely frequent use - injections

every two hours for three weeks in rats; at that dose frequency, but not

otherwise, there is also a cross-tolerance between DMT and LSD (Rosenberg et.

al. 1964; Kovacic and Domino, 1976).



Physiological effects:



 Resembles LSD, but sympathomimetic symptoms like dilated pupils, heightened

blood pressure, and increased pulse rate are more common and more intense.



Psychological Effects:



 Like LSD but often more intense. Since it is not taken by mouth, the effects

come on suddenly and can be overwhelming. The term "mind blowing" might have

been invented for this drug. The experience was described by Alan Watts as

like "being fired out of the nozzle of an atomic cannon" (Leary 1968a p.215).

Thoughts and visions crowd in at great speed; a sense of leaving or

transcending time and a feeling that objects have lost all form and dissolved

into a play of vibrations are characteristic. The effect can be like instant

transportation to another universe for a timeless sojourn.



Duration of action:



 When DMT is smoked or injected, effects begin in seconds, reach a peak in

five to twenty minutes and end after a half hour or so. This has earned it the

name "businessman's trip." The brevity of the experience make its intensity

bearable, and, for some, desirable.



 At least two synthetic drugs in which the methyl group of DMT is replaced by

a higher radical are psychedelic:



              /\       (CH2)2-N(C2H5)2     /\      (CH2)2-N(CH2CH2CH2)2

             // \ ____/                   // \ ____/

            |   ||   ||                  |   ||   ||

            |   ||   ||                  |   ||   ||

             \\ /\   /                    \\ /\   /

              \/  \N/                      \/  \N/

                   H                            H



        N,N-diethyltryptamine          N,N-dipropyltryptamine



 The drug DET is active at the same dose as DMT and the effects last slightly

longer, about one and a half to two hours. DPT is longer-acting still and has

fewer autonomic side effects. In therapeutic experiments its action continues

for one and a half to two hours at the lowest effective dose, 15 to 30mg, and

for four to six hours at doses in the range of 60 to 150mg. Both DET and DPT

are milder than DMT. The drug 6-FDET (6-fluorodiethyltryptamine) resembles DET

in its effects. All these drugs, like DMT, are inactive orally and must be

smoked or injected. Dibutyltryptamine (DBT) and higher substitutions are

inert, but other synthetic drugs related to DMT may be psychoactive.

 ..............................



        Remember the L-Tryptophan scare a little while ago?  Well I have

been thinking about it and have come up with a conspiracy theory.  It

may be off base but it was fun to come up with it.



        Ever since the War on Drugs the government has become increasingly

protective of precursors for drug manufacture.  Some friends of mine and

I were talking about Tryptophan, and it came up that it could be used as

the base for several drugs.



        So maby the government generated the Trypto scare so people would

be scared to buy/use it and stores would take it off their shelves.  Has

anyone on the net known anyone who got sick from L-Tryptophan?



        The following is a simple reaction to synthesize DMT from Tryptophan.

using no hard to get or controlled chemicals save L-Tryptophan.

WARNING...

WARNING...

WARNING... This is something I just came up with and may work but I am no

chemist, j!ust a Software Engineering type, so research it yourself or lets

have some net/chem/god help us out.  These two reactions can be found

and read about in any good library.



        The first reaction is using Trypto and Sodium HydroChlorite (AKA

Chlorox) in a 1:1 reaction to produce Indole Acetaldehype(IAA).  This

reaction was use by some company to produce IAA to use to stimulate plant

growth.  The yield should be 70-80%.



        The second reaction is the IAA and Dimethyl Formamide in a 1:4

reaction to produce DMT.  Dimethyl-F is supposedly a very common organic

solvent easy to get and not controlled.  This reaction is documented in a

paper called the 'Leukart Reaction'.  This paper should also have the

instructions on cleaning the DMT from the other byproducts of these

reactions.



Remember this is just to strengthen my conspiracy theory.  It is not

guaranteed correct.





             Tryptophan



                       NH

                       | 2

                       |

        // \\---  --- CH -- CO H

        || ||   ||            2

        \\ //\ /

              N

              H



              |

              |         + 1 Molar Equiv

              |

             \|/          Sodium Hydrochlorite (chlorox)





        Indole Acetaldehyde

              (IAA)



        // \\---  --- CH CHO

        || ||   ||      2

        \\ //\ /

              N

              H

                               CH

              |              /   3    Di-Methyl Amine

              |    <------ NH

              |              \

              |                CH

              |                  3

              |

              |                 Leukart Reaction

              |                     4 Equivs

              |                        Dimethyl Formamide

              |                     1 Equivs

              |                        IAA

             \|/



             DMT

                                CH

                              /   3

        // \\---  --- CH CH N

        || ||   ||      2  2  \

        \\ //\ /                CH

              N                   3

              H





Disclamer :

                The above may not be even remotely correct.  I myself

                Don't do drugs, Legal or not.  I don't advocate makings

                using or selling drugs.   But I do think they should all

                be Legal and everyone should educated on there effects.

                The choice should be ours.... Mycal



(C) 1990 Mycal Johnson All Rights Reserved.  Distribute this post in anyway

        for non commercial use.



In article <1990Nov16.011656.2696@everexn.com> mycal@everexn.com (Mike Johnson) writes:

>        Remember the L-Tryptophan scare a little while ago?  Well I have

>been thinking about it and have come up with a conspiracy theory.  It

>may be off base but it was fun to come up with it.



I'm pretty sure the ~5000 reported cases of EMS (eosinophilia-myalgia

syndrome) and 27 deaths, and their connection to a batch of Showa Denko

tryptophan is real.  But, I do like a good conspiracy...



>        Ever since the War on Drugs the government has become increasingly

>protective of precursors for drug manufacture.



Not too many years ago any old Joe could buy isosafrole (precursor to MDA)

or phenylacetone (precursor to amphetamine) and all necessary apparatus

and ancilliary chemicals with no more than a money order, [fake] signature,

and the address of, say, a vacant house or apartment.  Nowadays it seems

even MEK (methylethylketone) is difficult to obtain.



>        So maby the government generated the Trypto scare so people would

>be scared to buy/use it and stores would take it off their shelves.  Has

>anyone on the net known anyone who got sick from L-Tryptophan?



Considering the numbers above, it's not surprising that noone has reported

any first-hand experience with tryptophan-related EMS.



If we believe the EMS problem is real, and government-generated, this

would make for an intriguing conspiracy.  Let us also add that many are

eagerly pointing the finger at genetic engineering as the root cause of

the problem.  Showa Denko used a bacillus genetically engineered to produce

higher yields of tryptophan.  Now, can someone postulate a role for

Lyndon LaRouche?



>        The following is a simple reaction to synthesize DMT from Tryptophan.

> ...

>WARNING... This is something I just came up with and may work but I am no

                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Admit it, you did research!  Well, conspiracies do need some grounding in

fact.



>        The first reaction is using Trypto and Sodium HydroChlorite (AKA

>Chlorox)                                             [hypochlorite]



You are perhaps refering to



    R. A. Gray [Pineapple Research Institute of Hawaii]

    Preparation and Properties of 3-Indoleacetaldehyde [IAc]

    Arch. Biochem. Biophysics 81, 480-8 (1959)



Not merely "AKA Chlorox [sic]", but Clorox was the actual reagent!



Aldehydes can be difficult to prepare (contrast to ketones) as they are

easily oxidized to acids.  Special care was taken by Gray to prevent this,

and IAc was actually obtained as the bisulfite addition product, "which

was stable for many years."



>        The second reaction is the IAA and Dimethyl Formamide in a 1:4

>reaction to produce DMT.



Dimethylamine is really the reagent of interest here (which you did

indicate in your drawings).



>solvent easy to get and not controlled.  This reaction is documented in a

>paper called the 'Leukart Reaction'.  This paper should also have the



The Leukart-Wallach reaction is well-known.  The original publications are



    Leukart

    Chem. Ber. 18, 2341 (1885) {Ger.}



    Wallach

    Ann. Chem. 272, 100 (1892) {Ger.}



Formic acid or a formamide is used as a reducing agent. DMF

(dimethylformamide) is probably to be prefered as IAc is not stable in

acidic solution.



>Disclamer :

>                The above may not be even remotely correct.  I myself



As an outline it was pretty darn good.  You've shown there's no reason

people outside a particular field can't learn some factual information

about current topics.  Although I'm sure it's not necessary, I will add

that a list of reagents does not a synthesis make!



So, yes, it's not difficult to make DMT from tryptophan.  But it's also

not difficult to make DMT from many other starting materials.  Indole

itself is readily 3-substituted (but note that indole has a horrible,

intense fecal odor!) and there are also many well known reactions to

produce directly 3-substituted indoles from simpler precursors.



Now, do more than a handful of people actually know about DMT?  I guess

it must have had some use in the '60s, but I don't recall ever hearing

it mentioned in the press as a drug of abuse.  Perhaps it has made come-

back?  If people will lick toads for bufotenine, well, there's just no

telling...



It may be the case that peoples' desire for drugs is matched by their

ingenuity to discover and re-discover many substances.  If so, the WoD

officials have a lesson to learn.  Granted the analogue drug bill

effectively makes many known and unknown chemicals illegal, it may yet

become a burden simply to keep the testing and analysis procedures up to

date.

--



smaschue@ucsd.edu (root) [Sean] writes:

>Also, while I am asking...Simon & Schuster's guide to House Plants enumerate

>many plants that are rumored to have narcotic properties as common house

>plants or curio plants.  Datura for one and mimosa pudica (sensitva) I have

>heard contain DMT?  Are there sources for these plants and publications on

>their properties?

>...doesn't this seem very interesting?



Sure does. Where'd you hear about Mimosa pudica containing DMT?

There are two species of Mimosa that have been used in the Amazon

that certainly contain DMT: Mimosa hostilis and Mimosa verrucosa.

A hallucinogenic drink called Jurema was made from the roots of

Mimosa hostilis.



A taped interview with Dennis McKenna from 1985 makes mention of several

other members of the pea family (Leguminosae) that contain DMT:

Acacia flabiphylla, which I haven't been able to find any reference

to anywhere else, and Desmodeum (only the genus was mentioned, the common

name for these are "Tick Trefoil"). An tree in this same group is

Anadenanthera peregrina, seeds of which are used for psychedelic snuffs in

the Amazon, and which also grows in the West Indies, including Puerto Rico.



(This tape, "Dennis McKenna/2 (1985)", is available from:

 Something's Happening Productions, Box 8381, Universal City, CA 91608)



In another tape Dennis' brother, Terence, made passing mention of

a plant, Desmanthus illinoensis, that was recently discovered to contain

DMT as 6% of it's dry weight, according to his report. Desmanthus is

closely related to Mimosa, and grows in the midwestern prairies of

the continental US.



If you run across a specimen of this in a University's botanical collection,

or in the field, I'd like to know about it.  Preserved or living specimens

in herbarium collections almost always include the date and place they

were collected.



Desmanthus illinoensis is listed in

_Petersen's Field Guide to Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants_

but the drawing is misleading. (It shows the pinnae of the compound

leaves as alternating instead of opposite). The best illustration I've

run across is in

 _An Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Canada_ Vol.II

where it's listed as Acuan illinoensis. Unfortunately the measurements

for various features of the plant are in error there.

Decent descriptions are found in the

_New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture_ and

the _Standard Encyclopedia of Horticulture_ Vol 2.





Two other plants reputed to contain DMT are Desfontainia spinosa, a

holly-like ornamental plant available at some nurseries, and

Arundo donax, the Giant River Reed, (used for clarinet reeds among other

things) which grows all over the place along rivers and in urban

environments where it's used for landscaping. The rootstocks of Arundo donax

are supposedly DMT-bearing, but there's never been a report of Arundo

being used as an hallucinogen, or even that such use is practical.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------



As far as Datura and other plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae)

are concerned, they contain anticholinergic alkaloids like hyoscyamine,

atropine or scopolamine, none of which are considered psychedelic, but

which do cause delirium and hallucinations and are quite toxic and risky.











--------------------------------------------------





Here is the second in a series of "Gracie and Zarkov" articles.



-- Chris



============================================



DMT - HOW AND WHY TO GET OFF

. . . a note from underground

by "Gracie and Zarkov"



Copyright December 1984 by Gracie and Zarkov Productions. We believe that

in a truly free society the price of packaged information would be driven

down to the cost of reproduction and transmission.  We, therefore, give

blanket permission and encourage photocopy, quotation, reprint or entry

into a database of all or part of our articles provided that the copier

or quoter does not take credit for our statements.

Revised August 1985.



Number 3.



DMT, (N,N-dimethyltryptamine is not orally active (by itself), and must

be smoked to experience its effects.  Tolerance for the drug builds

almost immediately.  If you don't get enough in the first 30 seconds,

smoking more will not put you into the far out visionary DMT state, but

will only result in a more "ordinary" hallucinogenic state. If on an

attempt, you don't get enough, you must wait at least one hour before

trying again (smoking multiple doses within the hour can result in you

seeing the patterns but it is almost impossible to break through to the

extreme states described below).  Furthermore, the actual mechanics of

smoking DMT can be quite tricky.  In our experience, without careful

attention to technique, about half the DMT shots misfire.  Therefore, it

is essential to use effective technique in order not to waste the drug.

In this paper we offer three different tested techniques in an easy to

follow step-by-step format;  We have also included our description

(however inadequate) of what a DMT trip is like.



We are well aware of how scarce a substance DMT is.  We had to undertake

a long, intensive search to secure a supply of this marvelous drug in the

smokeable, freebase form.  The search was well worth it!  One of the

reasons for writing this paper is, hopefully, to increase the demand for

DMT.  If this paper intrigues you, we suggest that the you seek out a

supply of your own.  Laok for DMT in the smokeable freebase, not

hydrochloride form.  You will not be disappointed.



Getting Ready1.  We recommend a uniformly, though not brightly, lit room.  Unlike with

mushrooms, in total darkness the DMT visions are rather drab.  In full

sunlight the colors are unbelievably intense with red and gold

predominating but we feel that bright sunlight tends to obscure some of

the intricate detail so characteristic of DMT visions.  We usually do it

during the day in a room that is brightly lit with indirect light.



2.  Get comfortably seated where you can lie back and rest your head

during the trance.  If you smoke DMT standing up, you will almost

certainly fall on your ass if you get a good hit!



3.  We recommend a dosage of about 40-50 mg.  The dosage should be

weighed out and not eyeballed.  Dosages below 25 mg yield only physical

and threshold psychedelic effects.  Dosages between 25 mg and 40 mg are

usually not enough to display the full range of the unique DMT effects

described below.  Dosages in excess of 55 mg, particularly if you are

successful in holding all of the vapor in your lungs, can be VERY heavy

and are not recommended for f irst time users.



Method One:  The "Freebase" Method



4a.  Obtain a "freebase" airpipe such as the one illustrated below.  Use

with the largest funnel type bowl you can find.  Insert the largest fine

mesh stainless steel screen that will fit into the bowl.  Then sprinkle

the DMT uniformly over the center of the mesh screen.  Make sure to keep

thE DMT away from the edges of the screen so that when it melts it does not

run over the edge of the screen.



     \  /

\\  __||__            _==_        ________________

 \\/  ||  \          |    |____  / _______________

  \   ||  |          |     ___ \/ /

   |  ||  |          |    |   \  /

   |      |          |    |    \/

   \______/           \__/



FREE BASE AIR PIPE   CLASSIC DMT PIPE



5a.  Hold a match or torch above the screen and inhale deeply and slowly.

Do not let the flame touch the DMT as this will destroy much of the drug.

DMT melts and vaporizes easily so the point is to let the hot air rushing

by the flame into the pipe vaporize the DMT.  It is quite easy to

vaporize the DMT and end up with the airchamber full of white DMT vapor.



Method Two:  The Classic Psychedelic Ranger Method



4b.  If you hanq out around a good glass blower or long time "head" you

might be able to obtain a classic DMT pipe such as the one illustrated.

Load the DMT into the glass reaction chamber and heat the outside bottom

of the chamber with a flame.



5b.  When the white vapor appears, breathe in deeply and slowly.  If you

inhale too soon or too quickly, the powdered DMT will be blown down your

throat.  It is not active that way.  Make sure that all of the DMT is

vaporized.  In the absence of a classic DMT pipe, some people use a

regular "hash oil" pipe heated from the outside.  We find this too tricky

to be reliable.  You are just as likely to end up with boiling liquid DMT

in your mouth.  (That's why the classic pipe has a "V" shaped stem.)  We

personally use the "freebase" method.



In either case...



6.  The smoke is very harsh.  It tastes like burning plastic.  It isn't

particularly hot, but you will have a tendency to cough.  On each toke

try to hold your breath for as long as possible.  Exhale and immediately

take a second toke.  The physical effects, a buzzing or vibration

throughout your whole body, come on first.  The intensity of these

effects is not a reliable guide to the dosage of DMT that you have

consumed.  Keep taking lungfuls and holding them until all of the

premeasured DMT is consumed.  Gracie suggests that the best way to smoke

DMT is to try to smoke as much as you can before you inevitablly fall

into a trance.  While not recommended for beginners, it does capture the

approach you should take towards smoking your premeasured dose.



One advantage of the "freebase" method is that the 50 mg of DMT can be

divided into three toke sized piles.  The smaller amount can be easily

vaporized and inhaled in one breath with the screen being reloaded with

DMT after each toke.



7.  Just as you feel yourself "going over the top", exhale.  Breathe

normally, close your eyes and enjoy the visions.



Your companions should be instructed to take the pipe from you when you

close your eyes because you will have poor motor control. Since you will

be in a trance for 4-8 minutes, you should also have told them not to

disturb you.  To them you will look like you are asleep.  This is not a

social drug or one to be taken casually; you will be entranced.



8.  When you come our of the trance, remain seated for about 10 more

minutes as you will still have only shaky control of your limbs.



9.  In 30 minutes from the time you started you will be pretty much down,

but still euphoric.  You will be completely down after a total of about

one hour.



1O.  We do not recommend that DMT be combined with other drugs.  It

should be done on a clean head.  Marijuana fogs the effects.  It is not a

party drug:  the effects are most entertaining experienced in a quiet

room.  When DMT is smoked at the peak of a mushroom or LSD trip, the

effects are spectacular, but only recsmmended for the experienced, most

brave (or some might say, most foolhardy) of investigators.  The effects

used at the peak of another psychedelic can last for several hours.



NOTES ON THE VISUAL STAGES OF A DMT TRIP:



0 - 20 seconds - a scratchiness in the lungs



20 - 30 seconds - a buzzing starts in the ears, rising in tone and volume

to an incredible intensity. Its like cellophane being ripped apart (or

the fabric of the universe being torn asunder). Your body will vibrate in

sympathy with this sound, and you will notice a sharp blood pressure

rise.  You may feel like you are deeply under water.  Wearing a unitard

or leotard and tights helps to minimize this sensation.  Your visual

field will also vibrate in resonance to the sound and will finally be

completely obscured by the visions.



30 seconds - 1 minute - You break through into DMT hyperspace.  Often at

this point, users believe that their hearts or breathing have stopped.

This is not true.  To an outside observer, you are breathing normally and

your pulse, while elevated, is strong.  We believe that this subjective

effect is due to your "internal clock" being slowed so greatly that the

subjective time interval between breaths or heartbeats seems like an

eternity.  Synthetic DMT has been extensively tested by medical

authorities here and in Europe.  It is perfectly safe with no lasting

physical effects at these doses.  However, since smoked DMT causes an

abrupt blood pressure increase, it is probably not good for people with

abnormally high blood pressure.



1 minute - 2 - 5 minutes - depending on dosage:  DMT hyperspace.  For all

practical purposes, you will no longer be embodied.  You will be part of

tne intergalactic information network.  You may experience any of the

following:



o  Sense of transcending time or space

o  Strange plants or plantlike forms

o  The universe of formless vibration

o  Strange machines

o  Alien music

o  Alien languages, understandable or not

o  Intelligent entities in a variety of forms



Do not be amazed and do not try to actively direct your observations but

merely pay attention.  The beings can show you amazing things, but if you

try to impose vour personal trip on the DMT you will find that you cannot

and may become frightened.



At the end of the "flash" of the visions you will have an after-vision of

circular interlocking patterns in exquisite colors. It has been described

as looking at a vaulted ceiling or dome.  If you did not "breakthrough"

to the levels described above, this "chrysanthemum" pattern, as we call

it, is all you will see.  It is worth the trip, too.



You may begin to wonder how you will ever find your way back to your

body.  If you have taken enough DMT to fully "breakthrough", by the time

you can even wonder about it, you are almost back.  Trust in your own

wetware; your psyche and your body will be reunited. Worrying will only

prolong the process.



5 - 12 minutes - The visions have subsided. There are still patterns when

you close your eyes, but with eyes open the world is back. At this point

a flood of information may rush through your mind. The phase is fleeting.

In order to preserve your DMT ideation, we recommend that you begin

talking as soon as you come out of the visionary state.  Don't try for

complete sentences but get as many ideas out as you can while you can.

Have a tape recorder running during the trip and you can review your

thoughts at a later time.



15 - 30 minutes - The ideation flood subsides leaving you euphoric.  You

may still have a trace of the vibrations in your body.



30 - 60 minutes - The euphoria subsides.



60+ minutes - You are completely down.



Note:  While we recommend above not to combine DMT with other

hallucinogens, we have had excellent results using DMT as a "pre-dose"

for LSD, MDM, MDA, or mushrooms.  The technique is to take the second

hallucinogen orally just as you come out of the vision state.  The

resulting trip will be more profound and will help you to understand the

strange and alien vistas which you were shown while on the DMT. (For more

details, see our Note from underground no. 4.)



Method Three:  The Tryptamine Giggles



If the description of the DMT effects sound too heavy for you, (we

certainly don't deny that DMT can be a heavy trip) 25 mg of DMT can be

mixed with some dope in a joint or in a pipe and smoked in a liesurely

fashion.  The giggley mood lift is quite pleasant.  The occasional

breaking through of abstract hallucinatory patterns can liven up an

otherwise quite ordinary stoned-again evening.  However, we would

recommend that before you burn up all your DMT in this fashion that you

at least try one high dose trip as described.



Finally, while there is no such thing as a "typical" DMT experience, we

have attached a note of ours (reprinted from High Frontiers, issue 2) to

this paper which describes one of our DMT trips.  The most accessible

information on DMT is Peter Stafford's Psychedelics Encyclopedia.

Terence McKenna, who offers, in our opinion, the most sophisticated

analysis of the DMT experience, has two excellent cassette tapes which

discuss the DMT state:  Mind, Molecules &Maqic. June 1984; and Tryptamine

Hallucinogens and Consciousness,  December 1982.  They are available from

Dolphin Tapes, P.O. Box 71, Big Sur, CA  93920 for $9.00 plus tax and

$2.00 postage.



=============================================================================



a hit of dmt 10/9/84 - zarkov



i loaded about 40-50 milligrams of dmt into a glass pipe on top of a

small amount of damiana.  even though i had been warned, i was still

shocked at how harsh the first toke was.  it tasted and smelled like

burning plastic.  i involuntarily exhaled.  i immediately took a second

toke.  the heavy white smoke rushed up the pipe as harsh as before, but i

was somewhat better prepared for the terrible taste and i was able to

hold the smoke for a few seconds.  i exhaled, took a third toke, and was

able to hold this last lungful.  suddenly i began to hear a loud,

moderately high-pitched carrier wave.  immediately, the room started

vibrating in sympathy.  the pattern on the wall hangings oscillated madly

in time to the buzzing that overlaid the carrier waves fundamental tone.

simultaneously, a heavy, trembling feeling swept over my entire body as

if i were being propelled at multiple g acceleration by some giant rocket

engine.  my visual field dissolved in the most amazing colors.  i could

not see the room over the intensity of the visual effects.  the events of

the preceding paragraph occurred in the space of a few short seconds.



closing my eyes, i got a glimpse of several entities moving in front of a

giant complex control panel.  the visions were not crystal clear and

seemed as if i were viewing it through a scrim.  the creatures were

bipedal and of about human size.  it was impossible to say more other

than they did not move like the giant insect creatures i have seen

clearly under the influence of stropharia mushrooms.  there was a direct

awareness of an overwhelmingly powerful and knowledgable *presence*!  it

was neither frightening, nor encouraging.  it was just mentally there.  a

thought came, unbidden, into my head.  i realized that i was viewing god

central.  the central panel i saw was the control panel for the entire

universe.the vision was fleeting and dissolved into a vision of much greater

clarity.  a gaggle of elf-like creatures in standard issue irish elf

costumes, complete with hats, looking like they had stepped out of a

hallmark cards happy saint patricks day display, were doing strange

things with strange objects that seemed to be a weird hybrid between

crystals and machines.



this vision was also fleeting, and it dissolved into a visual pattern

unlike that experienced by me on any other psychedelic or combination of

psychedelics.  the visuals were interlocking sinusoidal patterns arranged

in a japanese chrysanthemum pattern that filled my entire visual field.

the pattern was ever-changing and the colors of the individual patterns

changed independently of the underlyng pattern.  the colors were intense

and came in a magnificent variety of colors: metallics, monochromes,

pastels, each flickering in and out of existence as if obeying some

undetected ordering principle.



an idea came into my head that i was seeing the true universe or

universe as it really exists.  that is to say, i was seeing *directly*

the vibrations of every particles in the universe that i was somehow in

contact with.  i was directly seeing the universe withough ordering

it into an arbitrary reality tunnel -- i.e., perceived solid, objective

reality.  the visual pattern seemed to be a sort of m-dimensional

lissajous curve formed by the intersection of i with the shock wave of

space-time causality.



the carrier wave remained strong throughout the experience.  while

definitely the same type of phenomena as the carrier wave heard under the

influence of psilocybin mushrooms, the dmt carrier wave was *much* louder

than even the loud carrier wave heard under the influence of ten grams of

very potent, dried stropharia mushrooms.  also, by comparison to the

mushroom experience, the carrier wave sounded as a purer tone -- i.e.,

the sinusoidal component dominated the buzzng component.  my throat was

too sore from the harsh smoke and the control of my breathing was

hindered by the intensity of the expereince, so i was unable to sing or

even generate a solid tone, to attempt audio driving of the visuals.



the overwhelming sense of a *presence* did not disappear when the vision

changed to visual patterns, but remained an almost palpable entity as lon

as the visuals remained intense.  i never felt the foreboding -- let

alone the direct challenges -- i have felt under the influence of

stropharia mushrooms whenever the feeling of contact with the presence

has been strong.  the presence was just there and *very* powerful.  i

felt that i had glimpsed whiteheads god.



the period of intense visuals lasted about eight minutes.  the side

effects remained unpleasant, but easily ignorable.  the dmt left me

euphoric and very bemused for about an hour.



definitely far out and very impressive!







--------------------------------------------------



>

>

> 	After reading the 'Time and Mind' article kindly typed in by Bob

> 	I am intrigued to hear more about DMT, I was always under

> 	the impression that LSD-25 was the strongest hallucinogen available

> 	but even under the influence (of some pure liquid) it has always been

> 	the real world around me that was distorted in some way and not some

> 	fantasy land (although you could imagine it to be a fantasy land, the

> 	very fact that you are conciously imagining it to be real is constantly

> 	reminding you that its not.)

>

> 	So is DMT that superior an hallucinogenic?



There are three issues here which are a little confused:

1) strength in the sense of effective dose,

2) strength in terms of subjective intensity,

3) being a superior hallucinogen in some subjective sense.



Comparing DMT and LSD, the first is easy.

The effective dose of LSD is around 100 ug, of DMT is around 60 mg,

so in this sense, LSD is a much stronger hallucinogen.



In terms of intensity, they are difficult to compare. Part of the intensity

of DMT stems from the fact that the onset is virtually instantaneous;

one is taken from feeling normal to the peak of the trip in the space

of a few seconds, and this can be totally disorienting and frightening.

DMT does not have the euphoria of LSD, in fact it can be quite

uncomfortable. Also, the smoking of DMT is quite unpleasant compared

with eating some small object. The types of hallucinations experienced

within the peak of the DMT trip differ markedly from those in the peak

of the LSD trip. This difference is very hard to describe, although

one might contrast the dripping flowing colourful experience of LSD

with the DMT visuals in which everything becomes super sharp to the

point of being ripped into fragments, like placing a photo in a blender.

There is some colour enhancement, but it is more like lightning-bolts

of colour rather than flowing ripples of colour, and colours may

be actually entirely changed and several multiple images seen at once.

The 20-30 minute come-down of DMT is similar in experience and intensity

to a small dose of LSD, however one is likely to be too shattered by

the initial peak to worry about this much. The account Bob posted is

highly subjective and metaphorical (as is this one, I suppose) and I

doubt that many people would experience DMT in the way described there.

However, extending the duration of DMT by the use of monoamineoxidase

inhibitors (Ayahuasca,Yage,etc.) is supposed to be a very intense

experience and could give one time to become more involved in it.

It is possible to lose all contact with the senses and the world

briefly while on DMT, as it is, e.g. from a combination of nitrous

oxide and LSD. Also, psiloc(yb)in seems to have some similarity to

DMT whilst retaining similarity to LSD, in that during the psilocin

experience one can be transported into a different reality, although

one which is still definitely based sensually on this one, and

not be able to remember or understand everday reality.

Other hallucinogenic experiences, e.g. the delerium caused by

anti-cholinergics, might be still more intense than DMT in terms

of being completely removed from traditional reality, but I don't

think anyone would recommend experimenting with these dangerous

substances.



In terms of which is the superior hallucinogen, it depends on your

taste. DMT is very interesting and extremely intense, but not

necessarily pleasant. LSD has more potential for pure recreation.

Most people would probably prefer LSD as a recreational hallucinogen,

and it would be ill-advised for someone who was not very familiar

with coping with the intensity of LSD to be thrust into the

intensity of DMT. On the other hand, if you don't like DMT, you only

have to hang on for a few minutes, whereas if you don't like LSD

you have to hang on for several hours.



This is, of course, apart from the dosage, all subjective.



..............................



> Does anyone know if 4-MeO-DMT is pharmacologically active?

> This would be the methyl analog of psilocin, 4-OH-DMT of

> mushroom fame.

>

> Shulgin, among others, has made a number of tryptamine analogs.

> This one seems like a logical target but I have never seen it

> in the literature.  Does anyone have any information on this

> compound?



Here is the best I can do to answer this:

Extract from Hallucinogens: Neurochemical, Behavioral, & Clinical

Perspectives, edited by B.L. Jacobs, Raven Press, New York (c) 1984



Medicinal Chemistry and Structure-Activity relationships of Hallucinogens

- David E. Nichols & Richard A. Glennon

p. 124



"

4-methoxy-N,N-dimethyl tryptamine (4-OMeDMT) has been examined only in

animal studies and has shown behavioral activity roughly comparable to

that of DMT (65,236,238). It has also produced discriminative stimulus

effects similar to those of 5-OMeDMT with a potency somewhat less than

that of DMT but greater than that of either 6-OMeDMT or 7-MeODMT (93).

In drug discrimination studies using DOM as the training drug, 4-OMeDMT

was more active than DMT but less active than DET (91).



References:

(65)

Gressner, P.K., Godse D.D., Krull,A.H.,& Mc Mullen, J.M. (1968)

Structure-activity relationships among 5-MeODMT, 4-HODMT (psilocin)

and other substituted tryptamines. (life Sci., 7:267-277)



(91)

Glennon, R.A., Young, R., Jacyno, J.M., Slusher, R., and Rosecrans,J.A.

(1983)

DOM stimulus generation to LSD and other hallucinogenic indolealkamines.

Eur.J.Pharmacol.,86:453-459



(93)

Glennon,R.A.,Young,R.,Rosecrans,J.A.,& Kallman,M.J (1980): Hallucinogenic

agents as discriminative stimuli: Correlation with serotonin receptor

affinities. Psychopharmacology, 68:155-158.



(236) Ulyeno, E.T. (1969): Alteration of a learned response of the

squirrel monkey by hallucinogens. Int.J.Neuropharmacol. 8:245-253.



(238) Ulyeno, E.T. (1971): relative potency of amphetamine derrivatives.

Psychopharmacologia 19:381-387







..............................





Check out these. Looks like you already have the articles about

Acacias from the Australian Journal of Chemistry.





-----------------------------------------------

J. Agriculture and Food Chemistry 35:361-365

(1987) Thompson, A. C., Nicollier, G. F. and Pope, D. F.

"Indolealkylamines of Desmanthus illinoensis and their growth

inhibition activity."

-----------------------------------------------

Smith, T. A. (1977) "Tryptamine and related compounds in plants."

Phytochemistry 16:171-175.

An excellent short guide to the literature for many

tryptamine-containing plants.

-----------------------------------------------





I'm having trouble uploading to this Usenet node, otherwise I'd send

you excerpts from several related articles.





------------------------------

marsthom@qed.cts.com (Mark Thompson)  or  qed!marsthom

The QED BBS -- (310)420-9327





..............................



>Can anyone tell me about this drug (IT-290)?  Especially if it really exists.



IT-290 is alfa-methyltryptamine. It's an orally active psychedelic

tryptamine, dosage about 30 mg.

..............................



Article 38451 of alt.drugs:

Newsgroups: alt.drugs

Path: ucivax!news.service.uci.edu!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!staff.tc.umn.edu!mtymp15

From: mtymp15@staff.tc.umn.edu (David Hutton)

Subject: New posting: DMT FAQ

Message-ID: <mtymp15.721857319@staff.tc.umn.edu>

Summary: from LearyBot@irc

Sender: news@news2.cis.umn.edu (Usenet News Administration)

Nntp-Posting-Host: staff.tc.umn.edu

Organization: University of Minnesota

Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 19:55:19 GMT

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                         How To Make DMT



DMT stands for N,N-dimethyltryptamine. It is a semisynthetic

compound similar to psilocin(the hallucinogenic substance in

psilocybin) ins structure. The most common method of ingestion is

smoking. Soaked parsley leaves are the usual method of ingestion

although persons have dipped marijuana in it and said the

experience was fantastic. The following recipe can be performed in

the kitchen.



Recipe for DMT:



Mix thoroughly and dissolve 25 grams of indole with a pound of

dry ethyl ether in a 2000 ml flask(2 quart jar.)



2. Take an ice tray and fill with chipped or shaved ice. Cool

solution for about 35 minutes until it reaches 0 degrees C. At the

same time cool 50 ml dry oxalychloride to about 5 degrees below 0

C. in the same ice tray.



3. VERY slowly add the oxalychloride solution to the indole

solution. These two chemicals are highly reactive. Avoid boiling

over, contact with skin, and fumes.



4. Wait until all the bubbling has died down, then add a few

handfuls of table salt to the ice tray, to cool the solution

further. Label the solution "solution 1" and put it in the

freezer.



5. Cool 100 ml. of dry ethyl ether in a 500 ml. flask to 0 degrees

C. in a salted ice tray. At the same time cool an unopened bottle

of dimethylamine to 0 degrees C. in the same ice bath.



6. Open the seal of the dimethylamine bottle and slowly pour a

steady stream into the ether. Label "solution 2."



7. Very slowly and carefully add solution "1" and "2" together.



8. Now take the mixed solutions from the ice tray and bring up to

room temperature stirring the solution all the time. You should be

left with a solution that is almost clear. If it is still murky,

continue stirring until it becomes as clear as possible.



9. Now filter the solution to seperate the precipitate by suction.



                       <---Solution and Precipitate

        ------------

        \          /<---Funnel  /    / <-- Rubber hose to

         \        /     and    /    /      Vacuum source

          \      /      Filter/____/

     \*****\    /*************{   }*****/ <--- Two hole

      \****{    }*************{   }****/       rubber stopper

       \   {    }             {   } <-/--- Glass Tube

        \  {    }             {   }  /

         | {    }             {   } |

         |                          |

         |                          |

         |                          |

         |                          |

         |__________________________|

                  Figure A.



10. Refilter with suction after pouring technical ether over the

precipitate.



11. Repeat filtering once more with ether, then twice with water.



12. Let this substance dry on a plastic or china plate.(do not use

metal) After drying, a solid material will be formed. Take

particles and place them in an 800 ml beaker.



13. Mix 100 ml. benzene with 100 ml. methyl alcohol. After this

mixture has been stirred, cover solid particles from step 12 with

about 1/2 inch of the solution and heat the beaker in water until

all solid material had dissolved. Add more solvent if

necessary.(Note: Do not place beaker in water bath directly over

the flame.)



14. After all solid material has dissolved, remove beaker from the

heat, and allow to cool. As it cools, small needle-shaped crystals

will appear. When this happens, try to pour off as much solvent as

possible without disturbing the crystals.



15. Place crystals in a 1000 ml flask and dissolve in

tetrahydrofurane.(Use only as much as absolutely necessary.) Label

this solution "A".



16. Slowly mix 200 ml. tetrahydrofurane and 20 grams lithium

aluminum hydride in a 500 ml flask, and label it solution "B".

(By the way, lithuim aluminum hydride ignites on contact with

moisture. Protect eyes and hands.)



17. Mix solutions "A" and "B" slowly, stirring constantly.



18. Prepare a water bath and heat solution for three hours,

stirring for four minutes every half hour. When not stirring, make

sure to use aspirator tube.

                             /  / <--- Rubber Tubing

                             ---

                         \**{   }**/<---- One hole rubber stopper

                         /**{   }**\      and glass tubing

                        /   {   }   \

                       /    {   }    \

                       :             :

                       :             :

                       :             :

      \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:_____________:~/

       \______________________________/



           Heat source



           Figure B.



Place Figure B. flask at a higher level than Figure A. flask. Run

tube from Figure B. flask down to left side of figure A. flask,

replacing funnel with glass tubing. Disconnect right side tube

from vacuum source. This will be used as the aspirator tube.



19. When this is completed, allow the flask to remain at room

temperature for about 20 minutes. Then place in salted ice bath,

and cool to 0 degrees C. Add a small amount of chilled methanol,

stirring gently until solution appears murky.



20. Filter this murky solution through a paper filter in a funnel,

and collect the filtered liquid in a flask.



21. Add 100 ml. of tetrahydrofuran through the filter and collect

in the same flask. Now heat the solution in a water bath until

most of the tetrahydrofuran is evaporated and a gooey substance

remains.



22. Place little piles of this substance on a cookie tray and dry

with a heat lamp for three or four hours.



Well, after all that you now have DMT. Was it worth it? To ingest,

crumble a small quantity with parsley or mint, and smoke. Do not

inject. Do not mix with tobacco.





                     Keep your thoughts free

                      and your reality...err

                            different.



                          - Black Adder





--

send flames, comments, questions, pap smear results, $10,000 in small bills, and

a large packet of neurotransmitter precursors to :  mtymp15@staff.tc.umn.edu

=====->Legalize Spiritual Discovery and Powerful Oxyhematoporphyrin Tools<-=====                 ...have you hugged an Ischiopagus lately?





In article <1992Nov12.064323.7187@u.washington.edu> ap.6396@cupid.sai.com writes:

>The subject of DMT came up, and in a previous post it was mentioned that

>it was available in some plants and could be extracted.  Does anyone have

>a list of the more common of these, and references for extraction?



Here's my paper on psychedelic tryptamines, where I've tried to list all

the known plant sources. If you know something that isn't there please

let me know. Maybe our friend Jeremy could post the excellent extraction

instructions he wrote? You can also find descriptions of extractions from

the articles I've referred to below.



TRYPTAMINE CARRIERS

===================

by Petrus.Pennanen@helsinki.fi             Last update Nov 13 1992



ORALLY AND PARENTERALLY ACTIVE PSYCHOTROPIC TRYPTAMINE DERIVATIVES

Based on McKenna & Towers 1984



	        R4              R1

	        |              /

	  R5  // \       /\   N

	    \//   \ ____/  \ / \

	     |    ||   ||   |   R2

	     |    ||   ||   |

	     \\   /\   /    R3

	      \\ /  \ /

	             N

	             H                                      Dosage  Route

Name of Compound         R1     R2     R3     R4     R5     (mg)    Oral/Par.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

tryptamine               H      H      H      H      H      100 *1  par/oral?

DMT (dimethyltryptamine) CH3    CH3    H      H      H      60      par

DET                      C2H5   C2H5   H      H      H      60      par/oral

DPT                      n-prop n-prop H      H      H      60      par/oral

DAT                      C3H5   C3H5   H      H      H      30      par/oral

DIPT                     i-prop i-prop H      H      H      30      oral

5-MeO-DIPT               i-prop i-prop H      H      OCH3   12      oral

5-MeO-DMT                CH3    CH3    H      H      OCH3   6       par

psilocin                 CH3    CH3    H      OH     H      12 *2   oral

CZ-74                    C2H5   C2H5   H      OH     H      15 *2   oral

serotonin                H      H      H      H      OH     100 *3  oral

bufotenine               CH3    CH3    H      H      OH     16 *4   par

IT-290                   H      H      CH3    H      H      30      oral

4-hydroxy-alfa-methyl-

tryptamine               H      H      CH3    OH     H      20 *3   oral

MP-809                   H      H      CH3    H      CH3    60 *5   oral

5-fluoro-alfa-methyl-

tryptamine               H      H      CH3    H      F      25 *6   oral

5-methoxy-alfa-methyl-

tryptamine               H      H      CH3    H      OCH3   3       oral

4-hydroxy-diisopropyl-

tryptamine               i-prop i-prop H      OH     H      12 *6   oral

4-hydroxy-N-isopropyl,

N-methyl-tryptamine      i-prop CH3    H      OH     H      6 *6    oral

N-t-butyl-tryptamine     H      t-butylH      H      H      ? *7    par?

3-(2-(2,5-dimethyl

pyrrolyl)ethyl)-indole                 H      H      H      ?       ?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Data compiled from Kantor, et al. 1980; Shulgin 1976,1982; Shulgin&Carter 1980

*1 Autonomic symptoms; little central activity.

*2 The phosphate esters are psilocybin and CEY-19, respectively; both are

   stoichiometrically equivalent to the 4-hydroxy isomers.

*3 Cardiovascular and autonomic symptoms; little central activity.

*4 A pressor amine rather than a hallucinogen in man.

*5 An antidepressant rather than a hallucinogen in man.

*6 Based on anonymous reports in the lay press. No clinical studies have been

   published.

*7 No oral activity with doses up to 20 mg, may be parenterally active.



MAO Inhibitors and Tryptamines



Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is the primary inactivation pathway of most

tryptamines. Because of this, inhibitors of the MAO enzyme (MAOIs) can be

used to potentiate the effects of tryptamines and to make DMT and 5-MeO-DMT

orally active.



MAO inhibitors fall into two classes: Irreversible and reversible MAOIs.

Irreversible MAOIs (e.g. the hydrazides iproniazid and phenelzine) bind

permanently to the enzyme and cause MAO inhibition lasting 1-2 weeks after

ingestion. They are used clinically to treat depression. Reversible MAOIs,

such as the beta-carbolines harmine and harmaline, are effective for much

shorter time, maybe up to 24 hours. Reversible MAOIs are not used clinically,

but recreational drug users around the world prefer them despite the lack

of scientific studies about their effects in humans.



Natives of Amazon have traditionally combined Banisteriopsis caapi vine,

which contains harmine, harmaline and related beta-carbolines, with DMT-

containing plants to make an orally active brew called ayahuasca. Other

plants containing harmine and/or harmaline can be substituted for B.

caapi. The usual 'North-American ayahuasca' consists of Peganum harmala

seeds and Desmanthus illinoensis roots, and in Australian 'acaciahuasca'

leaves of Acacia complanata are combined with material from DMT-containing

acacias (the effectivity of this mixture hasn't been confirmed). MAOIs

have also been used to potentiate the effects of mushrooms containing

psilocybin. Terence McKenna has mentioned chocolate being a weak MAOI, which

could be a reason for the popular habit of ingesting mushrooms with cocoa.



Peganum harmala (Syrian rue) seeds are the most concentrated natural source

of harmine and harmaline - about 3% of their weight consists of these

alkaloids. Banisteriopsis caapi has been found to contain from 0.18% to

1.36% beta-carbolines, with the concentration of harmine being from 0.057%

to 0.635% (McKenna et al. 1984). According to anecdotal reports one gram

of P. harmala seeds ingested inhibits MAO enough to make DMT orally active.



Harmine and harmaline are hallucinogenic on their own with doses

starting from around 300 mg (Naranjo 1967). They have little emotional

or 'psychedelic' effects, but produce strong visual hallucinations. Because of

this the natives of Amazon often add larger amounts (75-100 cm of stem per

dose) of B. caapi to ayahuasca brew than is needed for MAO inhibition

(Luna 1984).



There are significant dangers in using MAO inhibitors. MAOIs potentiate

the cardiovascular effects of tyramine and other monoamines found in

foods. Ingestion of aged cheese, beer, wine, pickled herring, chicken liver,

yeast, large amounts of coffee, citrus fruits, canned figs, broad beans,

chocolate or cream while MAO is inhibited can cause a hypertensive

crisis including a dangerous rise in blood pressure. Effects of

amphetamines, general anaesthetics, sedatives, anti-histamines, alcohol,

potent analgesics and anticholinergic and antidepressant agents are

prolonged and intensified. Overdosage of MAOIs by themselves is also

possible with effects including hyperreflexia and convulsions.



Self-Synthesis of DMT Derivatives



Tryptamine derivatives and beta-Carbolines have been detected as

endogenous metabolites in mammals, including humans. Methyl transferases

that catalyze the synthesis of tryptamines, including DMT, 5-MeO-DMT and

bufotenine, are found in human lung, brain, cerebrospinal fluid, liver

and heart (McKenna & Towers 1984). In the pineal gland MAO is the primary

inactivation pathway of serotonin, a neurotransmitter synthesized from the

amino acid tryptophan. If MAO is blocked by harmine, harmaline or other MAO

inhibitors serotonin can be converted by the methyltransferase enzymes

HIOMT and INMT into psychedelic tryptamines (serotonin --(HIOMT)-->

5-MeO-trypt. --(2*INMT)--> 5-MeO-DMT).



So, ingesting l-tryptophan to increase serotonin levels, a candy bar to

increase the amount of tryptophan getting to your brain and natural

plant material containing 25-50 mg harmine/harmaline to block MAO, all at the

same time, is supposed to cause your pineal gland to synthesize substantial

amounts of 5-MeO-DMT (Most 1986). This is extremely dangerous for persons

with existing amine imbalance or schizophrenia. For normal, healthy people

*data insufficient*, possible consequences are very bad.



A potent inhibitor of INMT, which is a necessary enzyme for the synthesis

of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, is found in particularly high concentrations in the

pineal gland. A bypassing or inhibition of the synthesis of this inhibitor

might be responsible for trances and other psychedelic states achieved

"without drugs" (Strassman 1990). See Strassman's article for more info and

speculation about the pineal gland.



Psychedelic Toads



Bufotenine and related 5-hydroxy-indolethylamines are common constituents

of venoms of the genera Hyla, Leptodactylus, Rana and Bufo. Bufotenine

is not psychedelic in reasonable doses (with larger doses there are

dangerous physiological side effects), but the skin of one species, Bufo

alvarius, contains 50-160 mg 5-MeO-DMT/g of skin (Daly & Witkop 1971).

It's the only Bufo species known to contain a hallucinogenic tryptamine

(McKenna & Towers 1984).



The Plants



Family: Acanthaceae

Genus:  Justicia

Species: pectoralis (var. stenophylla)



Waikas of Orinoco headwaters in Venezuela add dried and pulverized

leaves of this herb to their Virola-snuff. Intensely aromatic smelling

leaves probably contain tryptamines (Schultes 1977). Plants are available

from ..Of the jungle (PO Box 1801 sebastopol CA 95473) for $35.



Family: Agaricaceae

Genus:  Lepiota

Species: peele "Peele's Lepiota"



This recently discovered mushroom is supposed to contain a legal tryptamine,

which produces a trip with less physical symptoms and better ability of

logical thinking than psilocin/psilocybin. Florida Mycology Research Center

(PO Box 8104 Pensacola Florida 32505) sells spores ($10) and cultures ($112).



Genus:  Psilocybe



These are the psilocin and psilocybin carrying mushrooms, which have

their own section in the Natural Highs FAQ.



Family: Aizoaceae

Genus:  Delosperma



Contains DMT and N-methyltryptamine (see Smith 1977 for refs).



Family: Apocynaceae

Genus:  Prestonia

Species: amazonica?



Contains DMT (Smith 1977).



Family: Gramineae

Genus:  Arundo

Species: donax



Leaves, flowers and rhizomes contain DMT, Bufotenine and related compounds

(Ghosal et al. 1972).



Genus: Phalaris

Species: arundinacea

         tuberosa



Leaves of P. arundinacea and leaves and seedlings of P. tuberosa

contain DMT, 5-MeO-DMT and related compounds (Smith 1977). P.

arundinacea plants are available from ..Of the jungle for $15.



Family: Leguminosae

Genus:  Acacia

Species: confusa

         jurema

         maidenii

         phlebophylla

         polycantha subsp. campylacantha

         niopo

         nubica

         senegal

	 others



Dried A. confusa stems contain 0.04% N-methyltryptamine and 0.02% DMT

(Arthur et al. 1967). The dried leaves of A. phlebophylla contain 0.3% DMT

(Rovelli & Vaughan 1967). The bark of A. maidenii contains 0.6% of

N-methyltryptamine and DMT in the proportions approx. 2:3 (Fitzgerald

& Sioumis 1965). Smith (1977) and Schultes & Hofmann (1980) mention other

species.



Seeds of several acacia species are available from ..Of the jungle.



Genus:  Anadenanthera (Piptadenia)

species: peregrina

         colubrina



Black beans from these trees are toasted, pulverized and mixed with ashes

or calcined shells to make psychedelic snuff called yopo by Indians in

Orinoco basin in Colombia, Venezuela and possibly in southern part of

Brasilian Amazon. Yopo is blown into the nostrils through bamboo tubes

or snuffed by birdbone tubes. The trees grow in open plain areas, and

leaves, bark and seeds contain DMT, 5-MeO-DMT and related compounds

(Schultes 1976,1977; Pachter et al. 1959).



Genus:  Desmanthus

Species: illinoensis "Illinois Bundleflower"



Thompson et al. report that the root bark of this North American perennial

shrub contains 0.34% DMT and 0.11% N-methyltryptamine. The bark accounts

for about a half of the total weight of the roots. The plant should be

resistant to cold and draught and easy to grow. ..Of the Jungle sells D.

illinoensis seeds and dried roots (seed packet $3, 7 grams $10, oz $25;

roots 4 oz $15, pound $50). Seeds are also available from more main-stream

mail-order houses.



Genus:  Desmodium

Species: gangetium

         gyrans

         pulchellum

         tiliaefolium

         triflorum



Leaves, root, stem and seeds contain DMT and 0.06% 5-MeO-DMT of wet weight

(Banerjee & Ghosal 1968).



Genus: Lespedeza

Species: bicolor



Leaves and root contain DMT and 5-MeO-DMT (Smith 1977). Seeds of this hardy

perennial shrub are available from ..Of the jungle for $5.



Genus:  Mimosa

Species: tenuiflora (== hostilis) "tepescohuite"

         verrucosa



The roots of M. hostilis, which is not the common houseplant M. pudica

("sensitive plant"), contain 0.57% DMT and are used by Indians of Pernambuso

State in Brazil as part of their Yurema cult (Pachter et al. 1959, Schultes

1977, Meckes-Lozoya et al. 1990). Bark of M. verrucosa also contains DMT

(Smith 1977).



Genus:  Mucuna

Species: pruriens



Leaves, stem and fruit of this jungle vine contains DMT and 5-MeO-DMT

(Smith 1977). Seeds are available from ..Of the jungle for $5.



Genus: Petalostylis

species: labicheoides



Leaves and stem contain 0.4-0.5% tryptamine, DMT and other alkaloids

(Johns et al. 1966).



Family: Malpighiaceae

Genus:  Banisteriopsis

Species: rusbyana

         argentea



Natives of western Amazon add DMT-containing leaves of the vine B. rusbyana

to a drink made from B. caapi, which contains beta-carbolines harmine and

harmaline, to heighten and lengthen the visions (Schultes 1977, Smith 1977).



Family: Myristicaceae

Genus:  Virola

Species: calophylla

	 calophylloidea

 	 rufula

	 sebifera

 	 theiodora



The bark resin of these trees is used to prepare hallucinogenic snuffs

in northwestern Brazil by boiling, drying and pulverizing it. Sometimes

leaves of a Justicia are added. The snuff acts rapidly and violently,

"effects include excitement, numbness of the limbs, twitching of facial

muscles, nausea, hallucinations, and finally a deep sleep; macroscopia is

frequent and enters into Waika beliefs about the spirits resident in the

drug." Snuffs made from V. theiodora bark contain up to 11% 5-MeO-DMT and

DMT. Also leaves, roots and flowers contain DMT.



Amazonian Colombia natives roll small pellets of boiled resin in a

evaporated filtrate of bark ashes of Gustavia Poeppigiana and ingest

them to bring on a rapid intoxication (Smith 1977, Schultes 1977).



Family: Rubiaceae

Genus:  Psychotria

Species: viridis (psychotriaefolia)



Psychotria leaves are added to a hallucinogenic drink prepared from

Banisteriopsis caapi and B. rusbyana (which contain beta-carbolines) to

strengthen and lengthen the effects in western Amazon. P. viridis

contains DMT (Schultes 1977). 5 seeds $10 from ..Of the jungle.



Family: Rutaceae

Genus:  Dictyoloma

Species: incanescens



Bark contains 0.04% 5-MeO-DMT (Pachter et al. 1959).



Genus: Vepris

Species: ampody



Contains DMT (Smith 1977).



References



Arthur, H.R., Loo, S.N. & Lamberton, J.A. 1967. Nb-methylated tryptamines

  and other constituents of Acacia confusa Merr. of Hong Kong. Aust. J

  Chem. 20, 811.

Banerjee, P.K. & Ghosal, S. 1968. Simple indole bases of Desmodium gangeticum.

  Aust. J Chem. 22, 275.

Daly, J.W. & Witkop, B. 1971. Chemistry and pharmacology of frog venoms.

  In: Venomous animals and their venoms. Vol II. New York: Academic Press.

Fitzgerald, J.S. & Sioumis, A.A. 1965. Alkaloids of Australian

  Leguminosae V. Aust. J Chem. 18, 433.

Ghosal, S., Chaudhuri, R.K., Dutta, S.K., Bhattacharya, S.K. 1972. Occurrence

  of curaromimetic indoles in the flowers of Arundo donax. Planta Med. 21, 22.

Johns, S.R., Lamberton, J.A., Sioumis, A.A. 1966. Alkaloids of the

  Australian Leguminosae VI. Aust. J Chem. 19, 893.

Kantor, R.E., Dudlettes, S.D. & Shulgin, A.T. 1980. 5-Methoxy-alfa-methyl-

  tryptamine (alfa,O-dimethylserotonin), a hallucinogenic homolog of

  serotonin. Biological Psychiatry Vol 15:349-352.

Luna, L.E. 1984. The Healing Practices of a Peruvian Shaman. J of

  Ethnopharmacology 11, 123-133.

McKenna, D.J., Towers, G.H.N., & Abbott, F. (1984). Monoamine oxidase

  inhibitors in South American hallucinogenic plants: Tryptamines and

  Beta-carboline constituents of ayahuasca. J of Ethnopharmacology, 10, 195-223.

Mckenna, Dennis J. & Towers, G.H.N. 1984. Biochemistry and Pharmacology of

  Tryptamines and beta-Carbolines: A Minireview. J Psychoactive Drugs 16(4).

Meckes-Lozoya, M., Lozoya, X., Marles, R.J., Soucy-Breau, C., Sen, A.,

  Arnason, J.T. 1990. N,N-dimethyltryptamine alkaloid in Mimosa tenuiflora

  bark (tepescohuite). Arch. Invest. Med. Mex. 21(2) 175-7.

Most, Albert. Eros and the Pineal: the layman's guide to cerebral

  solitaire, 1986, Venom Press Box 2863 Denton TX 76202

  (also publishes "Bufo alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert")

Naranjo, C. 1969. Psychotropic Properties of the Harmala Alkaloids. In: Efron

  (Ed.) The Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs.

Pachter, I.J, Zacharias, D.E & Ribeir, O. 1959. Indole Alkaloids of Acer

  saccharinum (the Silever Maple), Dictyoloma incanescens, Piptadenia

  colubrina, and Mimosa hostilis. J Org Chem 24 1285-7.

Rovelli, B. & Vaughan, G.N. 1967. Alkaloids of Acacia I. Aust. J Chem.

  20, 1299.

Schultes, R.E. 1976. Indole Alkaloids in Plant Hallucinogens. J of

  Psychedelic Drugs Vol 8 No 1 7-25.

Schultes, R.E. 1977. The Botanical and Chemical Distribution of Hallucinogens.

  J of Psychedelic Drugs Vol 9 No 3 247-263.

Schultes, R.E. & Hofmann, A. 1980. The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens.

  Springfield, Ill: Thomas. pp. 142 & 155.

Shulgin, A.T. 1982. Chemistry of Psychotomimetics. In: Hoffmeister, F. &

  Stille, G. (Eds.) Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Vol 55:

  Alcohol and Psychotomimetics, Psychotropic Effects of Central-Acting

  Drugs. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Shulgin, A.T. 1976. Psychotomimetic agents. In: Gordon, M. (Ed.)

  Psychopharmacological Agents, Vol IV. New York: Academic Press.

Smith, T.A. 1977. Review: Tryptamine and Related Compounds in Plants.

  Phytochemistry Vol 16 171-175.

Strassman, R.J. 1990. The Pineal Gland: Current Evidence For Its Role In

  Consciousness. In: Lyttle, T. (Ed.) Psychedelic Monographs and Essays

  Vol 5.

Thompson, A.C., Nicollier, G.F. & Pope, D.F 1987. Indolealkylamines of

  Desmanthus illinoensis and Their Growth Inhibition Activity. J Agric.

  Food Chem. 35 361-365.



Have fun!



Petrus







++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++







******************************



MANUFACTURE:



Forget it.  Precursors (ergot alkaloids, used medicinally for migraines and

ob/gyn due to their vasoconstrictive effects) are closely watched.  (They

are obtained through commercially cultured ergot fungus; one could

theoretically extract lsyergic amides from morning glory or Hawaiian wood

rose seeds.)  (Though there are routes to synthesize lysergic acid from

"scratch", these are complicated also.)  Other typically needed chemicals

are very dangerous.  Serious experience in organic chemistry lab would be

necessary.  If you have to ask where to find the recipes, you don't know

enough about chemistry to try it.  (For the curious: the _Anarchists

Cookbook_ is a bad place to start.  _Psychedelic Chemistry_ is better, the

patent office or chem. lit. better.)  And you'll probably trip during

manufacture if you actually succeed.  Its easier and safer to buy it on the

black market.



..............................



>In the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 1980, there is an article

>on an ergot derivative used in obstetrics which is an hallucinogen.

>Although the dose required is ten times the ED50 (.2 mg) no

>significant ill effects were reported.

>I believe the name of this drug is methyl ergovine(?)  The drug

>without the methyl group is supposed to be more effective.  It

>was (is?) a Sandoz drug, for those with a PDR.



Ergonovine and methylergonovine are both oxytocic agents: they increase

uterine tone and are used (rarely) to assist in delivery and (more

frequently) to stop post-partum uterine hemorrhage.  Less frequently,

they can be used to abort a migraine headache.  If they have any

hallucinogenic effects, it is certainly a well-kept secret.



I would be quite concerned about taking 10x the therapeutic dose

of a drug like ergonovine, since it can cause arterial spasm and

precordial distress even in healthy persons, and intense vaso-

constriction and gangrene can follow from an overdose.  These

are not drugs to fool around with.



Another related drug, 1-methyl-methylergonovine, or methysergide

(Sansert), is used in migraine prophylaxis, and is claimed to have

LSD-like actions when high doses are taken.  The methyl group on

the indole nitrogen reduces the drug's vasoconstrictive actions.

Chronic, uninterrupted use of the drug causes a fibrosis of the

heart valves and the lungs.







..............................



>You mean to tell me that the people who make LSD have a GC/MS in their

>basement and know how to use it properly.



No, but they probably run the GC/MS where they work and can sneak samples

in -- or else know someone in a chem department somewhere that can do it

for them.



>I had no idea that the field was

>so high tech.



LSD is not particularly easy to synthesize.  It certainly takes a little bit

more than 2nd year O-Chem to do it.  There are various synthetic methods

floating around the net, along with methods published in _psychedelic

chemistry_ but i gather that they're all more difficult than some relatively

recent methods...



===forwarded article:



Newsgroups: alt.drugs,alt.conspiracy,alt.psychoactives,rec.music.gdead,alt.folklore.urban

From: aankrom@blackfoot.ucs.indiana.edu (aankrom)

Subject: Re: How to Make LSD File 2

Message-ID: <Cnr0LM.EBn@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 18:56:10 GMT



 When I saw the subjects relating to the synthesis of LSD, I knew the

information would be outdated. It's humourous to see people who think

they're in the know giving out information that was outdated even in the 70's.

Lysergic acid amides are commonly made by a simple and efficient procedure

using POCl3 and the desired amine in CHCl3 solution. I doubt that this

procedure is used by the majority of clandestine chemists, but since I

don't know any, I wouldn't know. By the description of the procedure,

it's simple and uses relatively safe reagents. (I have a reference, but

not handy...) And you won't find it in any obvious places even in the

most recent Merck because LSD is not the product of focus in the article.

This is why I doubt that unsavvy clandestine chemists would be using this

procedure. But according to the article, the method has a broad scope

and has been used by Nichols and Oberlender for some other lysergic acid

amides. (The article in question regards 9,10 saturated derivatives

tested for emetic properties.) It's time to stop turning to those stupid

"how to make your very own drug" guides and learn how to read real chemsitry

literature. If you can't, don't bother...

 Even the synthesis of lysergic acid is outdated. Rebek has described

an extremely elegant synthesis of methyl lysergate from L-tryptophan

which gives only the natural isomer of lysergic acid. It's still a

several step procedure, but most of the reagents are fairly common and the

yields are greatly improved over past syntheses.

 This brings me to an interesting side-note. Several years ago, analogues

of LSD that were 2 and 3 times as potent as LSD were synthesized. These

went largely unnoticed and would most likely prove of little interest

to clandestine chemists because LSD was the precursor used and the loss

in synthesis outweighed the gain in potency. But using Rebek's synthesis,

one could simply alter the procedure slightly and intorduce the groups

that make the compounds more potent. When the 6N-methyl group is replaced

by ethyl or allyl, it becomes 2 and 3 times as potent respectively.

I am posting this for general information. I may post references if I

decide it would be prudent. Requests will be ignored and I ask you not to

send e-mail requesting references. But if you just want to chat about them

and maybe speculate on subjective effects or other avenues of substitution...

I don't know if I'll ever see the day that research in this area is open

and legal, but I'd love to...













******************************



DRUG TESTING:



No risk.  Its not looked for,  hard to find, and transient.



..............................





"A maximum concentration of 2-8 ng/ml [Plasma concentration of LSD]

 was reached 1.0-1.25 h after an oral dose of 160 ug.

 ...[A] value of 2.9 h for the elimination half-life of LSD from

 plasma [was reached].

	[Upshall, D.G., Wailling, D.G.: The determination of LSD in

	 human plasma following oral administration.

	 Clinica Chimica Acta 36, 67-73 (1972)]



Second of all, LSD and its metabolites are detectable in the urine

for much longer than one hour.



"LSD and its metabolites were still detectable in human urine for

 as long as 4 days after the ingestion of 0.2 mg of the drug.

	[Faed, E.M., McLeod, W.R.: A urine screening test of lysergide.

	 Journal of Chromatographic Science.  11, 4-6 (1973)]



Note that standard, cheap initial drug screening does not use

chromatography or mass-spectrometry, and does not look for LSD.



..............................







There were rumors going around that LSD could be detected

by drug tests fo thirty days.  I think this reference and

abstract makes it clear that it is probably 4 days, max.

(see the end of the abstract)



 IDNUM     03319915

 TYPE      Journal paper

 DATE      880715

 AUTHOR    Heng Keang Lim; Andrenyak, D.; Francom, P.; Foltz, R.L.; Jones, R.T.

           Center for Human Toxicology, Utah Univ., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

 TITLE     Quantification of LSD and N-demethyl-LSD in urine by gas

           chromatography/resonance electron capture ionization mass

           spectrometry

 SOURCE    Analytical Chemistry; vol.60, no.14; 15 July 1988; pp. 1420-5

 SUBJECT   chromatography; electron capture; mass spectroscopic chemical

           analysis; organic compounds; quantification; gas chromatography;

           resonance electron capture ionisation mass spectrometry; LSD;

           N-demethyl-LSD; urine; lysergic acid diethylamide; human; in vitro;

           in vivo; aromatic hydroxylation; drug; metabolite;

           N-tri-fluoroacetyl derivatives; calibration curves; urinary

           concentrations; adult volunteer; excretion; elimination half-lives;

           4 to 6 hrs; 8 to 10 hrs

           Numerical data: time 1.4E+04 to 2.2E+04 s; time 2.9E+04 to 3.6E+04 s

           Class codes: A8280M; A8280B; A3470

 CODEN     ANCHAM

 ABSTRACT  Demethylation of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in the human has

           been demonstrated, both in vitro and in vivo, and aromatic

           hydroxylation at positions 13 and 14 has been tentatively

           identified. A gas chromatography/resonance electron capture

           ionization mass spectrometry (GC/MS) assay for LSD and

           N-demethyl-LSD in urine has been developed, in which the drug and

           its metabolite are converted to their N-tri-fluoroacetyl derivatives

           prior to GC/MS analysis. Linear and reproducible calibration curves

           have been obtained for LSD concentrations from 0.05 to 5.0 ng/mL,

           and for N-demethyl-LSD concentrations from 0.03 to 5.0 ng/mL. The

           assay was used to determine the urinary concentrations of LSD and

           N-demethyl-LSD following administration of a single oral dose of the

           drug (1 mu g/kg) to an adult volunteer. The rates of excretion of

           LSD and N-demethyl-LSD reached maxima in urine collected at time

           intervals of 4-6 and 8-10 h after administration, respectively. The

           elimination half-lives for LSD and N-demethyl-LSD were 3.6 and 10.0

           h, respectively

 MISCELLANEOUS

           Treatment: experimental

           Anal. Chem. (USA)

           Abstract number(s):  A89037987

           ISSN: 0003-2700

           Refs: 15







  Marijuana is detectable from 2 to 5 days after a single, isolated

use using the standard 50-ng cutoff for the EMIT test.  At 20 ng, the

time may go out to a week.  Frequent users (every other day or more )

may be positive for 3 weeks or more (84 days is the longest I have

heard of).  However, this time can be abridged considerably(to a day

or two in some cases) given proper measures, in particular, drinking

lots of fluids.

 For up-to-date details on how to deal with  this new intrusion on personal

privacy, contact Californ NORML, 2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco 94114-

(415) 563-5858.





..................................................





  If you smoke only occasionally (once or twice a month) you are likely

to pass a urine test within no more than 3-5 days.  If you smoke several

times a week, you should allow at least 3-4 weeks, and if you smoke

several time daily, you may need 6 weeks or more (84 days is the record).

However, there are ways that can help you pass a urine test on shorter

notice.  For info, contact California NORML, 2215-R Market St. #278,

San Francisco CA 94114;  (415) 563-5858.



  What they are most likely to detect about a diluted sample is incorrect

temperature.  More and more labs are checking to see that the specimen is

within the range 92-100 degrees F.  To my knowledge, no one looks at cholrine

or fluorine.  Howver, there has been some talk of testing creatanin levels,

which can tell if urine has been diluted.

Actually, your friend took an unnecessary risk in diluting his sample

in the first place.  The fact is that occasional marijuana use (say, on the

order of once a month or two weeks) is typically detectable only 2-5 days.

A lot of occasional users get really paranoid because they hear of marijuana]

staying around 4-6 weeks, but this is true only for regular users who smoke

every day.  For info about urine testing, send to Cal. NORML, 2215-R Market

St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114 (415) 563-5858.













..............................



Spinal taps are not particularly useful (cerebro-spinal fluid doesn't

concentrate LSD or metabolites) and are never done under any

circumstances: they are painful and dangerous.



..............................





You might want to mention that Abbie Hoffman's _Steal This Urine Test_

has a table which claims lsd is detectable for 40 days. I'm almost sure

this was a typo.



..............................





> 1] How long can LSD be detected in the body?



This varies by the test being used, the detection limit placed on the test,

the point of collection and type of the sample fluid, the amount of LSD that

was taken, and the individual in question.



Assuming the testers are using an RIA screening test with the cutoff set at

0.1 ng/ml and assuming that the user has recently emptied their bladder,

then the detection limit for one hit (100 ug) is normally around 30 hours.

Each doubling of the initial amount will add about 5 hours.  Thus taking 8

hits will leave a user vulnerable for approximately 2 days.  (NOTE: This is

based on the data in [7])



> 2] What exact form of test can be used to detect LSD in the body?  There

are a number of tests which can be used to detect LSD in the body.



Abuscreen, a product of Roche Diagnostic Systems, is a series of

RadioImmunoAssay (RIA) tests, one of which is used to detect LSD and its

metabolites in whole blood, serum (blood), urine and stomach contents [1].

RIA can in theory be used to detect quantities as small as 0.020 nanograms

(ng) per milliliter (ml) of sample [2].  Laboratory tests have shown that

RIA results are accurate down to at least 0.1 ng/ml [3].  The manufacturer

recommends limiting the cutoff to 0.5 ng/ml.



EMIT, a product of Syva Corporation, is another series of tests, one of

which can be used to detect LSD and its metabolites in serum and urine.

EMIT stands for Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique.



Both EMIT and Abuscreen are "positive/negative" response tests (much like

pregnancy tests) which require periodic equipment calibration and consume

chemicals for each test performed.  A basic battery of tests costs approx.

$15-$25 per person [4].  The basic tests (recommended by NIDA) include

marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, and phencyclidine (PCP).

Normally, unless an (employer) specifically requests the test, an LSD assay

is not run.



Both Roche and Syva recommend confirmation of positive results by using a

different test.  The usual method of confirming positive results is some

form of chromatography.  These include High Performance Thin Layer

Chromatography (HPTLC)[3], and different forms of Gas Chromatography/Mass

Spectrometry (GC/MS)[5][6][7][8][9].  HPTLC and GC/MS can be used to give

quantitative results as opposed to the Boolean results from EMIT or

Abuscreen.  Laboratory tests have shown that GC/MS test for LSD in urine[6]

and blood[7] can be accurate down to 0.1 ng/ml.  The cost for confirmation

of a positive screening test is approximately $50-60.



Positive results to either EMIT and RIA are held to be "probable cause" by

U.S. courts.  GC/MS results are held to be "proof" by U.S. courts.



> I am asking for an actual text message containing a short, precise >

description of each test,



Immunoassays chemicals are created by injecting animals (rabbits, sheep,

donkey, etc) with the drug to be tested for and an albumin which force the

animal to produce antibodies.  The antibodies are then removed from the

animal, purified and bottled.  In RIA tests, the antibodies are then added

to the fluid sample with a radioactively labeled chemical.  Any of the drug

(or similar chemicals) found in a sample that is being tested will react

with this glop and by measuring the radioactivity, the amount of drugs can

be determined [2][10].



> 3] How can such a test be beaten?



While there is some literature on adulterating urine samples to produce

false negative results [11], there has been little written that applies

specifically to the LSD screening tests.



I would suggest you read the article posted by Paul Hager paying particular

attention to the warning about water intoxication [12]:

In <1991May7.141615.16477@news.cs.indiana.edu> hagerp@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu wrote

+ Recommended: "Dealing With Urine Tests on Short Notice"

+         by Dale Gieringer, California NORML

+

+ Most folks recommend that people hydrate themselves -- the idea

+ being that by drinking water and taking a diuretic that will

+ promote water loss, the urine will be very dilute and THC metabolite

+ content from "tomatoe" consumption will drop below the 100 ng/ml

+ threshold that defines a "positive".

+

+ Mr. Gieringer recommends that, the day before the test, the

+ person drink lots of water.  I would amend this to, drink your

+ normal "8 glasses" plus a few more.  Don't get carried away with

+ drinking water -- there is such a thing as "water intoxication"

+ which can result in brain swelling and other nasties so don't

+ chug-a-lug a gallon of water just before the test.  After

+ hydrating, and a little before the test, drink some more water

+ and use a diuretic (coffee is a weak diuretic).  Urinate to

+ flush the bladder -- the first urination of the day is the

+ one most charged with metabolites.  The pamphlet quotes from

+ a _High Times_ article, "How to Beat a Drug Test":

+

+         Take an 80 mg dose of the prescription diuretic Lasix

+         (furosemide); take a hefty drink of water; piss two

+         or three times; then take the test.

+

+ Some caution is to be exercised in taking diuretics.  Consult

+ your physician.

+

+ Mr. Gieringer also suggests that the clear, watery urine that

+ results from the above procedure is sometimes suspicious.  He

+ recommends taking 50-100 mg of vitamin B2 which will color

+ urine yellow for a couple of hours.  Vitamin C does not produce

+ this effect -- contrary to rumor.

+

+ For more information, I'd suggest contacting California NORML

+ directly at (415) 563-5858.  They are located in San Francisco.

+ It is also possible that Mr. Gieringer will respond directly

+ via his canorml account.



> I am asking for ...[a description]... of each thing that LSD leaves behind

> that can be detected, and of each method used to beat each test.



The immunsoassay tests vary in their specificity.  Some display a relatively

low cross-reactivity[13], others a high cross-reactivity[14].  The exact

metabolites of LSD in humans have not been fully determined yet, though

animal studies have been done.  The only verified human metabolite I could

find in the literature was N-demethyl-LSD[6] but I did not check all the

references.



FOOTNOTES:

[1]

Altunkaya, D; Smith R.N.

"Evaluation of a commercial radioimmunoassay kit for the detection of

lysergide (LSD) in serum, whole blood, urine, and stomach contents"

Forensic Science International.  v47n2, September 1990, p113-21.

[2]

Taunton-Rigby, A.; Sher, S.E.; Kelley, P.R.

"Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: Radioimmunoassay"

Science.  v181, July 13 1973, p165-6.

[3]

McCarron, M.M.; Walberg, C.B.; Baselt, R.C.

"Confirmation of LSD intoxication by analysis of serum and urine."

Journal of Analytical Toxicology.  v14n3, May-June 1990, p165-7.

[4]

Berg, E.

"Drug-testing methods: what you should know."

Safety & Health.  v142n6, Dec 1990, p52-6.

[5]

Lim, H.K.; Andrenyak, D.; Francom, P.; Bridges, R.R.; Foltz, R.L.

"Determination of LSD in urine by capillary column gas chromatography

and electron impact mass spectrometry."

Journal of Analytical Toxicology.  v12n1, Jan-Feb 1988, p1-8.

[6]

Lim, H.K.; Andrenyak, D.; Francom, P.

"Quantification of LSD and N-demethyl-LSD in urine by gas chromatography/

resonance electron capture ionization mass spectrometry."

Analytical Chemistry.  v60, July 15 1988, p1420-25.

[7]

Papac, D.I.; Foltz, R.L.

"Measurement of lysergic acid dietylamide (LSD) in human plasma by gas

chromatography/negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry."

Journal of Analytical Toxicology.  v14n3, May-June 1990, p189-90.

[8]

Paul, B.D.; Mitchell J.M.; Burbage, R.; Moy, M; Sroka, R.

"Gas chromatographic-electron-impact mass fragmentometric determination

of lysergic acid diethylamide in urine."

Journal of Chromatography.  v529n1, July 13, 1990, p103-12.

[9]

Blum, L.M.; Carenzo, E.F.; Rieders, F.

"Determination of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in urine by instrumental

high-performance thin-layer chromatography."

Journal of Analytical Toxicology.  v14n5, Sep-Oct 1990, p285-7.

[10]

Ratcliffe, W.A.; Fletcher, S.M.; Moffat, A.C.; et. al.

"Radioimmunoassay of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in serum and urine

by using antisera of different specificities."

Clinical Chemistry.  v23n2, Feb 1977, p169-74.

[11]

Cody, J.T.; Schwarzhoff, R.H.

"Impact of adulterants on RIA analysis of urine for drugs of abuse."

Journal of Analytical Toxicology.  v13n5, Sep-Oct 1989, p277-84.

[12]

Klonoff, D.C.

"Acute water intoxication as a complication of urine drug testing in the

workplace."

Journal of the American Medical Association.  v265n1, Jan 2 1991, p84-6.

[13]

Christie J.; White, M.W.; Wiles, J.M.

"A chromatographic method for the detection of LSD in biological liquids."

Journal of Chromatography.  v120n2, May 26, 1976, p496-501.

[14]

Twitchet, P.J.; Fletcher, S.M.; Sullivan, A.T.; Moffat, A.C.

"Analysis of LSD in human body fluids by high-performance liquid chromatography,

fluorescence spectroscopy and radioimmunoassay."

J. Chromatogr.  v150n1, March 11 1978, p73-84.



Sorry this was so long but I thought it deserved it :-)

Enjoy a "referenced" article.

Tim Basher



..............................



There were rumors going around that LSD could be detected

by drug tests fo thirty days.  I think this reference and

abstract makes it clear that it is probably 4 days, max.

(see the end of the abstract)



 IDNUM     03319915

 TYPE      Journal paper

 DATE      880715

 AUTHOR    Heng Keang Lim; Andrenyak, D.; Francom, P.; Foltz, R.L.; Jones, R.T.

           Center for Human Toxicology, Utah Univ., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

 TITLE     Quantification of LSD and N-demethyl-LSD in urine by gas

           chromatography/resonance electron capture ionization mass

           spectrometry

 SOURCE    Analytical Chemistry; vol.60, no.14; 15 July 1988; pp. 1420-5

 SUBJECT   chromatography; electron capture; mass spectroscopic chemical

           analysis; organic compounds; quantification; gas chromatography;

           resonance electron capture ionisation mass spectrometry; LSD;

           N-demethyl-LSD; urine; lysergic acid diethylamide; human; in vitro;

           in vivo; aromatic hydroxylation; drug; metabolite;

           N-tri-fluoroacetyl derivatives; calibration curves; urinary

           concentrations; adult volunteer; excretion; elimination half-lives;

           4 to 6 hrs; 8 to 10 hrs

           Numerical data: time 1.4E+04 to 2.2E+04 s; time 2.9E+04 to 3.6E+04 s

           Class codes: A8280M; A8280B; A3470

 CODEN     ANCHAM

 ABSTRACT  Demethylation of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in the human has

           been demonstrated, both in vitro and in vivo, and aromatic

           hydroxylation at positions 13 and 14 has been tentatively

           identified. A gas chromatography/resonance electron capture

           ionization mass spectrometry (GC/MS) assay for LSD and

           N-demethyl-LSD in urine has been developed, in which the drug and

           its metabolite are converted to their N-tri-fluoroacetyl derivatives

           prior to GC/MS analysis. Linear and reproducible calibration curves

           have been obtained for LSD concentrations from 0.05 to 5.0 ng/mL,

           and for N-demethyl-LSD concentrations from 0.03 to 5.0 ng/mL. The

           assay was used to determine the urinary concentrations of LSD and

           N-demethyl-LSD following administration of a single oral dose of the

           drug (1 mu g/kg) to an adult volunteer. The rates of excretion of

           LSD and N-demethyl-LSD reached maxima in urine collected at time

           intervals of 4-6 and 8-10 h after administration, respectively. The

           elimination half-lives for LSD and N-demethyl-LSD were 3.6 and 10.0

           h, respectively

 MISCELLANEOUS

           Treatment: experimental

           Anal. Chem. (USA)

           Abstract number(s):  A89037987

           ISSN: 0003-2700

           Refs: 15



******************************



LEGAL SCHEDULING:



Class I, "no medical use" --- mostly for political reasons, as it was

and is used in psychotherapy.  (Current use is in Switzerland.)



Though LSD has very different subjective qualities than MDMA, Dutch psy

chiatrist Dr. Hans Bastiaans' use of LSD for decades  in the treatment of

concentration camp survivors is an inspiring example of the beneficial use of

psychedelics in the treatment of people with  severe trauma.





******************************



SET and SETTING:



"SET" is the expectations a person brings with them.  "Setting" is the

environment that a person is in.  Set includes expectations about the

drug's actions and how the person will react.  Setting includes the

social and physical conditions.  For LSD and the hallucinogen-type

drug more than other psychoactives, set and setting are very important

in determining the nature of the experience.  These factors make the

difference between, e.g., the experiences of someone taking the drug

for enhancement at a concert, for psychotherapy in an doctor's office,

in a religious context, or in the outdoors for an aesthetic

experience.  For best results, one should take LSD only with people

one trusts in safe, comfortable surroundings, free of everyday

intrusions.  Tripping alone is a very risky thing to do, that

inexperienced people should avoid.



******************************



STORAGE:



First, note that LSD is a fairly stable organic molecule, no more or

less fragile than other molecules with comparable structures.



The main factors to be concerned with are moisture (due to leaching

and facilitated chemical reactions in the presense of moisture),

oxygen, light, and temperature.  Reaction rates typically depend upon

temperature exponentially.  These factors basically apply to all

organic compounds.



Sealing in AL foil in a cool dark place is fine.  Some recommend

refrigeration, but be careful about nosy guests, condensation, and frost.

Multiple, redundant seals are suggested, eg., paper in metal foil in

plastic in a metal candy tin which has been taped shut.  Should last

at least a presidential term.



Wallets are contraindicated as storage locations due to sweat.



******************************



SYNERGIES, BAD COMBINATIONS:



Smoking cannabis products considerably increases the effects,

increasing the visuals and also possibly increasing the cognitive and

linguistic disorders.  As the effects of LSD wear off, marijuana may

bring them back, and also ease the jitteriness some dislike.  Nitrous

oxide goes well with LSD, though one should be extra careful (not to

suffocate or fall down) with the nitrous because of the effects of the

LSD.  MDA & cousins can go well, but people on these drugs should not

take LSD unless they are familiar with the latter's effects.



Alcohol's effects are largely overwhelmed by LSD, and they act in opposite

ways: alcohol being a depressant and LSD being a (hyper)stimulant.

Generally mixing stimulants and sedatives is counterproductive.



MAO inhibitors ???

Amphetamines and cocaine ???



******************************



SYNTHESIS:



Don't try it, too difficult and risky both physically and

legally.  Precursor medical drugs (ob/gyn and migraine ergot

alkaloids) are watched.





 When I saw the subjects relating to the synthesis of LSD, I knew the

information would be outdated. It's humourous to see people who think

they're in the know giving out information that was outdated even in the 70's.

Lysergic acid amides are commonly made by a simple and efficient procedure

using POCl3 and the desired amine in CHCl3 solution. I doubt that this

procedure is used by the majority of clandestine chemists, but since I

don't know any, I wouldn't know. By the description of the procedure,

it's simple and uses relatively safe reagents. (I have a reference, but

not handy...) And you won't find it in any obvious places even in the

most recent Merck because LSD is not the product of focus in the article.

This is why I doubt that unsavvy clandestine chemists would be using this

procedure. But according to the article, the method has a broad scope

and has been used by Nichols and Oberlender for some other lysergic acid

amides. (The article in question regards 9,10 saturated derivatives

tested for emetic properties.) It's time to stop turning to those stupid

"how to make your very own drug" guides and learn how to read real chemsitry

literature. If you can't, don't bother...

 Even the synthesis of lysergic acid is outdated. Rebek has described

an extremely elegant synthesis of methyl lysergate from L-tryptophan

which gives only the natural isomer of lysergic acid. It's still a

several step procedure, but most of the reagents are fairly common and the

yields are greatly improved over past syntheses.

 This brings me to an interesting side-note. Several years ago, analogues

of LSD that were 2 and 3 times as potent as LSD were synthesized. These

went largely unnoticed and would most likely prove of little interest

to clandestine chemists because LSD was the precursor used and the loss

in synthesis outweighed the gain in potency. But using Rebek's synthesis,

one could simply alter the procedure slightly and intorduce the groups

that make the compounds more potent. When the 6N-methyl group is replaced

by ethyl or allyl, it becomes 2 and 3 times as potent respectively.

I am posting this for general information. I may post references if I

decide it would be prudent. Requests will be ignored and I ask you not to

send e-mail requesting references. But if you just want to chat about them

and maybe speculate on subjective effects or other avenues of substitution...

I don't know if I'll ever see the day that research in this area is open

and legal, but I'd love to...







Anthony





******************************









REFERENCES & FURTHER READING:



	HISTORICAL:

LSD: My Problem Child [A. Hofmann, PhD] (excellent)

Storming heaven : LSD and the American dream  [Jay Stevens]. (excellent)

Ceremonical Chemistry [T. Szasz, M.D.]	(excellent)

Acid Dreams

Drugs and the Brain

Psychedelics Reconsidered

Electric Koolaid Acid Test

Flashbacks (Leary's autobiography)

The Great Drug War

Dealing With Drugs



	USAGE/INFORMATIONAL:

Psychedelic Encyclopedia [Stafford] (excellent)

Psychedelic Chemistry [M.V.Smith]

Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology (technical)

Consumer Reports: Licit & Illicit Drugs

Recreational Drugs



	REFERENCE:

Merck Handbook

Physician's Desk Reference

The Botany And Chemistry Of Hallucinogens, Shultes & Hofmann



	JOURNALS:

Journal of Psychoactive (formerly Psychedelic) Drugs







..............................



 AUTHOR:    Cohen, Sidney

 AUTHOR AFFILIATION:

            U California School of Medicine, Neuropsychiatric

            Inst, Los Angeles

 TITLE:     LSD: The varieties of psychotic experience.

 SOURCE:    Journal of Psychoactive Drugs  1985 Oct-Dec Vol 17(4)

              291-296

 ABSTRACT:  Discusses the contributing factors (e.g., preexisting

            character structure, insecurity, negative experience,

            current mood and stress level) and prevention and

            treatment of acute and prolonged psychotic reactions

            to LSD. (10 ref)



..............................





Additional (detailed) References (in random order):



"Indole Alkaloids In Plant Hallucinogens"  Richard Evans Schultes, PhD.

Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol.8(No.1) Jan-Mar 1976



"Ethnopharmacology and Taxonomy of Mexican Psychodysleptic Plants"

 Jose Luis Diaz M.D.

 Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol. 11(1-2) Jan-Jun 1979



"The Botanical and Chemical Distribution of Hallucinogens"

Richard Evans Schultes, PhD.

Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol.9(No.3) Jul-Sep 1977



"Burger's Medicinal Chemistry" Fourth Edition, Volume III

Chapter: "Hallucinogens"  Alexander Shulgin





J. Psychoactive Drugs Vol 21 (1) Jan-Mar 1989



The Addictvie Behaviors: treatment of alcoholism, drug use, smoking, and

obesity

W.R.  Miller, Ed

(small amount of info on use of psychedelics in psychotherapy)

Pergammon press 1986





Biological Basis Of Behavior

N.Chalmers R. Crawley S.P.R.Rose Eds

Open Univ Press Harper & Row1971



Recreational Drugs

Young Klein Beyer

Collier Books, div of Macmillan pub co 1977



The Biochemical Basis Of Neuropharmacology

J.R.Cooper F.E.Bloom R.H.Roth

Oxford Univ Press 1982 (4th ed)



Craving For Ecstasy:  Consciousness And Chemistry Of Escape

H.Milkman S.Sunderwirth

Lexington Books, DC Heath and co  1987



A Primer of Drug Action

R.M.Julian

W.H.Freeman & Co.1978







LSD & Creativity

O.Janiger, M.D.de Rios

J. Psychoactive Drugs Vol 21 (1) Jan-Mar 1989



An Introduction To Pharmacology

J.J.Lewis

Williams and wilkins Co, Baltimore 1964 (3rd edition)



Metabolism Of Drugs Of Abuse

Spectrum Publications 1976

Dist by Halstead Press of John Wiley Press

L. Lemberger



Medicinal Chemistry: a series of monographs

G.deStevens Ed

Vol 4: Psychopharmaceutical agents

M. Gordon (ed)

Vol I, ch 13: psychomimetic compounds D.F.Downing

Vol II, ch 4: psychomimetic agents by A.T.Shulgin

Academic press 1976



The Road To Eleusis

Unveiling the secret of the mysteries

R.G.Wasson, A.Hoffman, C.A.P.Ruck

harcourt brace jovanovich inc. 1978



Lsd Man And Society

R.C.Debold, R.C.Leaf Eds

Wesleyan U press

Middletown Conn 1967



Hallucinogenic Plants (A Golden Guide) New York: Golden Press

1976

Shultes, R.E., Smith E.W.



The Sun And The Moon

A.Weil, MD



The Natural Mind

A.Weil, MD 1986

Houghton-mifflin pub co.



Sacred Narcotic Plants Of The New World Indians

H. Schleiffer ed.

Hafner press 1973

Div of mcmillan pub co



Moksha: Writings On Psychedlics And The Visionary Experience

A.C.huxley

stonehill pub co., NY

M.Horowitz, C. palmer Eds 1977



Psychedelic Chemistry

m.v.smith

2nd edition 1973

rip off press



Psychotropic Methoxyamphetamines: Structure And Activity In Man

S.H.Snyder, E.Richelson, H.Weingartner, LA.Faillace



Ethnopharmacological Search For Psychoactive Drugs

Proc of a symposium in SF, Ca Jan 28-30 1967

D.H.Efron, B.Holmstedt, N.S.Kline eds

US Dept of HEW



The Botany And Chemistry Of Hallucinogens

R.E.Schultes, A.Hoffman

charles C Thomas Publisher

Springfield Ill 1980





The Behavioral Effects Of Drugs

(Ch 4 Hallucinogens: Complications of LSD: A Review of the Literature;

Dimensions of the LSD, Methlphenidate, and Chlordiazepoxide

Experiences; LSD: Injection Early in Pregnancy Produces Abnormality

in Offspring of Rats; LSD: No Teratogenicity in Rats;  Congenital

Malformation Induced by Mescaline, LSD, and Bromolysergic Acid in

the Hamster;  Drug Motivated-Behavior: The Effect of Morning Glory Seeds

On Motor Activity In Chicks) (Also Includes Weil'S Study Of "Clinical and

Psychological Effects Of Marijuana In Man")

D.W. Matheson M.A. Davidson Holt Rinehart

Winston Inc 1972





any textbook titled "Physiological Psychology"



..............................



*BOOKS*



        (For a complete listing of books that we have in the No More

        Drug War Foundation Research Library, e-mail or write your

        address to me:



                      Gerald Bryan, Secretary

                      The No More Drug War Foundation

                      2045 Kearney St.

                      Denver, CO 80207-3919

                      303/388-5495 days

                      303/394-3930 evenings)



        BREAKING THE IMPASSE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS, by Steven Wisotsky,

        1986, 279 pages, $35.00, Greenwood Press.  Sympathetic to the

        idea of legalization.  Can be ordered from publisher at 88

        Post Road West, Box 5007



        PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS RECONSIDERED, by Lester Grinspoon & James B.

        Bakalar, 1979, 1981, Basic Books, Inc.  Good book that covers

        all aspects of psychedelic drugs, written by Harvard professors.

        You can probably order this from anywhere.



        ECSTASY: THE MDMA STORY, by Bruce Eisner, mid-1980s.  Covers

        all aspects of this drug, good book, available anywhere.



        PSYCHEDELICS ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Peter Stafford, Revised Edition,

        1983, J.P. Tarcher, Inc.  Great resource book, you can probably

        order this from anywhere (huge bookstore in Denver had it in

        stock)





*ORGANIZATIONS*



        The Drug Policy Foundation           The grand-father of all the

        4801 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.        legalization groups, this one

        Suite 400                            appeals to educated mainstream

        Washington, D.C. 20016-2087          folk.  Holds annual conference,

        202/895-1634                         has respectability.  This is a

                                             MUST-JOIN !!



        Multidisciplinary Assoc. for         Educational group seeking to

         Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)          give drug study legitimization

        23A Shaler Lane                      through normal public policy

        Cambridge, MA 02138                  channels.  Supports drug

        617/547-7271                         research projects worldwide.



        The Albert Hofmann Foundation        Educational group seeking to

        132 West Channel Road                build a library to house

        Suite 324                            vast amount of research work

        Santa Monica, CA 90402               done on consciousness, including

                                             extensive LSD studies.



        Coalition for 100% Drug Reform       Political, grass-roots activist

        9 Bleecker Street                    group seeking an end to zero-

        New York, NY 10012                   tolerance policies and promoting

        212/995-1245                         safe drug use education.  They

                                             have a drug reform conference

                                             scheduled for Dec 1-3.



        The No More Drug War Foundation      Activist group seeking to bring

        Box 18780                            an end to the drug war through

        Denver, CO 80218                     grass-roots political action &

        303/320-1910                         education.



        N.O.R.M.L.                           Still around, still holding pot

        2001 'S' Street, N.W.                rallies.  Good for people who

        Suite 640                            want MJ legalized but don't care

        Washington, D.C. 20009               about other drugs.

        202/483-5500



        Ed Hassle's Freedom Fighters         Activist group associated with

        Trans-High Corp                      High Times.  Similar agenda to

        211 East 43rd St.                    NORML.

        NY, NY 10017



        PRIDE                                Yes, this is an anti-drug,

        50 Hurt Plaza                        pro-drug-war group, but they

        Suite 210                            publish a good newsletter

        Atlanta, Georgia 30303               that informs well on what the

        404/577-4500                         opposition is doing.

        800/241-7946











..............................



(about  visual disturbances: )

Migraine: the evolution of a common disorder

O. Sacks

U CAl press 1970



Brain Damage, Behavior, And The Mind

M. Williams

John Wiley & Sons 1979

ch 5 Disorders of visual perception



Mescal And Mechanisms Of Hallucinations

Heinrich Kluver

U. Chicago Press 1930



Drugs And The Brain

Perry Black MD, Ed

Johns Hopkins Press 1969

behavioral effects of LSD in subhuman primates





Hallucinations

Sci Am

R.K.Siegal

(see also article on phosphenes in amateur scientist column in another issue)





Luria's _The Shattered Mind_





Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) -

Your Psychedelic Pharmaceutical Company

by Rick Doblin, MAPS President

MAPS, 1801 Tippah Avenue, Charlotte, NC. 28205 Phone (704) 3

58-9830, FAX (704) 358-1650, e-mail RICKMAPS@aol.com





 Becoming a member of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic

Studies, Inc. (MAPS) and receiving the MAPS newsletter is an excellent way to

stay abreast of the latest developments in psychedelic research around the

world.  In addition, your membership donation will be used to support

research into the medical uses of MDMA, LSD, marijuana,

and a cornucopia of other fascinating compounds.



 MAPS is an IRS-approved non-profit corporation supported by tax-deductible

contributions from a membership of about five hundred people and growing.

MAPS  works to develop the medical potential of MDMA and other psychedelics

by assisting researchers around the world to design, obtain governmental

approval for, fund,  conduct and report on psychedelic research.  MAPS is

also involved in research  exploring the medical use of marijuana.  MAPS'

primary goals are to help researchers conduct the studies necessary to

transform MDMA and marijuana into FDA-approved prescription medicines. For

MDMA, this is an estimated ten-year, $10 million project;  for mar

ijuana, a two-year, $500,000 task.



 MAPS offers its members a quarterly newsletter reporting on MAPS-sponsored

and other psychedelic research in progress both in the US and abroad,

political developments that affect psychedelic research and use,  and

conferences, books and articles of interest.  In addition, MAPS offers for

sale various unique publications (for example the protocol submitted to the

FDA for the investigation of the use of MDMA in the treatment of pain and

distress in terminal cancer patients),  videotapes (of a MAPS benefit held in

Berkeley in 1990 that featured Jerry Beck, Ram Dass, Bruce Eisner, Rick

Doblin,  Laura Huxley, Emerson Jackson, Mark Kleiman, Timothy Leary, Dennis

McKenna, Terence McKenna, Ralph Metzner, Andrew Weil, and Robert Zanger), and

audiotapes (of a MAPS seminar held in Prague in 1992  featuring Ram Dass, Ken

Ring and Richard Yensen discussing working with the terminally

 ill with psychedelics).



  Since its inception in 1986, MAPS has invested about $75,000, donated by

its members, into preliminary FDA-required 28-day MDMA toxicity studies in

the dog and rat. These studies were submitted to the FDA  in order to open

MAPS'  FDA Drug Master File for MDMA. These toxicity studies were a

prerequisite for all FDA-approved studies involving the administration of

MDMA to human volunteers. When UC Irvine psychiatrist Dr.  Charles Grob

applied to the FDA to conduct human research with MDMA, MAPS provided him

with written permission to cross-reference its MDMA Drug Master File. This

document saved Dr. Grob from having to reproduce the  toxicity data, a hurdle

that  he would have foun

d prohibitively expensive.



 MAPS has  also invested an additional $125,000 on pilot studies into the

effect of MDMA on the serotonin levels of humans, on  MDMA neurotoxicity

studies in the primate, and on protocol design for  Phase 1 and Phase 2 human

studies with MDMA. In addition to MAPS' preliminary toxicity research and its

subsequent efforts on protocol design, MAPS  successfully assisted Dr.

Charles Grob in obtaining FDA permission to  study  the effects of MDMA on

human volunteers. Dr. Grob's study is the first that the FDA has ever

permitted involving the administration of  MDMA to human volunteers. The

study is designed to gather information for a subsequent study by Dr. Grob

which will investigate the use of MDMA in the treatment of pain and distress

in end-stage pancreatic cancer patients.  MAPS intends to raise funds for Dr.

Grob's studies and provide him with whatever scientific and profess

ional  support he may need to conduct his experiments.    One function of

MAPS is to conduct MDMA research as if MAPS were a pharmaceutical company

interested in  making MDMA  into a prescription medicine. The critical

difference is that MAPS makes its data available for free to responsible

researchers to help advance the field of MDMA research rather than keep the

data as proprietary information. In this way, duplication of expensive

required studies is eliminated and researchers can focus on research

rather than profit considerations.

 ...





------------------------------





You may have heard about "no-hitter" that Bob Milacki's of the Oakland A's

pitched last week.  No-hitters are pretty rare and this one made the

news everywhere.  One of the local TV stations refered to it as

Milacki's "no-no," a term that originated with Dock Ellis's no-hitter

back on June 20th, 1970 for the Pirates.



  Dock pitched that game on acid.  That fact didn't come out until almost

  15 years later.  Here are some interesting excerpts from Eric Brothers

  account of the game in the August 1987 issue of High Times magazine:



  "Dock woke up late.  Why shouldn't he?  As far as he knew, the team had

  an off day and he planned to take full advantage of it.  Three hits of

  LSD were ready and waiting in the refrigerator.



  "A few minutes later, his girlfriend returned with coffee, donuts, and

  the morning paper.  At noon, they dropped acid.  Dock put on a record,

  while his girlfriend read the paper.



  "Dock, it says here you're pitching today!"



  "Whaaaa...?  said Dock groggily.  He snatched the paper, scanned the box

  scores, and read:



  	  PITTSBURGH AT PADRES

  	     DOUBLEHEADER

  	(6 P.M.) - Ellis (4-4) vs.

  	     Roberts (3-3)



  [He makes it to the game and after having someone help him find his

  locker, he suits up and enters the game.]



  "Dave Roberts, the Padres' pitcher, had an easy first inning, ending

  with Roberto Clemente hitting one back to the box.  Dock marched to the

  mound, wondering if he'd last the inning.



  "His fingers tingled as he squeezed the ball.  He squinted to see

  catcher Jerry May's hand signals.  He nodded his head and went into his

  windup, falling slightly off balance in the process.  The ball hit the

  ground about two feet in front of the plate and skipped into May's

  glove.



  "May signaled for a fastball outside.  Dock wound up and threw a hot one

  over the the corner of the plate - a swinging strike!  In was no

  ordinary pitch:  The ball burst from Dock's hand and left a blazing,

  cometlike tail that remained visible long after the ball was caught.



  "Dock felt wobbly on the mound and his stomach was churning with acid

  cramps.  His concentration, however, was superb.  As long as he kept to

  his fastball, the comets kept burning across the plate.  All he had to

  do was steer the ball down the multicolored path.  Dock had a crazed

  look in his eyes and his lack of control was evident to the batters,

  many of whom were feeling increasingly vulnerable in the batter's box.

  Dock easily retired three batters in a row [in the second inning].



  [the seventh inning:]



  "The Pirates were clinging to their 1-0 lead.  Dock was staring at the

  scoreboard when he realized he'd pitched hitless ball for seven innings.

  He smacked Cash on the arm.



  "Hey, look," said Dock, pointing at the scoreboard.  "I've got a no-no

  going!"



  Cash gave him a blank look.  "A no-no?" asked Cash.  He'd never heard

  the term before.  But Cash wanted to keep the pitcher loose and happy,

  so he smiled and said nothing.



  [He finished the game without a hit.]



  (Dock had a pretty good year in 1970.  He went 13-10, and helped the

  Pirates win their first of three divisional championships.  The fact

  that he pitched his no-hitter on LSD was not revealed until April 8,

  1984. [no details given])





******************************





From the 11th Edition of the Merck manual, the "Centennial Edition" no less:

[perhaps something to drop in the FAQ?]



  5505. Lysergamide.  9,10-Didehydro-6-methylergoline-

8beta-carboxamide; lysergic acid amide; ergine.  C16H17N3O;

mol wt 267.32.  C 71.88%, H 6.41%, N 15.72%, O 5.99%.

Isoln from _Rivea_corymbosa_(L.) and from _Ipomoea_tricolor_

Cav., _Convolvulaceae_:  Hofmann, Tscherter, _Experientia_ 16,

414 (1964).  Prepn from lysergic acid hydrazide:  Ainsworth,

U.S. pat. 2,756,235 (1956 to Lilly); from lysergic acid and

phosgene-dimethylformamide complex:  Patelli, Bernardi,

U.S. pat. 3,141,887 (1964 to Farmitalia).  Microbiological

production:  Rutschmann, Kobel, U.S. pat. 3,219,545 (1965

to Sandoz).



          H.     CONH2

            '. /

             / \

           /     \

          ||      |

          ||      N

   /\\    /\     / \

 /   \\ /    \ /     CH3

||     |      | \

||     |      |   H

 \   // \    /

   \//    \/

    |     ||

    |     ||

   HN-------



  Prisms from methanol. dec 242deg.  [alpha](5461)(20) + 15% (c = 0.5 in

pyridine).

  Methanesulfonate, C7H21N3O4S, prisms from methanol +

acetone, dec 232deg.

  Note:  This is a controlled substance (depressant) listed in

the U.S. code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 Part 1308.13

(1987).



  5506. Lysergic Acid.  9,10-Didehydro-6-methylergoline-

8-carboxylic acid.  C16H16N2O2; mol wt 268.32.  C 71.62%,

H 6.01%, N 10.44%, O 11.93%.  Lysergic acid and isolyser-

gic acid are the main cleavage products formed on alkaline

hydrolysis of the alkaloids which are characteristic of ergot.

Jacobs, Craig et al., _J._Biol._Chem._ 104, 547 (1934); 125, 289

(1938); 130, 399 (1939); 145, 487 (1942); _J._Org._Chem._ 10,

76 (1945).  High-yield production by _Claviceps_paspali_:

Arcamone et al., _Proc._Roy._Soc._ (London), _Ser._B_, 155, 26

(1961).  total synthesis: Kornfeld et al., _J._Am._Chem._Soc._

76, 5256 (1954); 78, 3087 (1956); M. Julia et al., _Tetrahedron_

_letters_ 1969, 1569; V.W. Armstrong et al., ibid. 1976, 4311;

W. Oppolzer et al., _Helv._Chem._Acta_ 64, 478 (1981); R.

Ramage et al., _Tetrahedron_ 37, Suppl. 9, 157 (1981); J.

Rebek, D.F. Tai, _Tetrahedron_Letters_ 24, 859 (1983). Ste-

reochemistry: Stoll et al., _Helv._Chem._Acta 37, 2039 (1954);

Stenlake, _J._Chem._Soc._ 1955, 1626; Leeman, Fabbri, _Helv._

_Chim._Acta_ 42, 2696 (1959).  Absolute configuration:  Stad-

ler, Hoffman, ibid. 45, 2005 (1962).



          H.     COOH

            '. /

             / \

           /     \

          ||      |

          ||      N

   /\\    /\     / \

 /   \\ /    \ /     CH3

||     |      | \

||     |      |   H

 \   // \    /

   \//    \/

    |     ||

    |     ||

   HN-------



  Haxagonal scales, plates with one or two moles H20 from

water, mp 240deg (dec). [alpha](D)(20) + 40deg (c = 0.5 in pyridine).

Behaves as an acid and base, pKa 3.44, pKb 7.68.  Moder-

ately sol in pyridine.  Sparingly sol in water and in neutral

organic solvents; sol in NaOH, NH4OH, Na2CO3, and HCL

solns.  Slighly sol in dil H2SO4.

  Methyl ester, thin leaflets from benzene, mp 168deg.

  Note:  This is a controlled substance (depressant) listed in

the U.S. code of Federal Regulations, title 21 Part 1308.13

(1987).



  5507. Lysergide.  9,10-Didehydro-N,N-diethyl-6-meth-

ylergoline-8beta-carboxamide; N,N-diethyl-D-lysergamide; D-

lysergic acid diethylamide; LSD; LSD-25; Lysergsaure Di-

ethylamid.  C20H25N3O; mol wt 323.42.  C 74.27%, H 7.79%,

N 12.99%, O 4.95%.  Microbal formation by _Claviceps_pas-

pali_ over the hydroxyethylamide;  Arcamone et al., _Proc._

Roy._Soc._(London) 155B, 26 (1961).  Partial synthesis:  Stoll,

Hofmann, _Helv._Chim._Acta_ 26, 944 (1943); 38, 421 (1955).

Industrial prepn: Pioch; Garbrecht, U.S. pats. 2,736,728;

2,774,763 (both 1956 to Lilly); Patelli, Bernardi, U.S. pat.

3,141,887 (1964 to Farmitalia).  Isotope-labeled LSD:  Stoll

et al., _Helv._Chim._Acta_ 37, 820 (1954).  Toxicity data:  E.

Rothlin, _Ann._N.Y._Acad._Sci._ 66, 668 (1957).  Review:  Hof-

fer, _Clin._Pharmacol._Ther._ 6, 183 (1965).  Book: _The_Use_of_

LSD_in_Psychotherapy_and_Alcoholism_, H.A. Abramson, Ed.

(Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1967) 697 pp.



                     / C2H5

          H.     CON

            '. /     \ C2H5

             / \

           /     \

          ||      |

          ||      N

   /\\    /\     / \

 /   \\ /    \ /     CH3

||     |      | \

||     |      |   H

 \   // \    /

   \//    \/

    |     ||

    |     ||

   HN-------



  Pointed prisms from benzene, mp 80-85 degs.  [alpha](D)(20) + 17deg (c =

0.5 in pyridine).  uv max (ethanol):  311 nm (E(1 cm)(1%) 257).

LD50 in mice, rats, rabbits (mg/kg):  46, 16.5, 0.3 i.v.

(Rothlin).

  D-Tartrate, C46H64N6O10, solvated, elongated prisoms from

methanol, mp 198-200deg.  [alpha](D)(20) + 30 deg.  Soluble in water.

  Caution:  This is a controlled substance (hallucinogen)

listed in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 Part

1308.11 (1987).

  USE: In biochemical research as an antagonist to serotonin.

Has been used experimentally as adjunct in study and treat-

ment of mental disorders.



NOTES:  Not guaranteed to be free from typos.

        Underlines are supposed to be italic (ie book/journal titles, etc)

        Alpha, beta, and deg are the greek letters and the degree symbol

        [alpha](D)(20) means a greek letter in [] followed by a subscript

          and then a superscript (I don't know *WHAT* this actually is)

        The chemical structures are almost exactly what the Merck manual has

          drawn.  Almost nothing was lost in the conversion to ASCII.



..............................





... of the jungle

P.O. Box 1801

Sebastopol, CA  95473



Their catalog doesn't list how much their catalog is.  I'm

sure it wasn't more than $2.  It might be free.



>From their catalog - "We are ... of the jungle.  This catalog

lists some of our favorite beneficial plants and botanical

products from our personal collection ... The propagule units

listed here are intended for cultivation as houseplants only.

The data provided on folk uses is given for historical

interest and can be found in ethnobotanical literature.  We do

not suggest or imply attempting such folk use ... [ :-) ]"



They sell San Pedro cuttings and a number of other

Trichocereus Cacti seeds, Hawaiian Woodrose, Datura, etc.

Pretty much every legal medicinal plant.  They are very prompt

at shipping orders.



LUX NATURA

2140 Shattuck Ave.

Box 2196,

Berkeley, CA  94704



>From an October 1988 Douglas J. Trainor posting - "Mostly

listing many tapes by McKenna, but also a new expanded edition

of _Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide_."  Their

catalog is free (?).



----



SYZYGY

P.O. Box 619

Honaunau, HI  96726



Amazonian Psilocybe Cubensis spore prints  $10 + $1 shipping.

This info is also from the October 1988 Douglas J. Trainor

posting.



----



Spectra

P.O Box 203

Capitola, CA  95010



They used to advertise San Pedro cactus seeds and cuttings in

H.T.  I ordered seeds from them and they came promptly with

some nice growing information.



----



The Twentieth Century Alchemist

P.O Box 1684

Manhattan Beach, CA  90266



They publish a number of booklets [some apparantly formatted

using troff & Berkeley fonts, interestingly enough] including -

 "The Book of Acid" - LSD synthesis

 "Peyote and other Psychoactive Cacti" - growing and extracting alkaloids.

 "Legal Highs"

 "Basic Drug Manufacture"



Booklets are $1.50 each (plus $.25 for handling).  The catalog

alone is 25 cents.  I have quite a few from the collection,

but I've bought them from bookstores, so I don't know how good

the mail order service is.



----



Thompson & Morgan

P.O Box 1308

Jackson, NJ  08527

(201) 363-2225



The largest seed catalog in the world.  The beautiful catalog

is free (you can get it by calling them).  They sell peyote

seeds.



----



Island Spore Co.

P.O Box 8055

Honolulu, Hawaii  96830



"Baby or regular Hawaiian Woodrose Seeds, a sample $20 [20

seeds] or $75/oz.; one Hawaiian Panaeolus Cyanescens spore

print for $15; Betel Nut seeds $10; Kava-Kava $20/pz., or

$75/quarter lb.; Imported Poppy Seeds $10 or $60/quarter lb.

Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery." - H.T. ad



This company seems to have been around a while.  I've only

ordered from them once, and they took the full 8 weeks to get

my order to me.  They are quite a bit more expensive than

other sources like "of the jungle."



----



The Shroom King

Box 17444

Seattle, WA  98107

(206) 784-9328



"Growing Wild Mushrooms" + Psilocybe Cubensis print -   $25

Above plus compost + malt agar medium               -   $35



----



The Seed Bank

Postbus 5

6576 ZA  Ooy

The Netherlands



The 1989 catalog is free.  They sell marijuana seeds.  The

color catalog is nice to look at if nothing else.



----



S.S.S.C.

Postbus 1942

100 Bx Amsterdam - Holland



S.S.S.C. is the Super Sativa Seed Club.  Their 1989 catalog free.

They sell marijuana seeds.







CEREMONIAL CHEMISTRY: The ritual persecution of drugs, addicts, and

pushers, by Thomas Szasz, 1985, Learning Publications, PO Box 1326,

Holmes Beach, Florida, 33509.  (ISBN: 1-55691-019-3.)



There is a revised edition floating around -- buy it!  This book is a

classic.



The book is divided into three major sections: (1) Pharmakos: The

Scapegoat, (2) Pharmacomythology: Medicine as Magic, and (3)

Pharmacracy: Medicine as Social Control.  There's a great appendix,

"A Synoptic History of the Promotion and Prohibition of Drugs", an

addendum to the appendix, "The `War on Drugs' 1974-1984", plus

copious references and a bibliography.



Some feminists want to borrow my copy when I'm done reading it.





LSD by Richard Alpert and Sidney Cohen, photography by Lawrence

Schiller, 1986, The New American Library, New York.



What a find!!!  Alpert and Cohen play good-cop/bad-cop with LSD.

More debate-type books like this should be written.



..............................





Getting Real About Drugs



ALEX BEAM



It was almost 30 years ago that a group of 20 young seminarians from

Andover-Newton Theological School gathered in the basement of Boston

University's Marsh Chapel to participate in an experiment using

psychedelic drugs.



Organized by Walter Pahnke, a graduate student in religion and society,

assisted by a young Harvard researcher named Timothy Leary and

encouraged by the Rev. Howard Thurman, the charismatic black chaplain

of Boston University, half the group swallowed psilocybin, a

hallucinogen derived from mushrooms, while their colleagues ingested

niacin tablets. Then all 20 filed into pews to listen to Thurman's Good

Friday sermon and reflect upon Christ's Passion on the cross.



Pahnke believed that the psilocybin would induce mystical religious

visions, and he hypothesized that the drug experiences would exert a

longterm positive influence on his subjects' lives. Little did he know

that his Good Friday experiment, which created a furor at the time,

would be one of the last scientifically controlled tests using

psychedelics.  Shortly after the experiment, Leary was booted out of

Harvard and psilocybin was outlawed. Pahnke died in 1971.



Rick Doblin, a young researcher at Harvard's Kennedy School of

Government, has spent four years tracking down the 20 participants in

the Good Friday experiment. One has died, one has disappeared.  Of the

remaining 18, all but one agreed to discuss their experiences with him.

Ten of the 18 subjects whom Doblin located entered the ministry, while

the rest fanned out among other professions.



By and large, they agree that the psilocybin experience had a lasting,

positive effect on their lives. In an article just published in the

Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Doblin writes: "The subjects

unanimously described their psilocybin experience as having had

elements of a genuinely mystical nature and characterized it as one of

the highpoints of their spiritual life."



Robert Kirven, who at the time was writing a thesis on spiritual

reality, remembers feeling like a skeleton and experiencing his own

death.  "It was a very vivid opening onto another aspect of reality,"

he said.  "Here I thought I knew what I was talking about; it was like

writing about China and then getting a chance to go there."



Several psilocybin subjects had profound mystical experiences,

prompting one to tell Doblin: "I would want my kids to take it "



But Doblin's follow-up research also uncovered some of the experiment's

darker moments. Two subjects found the combination of the hallucinogen

and Thurman's vivid Passion sermon to be overwhelming -- When Thurman

urged his listeners to spread the news about the crucifixion, one

seminarian rushed onto Commonwealth Avenue to announce the good news

and had to be restrained.



More chillingly, one of the subjects experienced what Pahnke called a

"psychotic episode," and was given an injection of the powerful

tranquilizer thorazine - a fact Pahnke never mentioned in his writings.

Six months after the experiment, the man reported "slightly harmful"

negative persisting effects.  Almost 30 years later, the man's colleagues

told Doblin that "his experience caused no persisting dysfunction and

may even have had some beneficial as well as detrimental effects."

The subject refused to talk to Doblin.



Doblin, who is also the president of the Multidisciplinary Association

for Psychedelic Studies, believes his follow-up to Pahnke's original

research argues for the legalization of drugs, which he supports. I

don't support the full legalization of drugs, but if dissemination of

Doblin's work helps quell the antidrug hysteria in this country, so

much the better.



My own children are learning about illicit drugs from public-service

advertisements aired during Saturday-morning cartoon shows, thus

whetting their interest in the forbidden fruit of which their parents

partook. Some drugs are dangerous and are properly outlawed.  Other

controlled substances provide medical benefits. As the aging hipsters

might say: It's time to get real about drugs.



Alex Beam is a Globe Columnist.



..............................







  DATE      890922

  AUTHOR    McKenna, Terence

  TITLE     Plan plant planet. (Special Section: Plants as Teachers)

  SOURCE    Whole Earth Review n64 p5(7) 1989 Fall

  SUBJECT   Plants and civilization--study and teaching

            Botany--philosophy

            Hallucinogenic plants--history

  GRAPHICS  photograph



  DATE      890922

  AUTHOR    Rheingold, Howard

  TITLE     Ethnobotany and the search for vanishing knowledge. (Special

            Section: Plants as Teachers)

  SOURCE    Whole Earth Review n64 p16(8) 1989 Fall

  SUBJECT   Ethnobotany--study and teaching

            Plants and civilization--study and teaching

            Hallucinogenic plants--study and teaching

            Shamanism--study and teaching

  GRAPHICS  photograph





..............................





LSDCREAT.TXT follows this line:





(Originally printed in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Vol 21(1),

Jan-Mar 1989. Note: every word in the text, omitting the

References-section, beginning with a slash, i.e. /word, is to be

printed in cursive font.)





LSD and Creativity

------------------





Oscar Janiger, M.D. (Department of Psychiatry, University of

California, Irvine, California)



Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Pd. D. (Department of Anthropology, California

State University, Fullerton, California)





The effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on creativity were

examined in a unique experiment in the late 1950's. In this project,

artists were asked to draw and paint a Kachina doll both prior to and

one hour after the ingestion of LSD. Evaluations of these artistic

productions were analyzed by a professor of art history in order to

investigate the impact of LSD on artistic creativity. Certain

representative changes were found in the artists' predominant style.

The most significant change was noted in those artists whose styles

were intrinsically representational or abstract to more

expressionistic or nonobjective. Other changes noted included the

following: relative size expansion; involution; movement; alteration

of figure/ground and boundaries;greater intensity of color and light;

oversimplification; symbolic and abstract depiction of objects; and

fragmentation, disorganization, and distortion. Many artists judged

their LSD productions to be more interesting and aesthetically

superior to their usual mode of expression. The above-mentioned

changes contributed to heir usual mode of expression. The

above-mentioned changes contributed to the artists' convictions that

they were fashioning new meanings to an emergent world.





The eminent novelist Aldous Huxley has written that the twentieth

century may well be remembered for the impact of hallucinogens on

society. One of the issues debated regarding the use of these drugs,

particularly lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), is that they may

heighten creative capacity in the individual. There is a large and

often-cited literature of self-reports by such drug users concerning

their perceived enchanced creativiness. In addition, there are a

number of anthropological accounts that relate the use of

mind-altering ethnobotanical substances to artistic inspiration and

productivity. Objective analysis of these data is difficult, although

there is certainly a need for their systematic examination and

evaluation.



Capturing the elusive elements of a creative act is like trying to

weigh a pound of leaping mice. Janiger and his colleagues were

fortunate to have been present when several mice seemed to hit the

scale at the same time. This opportunity came during the course of a

large clinical project that was begun by Janiger in the spring of

1955, with the cooperation of the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corporation.



Many papers had been published prior to that time regarding the unique

properties of LSD. The several clinical reports were almost all of

psychiatrically ill subjects in hospital settings, and little was

known about the effects of LSD on normal subjects in a controlled

nonmedical environment. Janiger designed a series of experiments to

study the behavioral and psychological effects of LSD in a varied

population of human subjects in a natural setting. This was done at a

time when the investigational use of the drug was legally permissible,

its clinical testing selectively encouraged among researchers, and no

public knowledge of LSD was generally available. By the close of the

project, more than 2,000 administrations of the drug had been given to

848 people who reported their experiences.



Candidates were selected from a large number of applicants on the

basis of health and demographic factors, such as ethinicity, religion,

age, sex, marital status, occupation and education. Two settings were

provided: One was a comfortable living room and the other was an

artist's studio, with facilities for painting, drawing, and sculpting.

An adjoining garden was also accessible. The subjects were given LSD

(2,5 ug/kg of body weight) and were unobtrusively monitored during the

period of heightened drug activity. They were encouraged to provide a

written account of their experiences as soon as they were able. In

addition, one-month and one-year follow-up questionnaires were

submitted by 70 percent of the participants.



The art subproject began serendipitously when one of the early

subjects, a practicing professional artist, insisted om having some

object to draw. A decorative and colorful Deer Kachina (see front

cover) taken from the mantel of Janiger's office proved to be a

fortuitous choice. The artist drew furiously and later exclaimed.

"This is four years of art school!" He felt that it would be most

insightful for other artists to experience this process of perceptual

change. It was decided to pursue this concept, and a separate art

project was formed. By the close of the study, almost seventy

practicing professional artists had participated under controlled

conditions.



This preliminary article will examine the corpus of artwork produced

by these artists who drew and painted the Kachina doll both prior to

and on ehour after ingestion of a prescribed dose of LSD (see Plate

1). Additional data were obtained on several occasions from artists

who chose to draw self-portraits or their internalized imaginery.

Whether these transformations represent enchancement or deterioration

of the artistic product is a question to which this study of

LSD-created art may provide a tentative answer. Aside from occasional

presentations at professional meetings and some partial exhibitions of

the artwork, this research material has not been previously published.





LITERATURE REVIEW



The research literature on LSD and creativity is scant. The little

information that is available is either inconclusive or the

measurements used lacked sensitivity to the issue. Six studies were

undertaken to examine the subject of hallucinogenic drugs and creative

performance. Most were pilot studies rather than full-scale

investigations. Berlin and colleagues (1955) investigated the effects

of mescaline (400-700 mg)and LSD (50 ug) on four graphic artists of

national prominence. They found impairment of fingertapping efficiency

and muscular stediness; however, all were able to complete paintings.

A panel of art critics judged the paintings as having "greater

aesthetic value" than the artists' usual works, with the lines bolder

and the use of color more vivid. However, technical execution in the

material was somewhat impaired.



In another study, Barron (1963: 284) administered psilocybin to a

number of highly creative individuals and recorded their impressions.

He concluded that "psilocybin dissolves many definitions and melts

away boundaries, permitting greater intensities or more extreme values

of experience to occur in many dimensions."



In 1967, McGlothlin, Cohen and McGlothlin studied seventy-two graduate

students, each of whom volunteered to receive 200 ug of LSD. A number

of crativity tests were given before the session and one week later.

The main finding was that 62 percent of the subjects asserted that

they had a greater appreciation of music. They purchased more record

albums, visited art museums, and attended musical events more

frequently in the postdrug period. The authors concluded that the

increase in aesthic appreciation was not accompanied by an increase in

sensitivity and performance.



Zegans, Pollard and Brown (1967) investigated the effects of LSD (0.5

ug/kg) on creativity test scores of thirty volunteer graduate students.

The indices of creativity showed that the administration of LSD to a

random sample, for the purpose of enchancing creativity, is not likely

to be successful.



The fifth study, which was conducted by Fadiman and colleagues (1966),

examined the effects of mescaline (200 mg) as a facilitating agent in

the creative process. Subjective reports culled from the participants'

responses yielded the following: the increased capacity to restructure

a problem in a larger context, an enchanced fluency of ideas, a

heightened capacity for visual imaginery, an increased ability to

concentrate, a greater accessibility of unconscious material, and an

ability to associate dissimilar ideas and to visualize the completed

solution. About half the subjects reported that they had accomplished

a great deal more during the session than they usually did. Twenty

percent were not able to concentrate on their project because they

were diverted by the hallucinogenic effectsm, and 30 percent fell in

between the two groups.



As Krippner (1969) has pointed out, two of the five studies that were

cited above indicate that experimental LSD use in unselected graduate

students does not seem to increase their creative ability. However, in

the three remaining studies utilizing hallucinogenic drugs, an

enchancement of creative ability among artistic individuals was

demonstrated. In 1967, Krippner surveyed ninety-one artists reputed to

have had one or more LSD-like experiences. He defined the psychedelic

artist as one whose work was produced during an LSD experience or as

the result of the influence of a psychedelic experience. Ninety-seven

percent of Krippner's respondents stated that their art was influenced

in three general areas: content, technique, and approach. Seventy

percent stated that their experiences affected the content of their

work, particularly the heightening of eidetic imaginery. Fortu-four

percent noted improvement in their techniques; the use of color was

the most cited example. As for the creative approach, 52 percent of

the artists stated that the experience eliminated superficiality from

their work and gave them greater depth as people and as creators.



Cohen (1964) wrote that whether LSD does or does not increase

creativity remains an open question. Certainly, no systematic research

to date has been available to help in finding an answer. All that can

be definittively said about the effect of hallucinogens on the

creative process is that a strong subjective feeling of creativiness

accompanies many of the experiences.





ANALYSIS OF THE ARTWORK



During the seven years of the experiment, 250 drawings and paintings

were produced. These were examined by Carl Hertel, professor of art

history at Pitzer College, Claremont, California, who undertook a

stylistic assessment of the artwork. An inherent difficulty of this

formal analysis was the wide range of individual stylistic tendencies

charasteristic of the works of contemporary Western artists. Hertel

has stated that "it is probably simpler to formally analyze the work

of any tribal group where definite traditional stylistic conventions

are operative than our task here. A heterogeneous group of

non-traditional artists in this study reflects the numerous

conventions that characterize post-Renaissance art in the West."



When the results are examined in light of the many stylistic

tendencies in twentieth-century paintings - such as expressionistic,

abstract-expressionistic, and nonobjective works of art - at a glance,

it is difficult to separate the drug-influenced works from the

historic examples. There is a striking homogeneity of stylistic

effect. One is also tempted to compare certain of the drug-incluenced

drawings with examples of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist works by a traditional

Chinese and Japanese artists and to observe equally striking stylistic

similarities.



There may be some bias in the individual attitudes related to the

drug-taking experience. Some of the artists were content with quick

sketches of the subject matter presented, while others were motivated

to execute rather finished drawings and paintings. A more ideal

research design, which was not available to the study, would have been

to conduct longitudinal studies of individual artists before and after

the experimental period. Some of the most significant data and

impressions received in dealing with these particular paintings and

drawings will now be reviewed.



A Deer Kachina series, consisting of fifty-six items of

before-and-after samples of twenty artists, was selected for detailed

analysis. Twenty-five items by eight artists were labeled /series and

represented /free paintings and drawings during the experimental

period. They comprised a wide variety of subject matter, including

self-portrait series, random drawings, and paintings. Of the

eighty-one items, seventy-three were paintings done in various media

and eight were drawings.





RESULTS



This section summarizes the results of the formal analysis of the Deer

Kachina series, which were classified under the following eight

categories:

	1. Dominant style - whether the work was predominantly

	abstract, representational or of another genre.

	2. Compositional charasteristics - whether the composition was

	architectonic, a vignette or of another form.

	3. Linear charasteristics - whether the quality of line was

	nervous, angular, curvilinear of another form.

	4. Stroke charasteristics - whether the predominant stroking

	was short and broad, broken, flat field or another technique.

	5. Textural charasteristics - whether the predominant textural

	quality was a heavy impasto (actual), illusionistic or another

	format.

	6. Color charasteristics - whether color was noticeably local,

	arbitrary, brilliant, muted or otherwise portrayed.

	7. Value charasteristics - whether the use of lights and darks

	was strong in contrasts, close value or another blend.

	8. Dimensional charasteristics - whether the nature of the

	drawing and/or painting was suggestive of volume and mass,

	flat, two dimensional or otherwise presented.



The most predominant changes were in the following categories:

dominant style (1); color (6); line (3); and texture (5), in that

order. Focusing on the representative changes in the dominant style

category (1), three general stylistic tendencies in the pre-LSD state

were represented in the Deer Kachina series. First, ten of the artists

were classifiable as predominantly representational in their approach

to the subject matter (i.e., their primary motive lay in representing

the object as it presents itself to the eye). Of course, there was a

great deal of individual variation within this style category, as well

as withing the other two.



Four of these ten changed their style under the influence of the drug

to a noticeably expressionist one (i.e., their primary motive lay in

alterations of form, color, line, and medium). Within this group, the

major tendency was to radically distort stroke, and therefore medium

and form. Image was retained in varying degrees. Three changed their

style to a nonobjective one (i.e., image was lost and was replaced by

an interest in color and personal symbolism). One artist changed to a

predominantly abstract style (i.e., the primary motive lay in the

reduction of forms or simplification of forms and formal elements

generally). In this case, the focus was shifted to a single part of

the Deer Kachina. It might be noted that reduction is a charasteristic

of this Kachina's style, but the reduction utilized by the artist and

those in the category below exceeded what might be considered to be

within the realm of naturalistic representation.



Second, six of the artists were classifiable as predominantly abstract

in their approach to subject matter. Of these six, three changed their

style to a nonobjective one; two changed their style to being notably

expressionist and engaged in radical distortions of composition and

color; and on eretained an essentially abstract style.



Third, two artists were classifiable as distinctly expressionistic in

their approach to subject matter. In both cases, the predominant

stylistic tendency was retained. However, changes in articulation of

various formal elements, particularly line, were observable.



In summary, eight of the changes were to an essentially

expressionistic style. Six were to a nonobjective one, which in many

cases entailed expressionistic distortions of medium and color. In

fact, on ecan state that fourteen of the cahnges were to a style in

which the primary motive alteration of the representational image. Two

of the changes were to a predominantly abstract style. Two other

changes were ambiguous and unclassifiable. The changes generally

manifested were as follows: There was a movement toward alteration and

fragmentation; the /enlargement of the composition through focusing on

parts rather than the whole, and with filling up the page;

intensification of color; the /loosening /up of the line to either a

chiefly curvilinear (flowing) or sharply angular motive; and a general

intensification of the textural properties of the medium used.



These results are not surprising. One could suggest tentatively that

although the work done under the influence of LSD was more interesting

on a sensational level, it was not immediately clear that the

individual artist - in the majority of cases - was able to produce

aesthetically superior work during the period when the drug was

operable. To be more spesific, in a majority of cases a residual

imprint of the artist's aesthetic preferences was retained. This was

especially evident in choice of color and in technical facility. In

those cases where technical proficiency appeared deficient in the

pre-LSD state, a certain increase in articulateness (confidence) was

noted due to the freedom apparently provided by the drug experience.





PERCEPTUAL CHANGES



The most commonly reported phenomena resulting from an LSD experience

and having particular relevance to this question of creativity were

greater freedom from prescribed mental sets and syntactical

organization, an unusual wealth of associations and images,

synesthesia, the sharpening of color perception, remarkable attention

to detail, the accessibility of past impressions, memories, heightened

emotional excitement, a sense of direct and intrinsic awareness, and

the propensity for the environment to compose itself into perfect

tableaux and harmonious compositions.



The data from this study and others by Janiger (1959a, 1959b) seem to

support the thesis that the evidence from LSD-induced artwork reveals

perceptual changes indicative of those generally gound under the

influence of hallucinogenic drugs. The powerful global statement of

the artists' work bears witness to these perceptual transformations.

They can be examined at will and serve as a prototype of the visual

record of consciousness changes accompanying the creative process.



As evidenced by this study, the alterations in perception can be

categorized as follows:

	1. Relative size expansion - the figure tends to fill all

	available space and shows difficulty being contained within

	its borders.

	2. Involution - obecjts shrink down or fill less space; they

	become more compact or are imbedded in a matrix.

	3. Alteration of figure/ground - or to a circular viewpoint.

	4. Alteration of boundaries - figure and ground may be

	considered a continuum. The object tends to merge with the

	surroundings, with observer and observed not rigorously

	delineated, with less differential between the object and the

	subject.

	5. Movement - the object or environment is in continuous

	movement, with greater vibrancy and emotion.

	6. Greater intensity of color and light.

	7. Oversimplification - elimination of detail and extraneous

	elements.

	8. Objects may be depicted symbolically - or as essences.

	9. Objects are depicted as abstractions.

	10. Fragmentation and disorganization.

	11. Distortion.





CONCLUSION



Contrary to popular belief, most artists find it possible to exercise

some technical proficiency, with varying degrees of success, under the

influence of LSD. This seems to improve with repeated experiences. The

artistic productions are not ipso facto inferior to those performed in

ordinary states of consciousness. However, in evaluating the reports

and follow-up questionnaires, they are often judged by the artists to

be more interesting or even aesthetically superior to their usual mode

of expression. A review of the follow-up information shows that, in

many instances, the artist in the series described herein felt that

the LSD experience pruduced some desirable lasting change in their

understanding of their work, which continued to incluence the form and

direction of their artistic development. A so-called confusional or

disorganized phase may represent a creative crisis in which the artis

struggling, to maintain his/her traditional approach, finally reaches

another level of integration and expression.



These metamorphoses all contribute to the artists' convictions that

they are able to create new meanings in an emergent world. It is of

special interest to note that many of those elements that are

universally reported under the influence of LSD are those features

traditionally associated with heightened artistic creativity. The

ultiamte explanation for these changes may lie in a biochemical basis

of perception and/or the cultural history of the individual.





ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS



The authors wish to acknowledge the asistance of Virginia D. Berg, M.

A., in the preparation and editing of this article.





REFERENCES



Barron, F. 1963. Creativity and Psychological Health. Princeton, New

Jersey: Van Nostrand.



Berlin, L.M.; Guthrie, T.; Weider, A.; Goodell, H. & Wolff, H.G. 1955.

Studies in human cerebral function: The effects of mescaline and

lysergic acid on cerebral process pertinent to creative activity.

Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Vol 122: 487-491.



Cohen, S. 1964. The Beyond Within: The LSD Story. New york: Atheneum.



Fadiman, J.W.; Harman, H.W.; McKim, R.H.; Mogar, R.E.; & Stolaroff,

M.Y. 1966. Psychedelic agents in creative problem solving: A pilot

study. Psychological Reports Monograph Vol. 19 (Suppl. 2): 211-227.



Janiger, O. 1959a. The use of hallucinogenic agents in psychiatry.

California Clinician Vol.56:193-200.



Janiger, O. 1959b. The use of hallucinogenic agents psychiatry.

California Clinician Vol. 55: 222-224.



Krippner, S. 1969. The psychedelic state, the hypnotic trance and the

creative act. In: Tart, C. (Ed.) Altered States of Consciousness. New

York: John Wiley & Sons.



McGlothlin, W.H.; Cohen, S. & McGlothlin, M.S. 1967. Long lasting

effects of LSD on normals. Archives of General Psychiatry Vol. 17(5):

521-532.



Zegans, L.S.; Pollard, J.C. & Brown, D. 1967. The effects of LSD-25 on

creativity and tolerance to regression. Archives of General Psychiatry

Vol 16: 740-740.



..............................



>From the sci.med archives:



Migraines are severe headaches which are caused by dilatation of

blood vessels in the scalp and meninges (the brain itself is

insensitive to pain).  They are throbbing, often unilateral.

At or before onset of the pain, many people will have neurologic symptoms.

These may be caused by spasm of vessels or by electrical disturbances

in the brain (spreading activation).  EEG at this time may be abnormal.

The most common of these symptoms are visual, such as sparkling lights off to

the side (scintillating scotomas), colored jaggy lines (fortification spectra),

or blind spots that sometimes expand.  Occassionally, retinal migraine

can cause total loss of vision in one eye.  Some patients will have

numbness of the face or extremities, often progressing from foot to

arm to face or in reverse (usually on one side of the body only).

Some will have weakness, speech disturbance, or confusion.  Vertigo

is another common complaint.  These symptoms typically last 10-20

minutes.   Patients with neurologic symptoms are said to

have "classic migraine".  Common migraine may appear without such prodromes.

Blurred vision is very common with all types of migraine.  Usually,

the patient with migraine is photophobic (light hurts their eyes),

and will seek to lie down in a dark room, often with an icepack or

cool cloth on their head.  They are irritable and don't like to be

bothered at this stage.  Nausea is usually present, and vomiting may

occur.  The scalp is sore and combing the hair may be painful.  Pressure

on the temples may temporarily help the pain.  If the patient can

sleep, the pain is usually better on awakening.  The headache usually

lasts a few hours.  Sometimes, it can last days.  The frequency of

the headaches varies from every year or two to daily.  Most sufferers

have one or two per month.  Females are much more likely to have

migraine, which usually abate after menopause.  Migraines are

hereditary.  Certain foods and medications can provoke migraines.

Patients with migraine should first make a food diary to determine

if any food appears commonly in the 24 hours prior to the migraine

attack.  Such foods should be eliminated if necessary.  Chocolate,

cheese, wine, beer, nuts, and fruits are often the culprits.  Birth

control pills should be eliminated if they are being taken.  Certain

nitrates such as nitroglycerine and isosorbide are notorious provokers

of migraine.  Calcium channel blockers and theophylline are also guilty

in some.  Change in sleeping time and stress can cause a migraine.

Treatment depends on the frequency of migraines and is pharmacologic.

If migraines are less than weekly, and especially if there is a prodrome,

the vasoconstrictor ergot preparations are useful.  The ergot is most

effective sublingually or as a suppository (so it can't be vomited up) and

should be taken at the earliest sign of the prodrome.  Doses can be repeated

half-hourly up to 6mg per day and 12mg per week.  Dosages above this can

lead to overconstriction of small vessels in the periphery and should

not be taken.  This medicine has been used for hundreds of years, and

if the above caution is respected, is safe.  Midrin works like

the ergots and is an alternative.   If the migraines are

too frequent to use ergots, daily doses of propranolol (a beta blocker)

are effective in about 60% of people.  Usually 80mg or above daily

are needed.  Depression and malaise are the most common side effects

which prevent its use.  Tricyclic anti-depressants are very effective

on a daily basis.  50mg of amytriptilene nightly is the usual dose.

If the patient gets too drowsy with these, Prozac may be effective also.

Women who have migraines only during menses may benefit from tiny

doses of ergot (0.2mg tid) taken only at that time of month.  Those

who don't respond to propranolol or tricyclics may also benefit from

chronic small dose ergots.  Methysergide, a serotonin inhibitor

is also very effective, but can only be given for 6 months at a time

because of fibrotic side effects.  Cyproheptadine is another serotonin

inhibitor that is less effective but safer.  Lithium is effective,

but difficult to administer.  Fiorinal is a good migraine remedy, but

may be habit forming if taken on a daily basis.  It is good for the

occassional migraine sufferer, especially if taken early on in the attack.

Phenobarbital is also effective and is sometimes preferred by pediatricians.

In my experience, most migraineurs can be brought under control if

one is patient enough to search for the proper regimen.







..............................



This was sent to me for anonymous post.  This is a pretty good procedure, but

the author asked me to add his recommendation that anyone who wishes to grow

mushrooms of any kind consult a secondary source of information, such as the

book he mentions, or _PSILOCYBIN: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide_.  Of course

these books deal with contraband, illegal, evil, satanic hallucinogenic

mushrooms, but the information they contain can also be used to grow other

strains, and if you use one of these books to grow your morels, you should

definitely ignore the information they contain about those unAmerican

psilocybes, cuz if you don't you may just turn into an free-thinking liberal

commie pinko long hair drug abusing rebelious hippie (TM).



I didn't proofread this, so any inaccuracies or mistakes are unknown to me.

To flame the writer, copy your comments to /dev/null.



============================ BEGIN ANONYMOUS POST ==========================



Well here it is, all I know about growing psychedelic mushrooms...

This information was taken from a book in the rare books collection at the

University of Texas at Austin entitled "Magic Mushroom Cultivation", published

in 1977 and written by (the name escapes me).  Anyway, I have used the rice-

cake method described below, and am currently growing my third batch, which

has turned out some pretty potent mushrooms!  I feel the need to mention that

I'm giving you this information for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, and I don't

expect you or anyone else to actually undertake any of the techniques I will

describe below, for to do so may violate certain laws--and I wouldn't give you

this information if I thought you might do something illegal.



Before I describe the technique I use, I'd like to say that there are many

methods of growing 'shrooms, some more difficult than others, and I am simply

presenting the method which has worked well for me:  never had a dud batch--

they've always fruited readily, and I've never poisoned myself or others with

contaminated 'shrooms.



*******************************************************************************

                      HOW TO GROW PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOMS

*******************************************************************************



Materials Needed:



- a sporeprint from a strain of psychedelic mushrooms.

    (make sure it's the real thing, and that it's not contaminated with dust

     or anything!)



- a pressure cooker, pref. 17 qt. (liquid) capacity.

    (this is the most expensive item, but it's a necessity.  Borrow, rent,

     buy, or steal one.)



- one dozen (or more) new mason jars, 1 quart size, pref. wide mouthed,

  with lids.



- a box/bag of brown rice--not white rice and not long-grain.  Use a decent

  quality brand...i find that Comet brand SUCKS! Do not use it.



- something to scrape the spores off the print into the jar... You want

  something like a stiff metal wire with a handle, so you can heat the end

  red hot in a flame to sterilize it without burning your fingers.  I find

  that a probe from a Biology dissection kit works wonderfully.



- a flame source.  An alcohol lamp is not hard to make out of a small jar

  filled with rubbing alcohol, with a cotton ball as a wick.  I suppose you

  could just use a lighter, but i prefer making an alcohol lamp--just make

  sure you don't burn your place down!!



- a clean place with a relatively constant temp. between 60-78 degrees to

  store your jars.  ( I made up the temperature range )  Closet shelves are

  fine, in my experience.  You want a place that's pretty dust/bug free,

  but you don't want the storage area to be airtight, as shrooms do have to

  breathe just like any other living organism.  Many books recommend making

  some kind of superclean box to store the jars in, but I've never bothered

  with that.  Most sources of information on growing 'shrooms (this one, too)

  stress that everything be AS STERILE AS POSSIBLE.  However, if you do have

  to cut a few corners you should still be successful if you just USE YOUR HEAD!



which leads me to the....



- optional materials:  germ-killing soap for washing hands, alcohol for

  sterilizing hands, etc.,  surgical gloves, dust masks, hair-nets, an

  air-filtering machine (Pollenex?), a couple gallon jugs of distilled water.

  (As you can see, this is all stuff which will help to make things a bit

   more sterile--definetly recommended!)



PROCEDURE (finally!)



This is the procedure I follow for the rice-cake method of propagating

psychedelic mushrooms.  I use this method for a number of reasons.  One is

that my first ever batch consisted of 6 jars of manure medium and 6 of the

brown rice medium, I found the rice cakes produced more 'shrooms, and for

a longer period of time than did the manure-filled jars.  Rice has obvious

advantages in that it's easy to obtain--no trekking thru a pasture looking

for fresh cow-shit!  Also, the manure stinks like hell when cooked in the

pressure cooker!  Perhaps the biggest advantage to the rice cake method is

that when the rice cake no longer produces crops of 'shrooms (2-3 mos.),

you can actually CONSUME THE RICE CAKE ITSELF!!  Given, of course, that you

detect no contaminants on the rice cake (molds or bacteria).  When mushroom

growth stops, the rice cake can provide a trip for 2-4 people.  See the end

of this article for methods of ingesting mushrooms/rice cakes...



PROCEDURE ( i promise! )



1.  Turn off the air-conditioner in the place you're going to do this...It is

very important to work in a draft-free area.  Turning the A/C off will allow

the dust in the room to settle (incl. the heavier mold spores which can

contaminate your rice-cake medium. )



2.  Set up the pressure cooker, make sure you read the manual if you have one.

You don't want the damn pressure cooker exploding, or anything like that...

Wash out the pressure cooker for good measure, and also wash the jars and lids.

I wouldn't use a towel to dry them out, though, you'll just wipe germs & dust

back on 'em.



3.  Wash yourself, too.  It's recommended that you wear a long sleeved shirt,

and to pull your hair back or wear a cap or hair-net.  I don't think that the

dust mask would be nec. at this point, maybe later, though...



4.  For each quart-size mason jar, add 1/4 cup brown rice, and 1/3-1/2 cup water

I use the distilled water that you can buy in any grocery store--I don't trust

tap water.  Fill 6 or 7 jars with this mixture, as many as will fit into your

pressure cooker without stacking or jamming them in there.  Place the lids on

the jars, with the rubber UP, and leave the lids very loose.



5.  Place the jars on the bottom rack of the pressure cooker.  I recommend using

the rack, that way the jars won't tip and spill as the water boils around them.

Also keeps them from breaking from the heat of the burner directly below them.

For a 17 quart pressure cooker, add about 3 quarts of water, but not so much

that the jars start to tip over too much from floating.  Again, I use distilled

water for this.



6.  Now, follow the directions for sealing the pressure cooker.  Some recommend

that you rub a dab of cooking oil on the seal, so that it seals properly and

is easier to close and open.  Do it right. Do it by the book.  Turn the stove

on high and cook the jars for 1 hour AFTER the pressure reaches 15 lbs. inside

the cooker.  LET THE PRESSURE COOKER COOL BEFORE OPENING!  Also, don't try to

rush the cooling process.



7.  Just before opening the pr. cooker, wash up again, maybe use rubbing alcohol

or surgical gloves.  Now is the time for dust masks (although I usu. use my

shirt to keep from breathing germs on the jars).  Long sleeves and a hat or

whatever is recommended because literally millions of germs are falling off

your body at any given moment.  Sterility and the absence of drafts are of

utmost importance from here on out...



8.  Open the pressure cooker and let the jars cool until they're pretty close

to room temp.  You may want to tighten the lids a bit so air/germs can't

contaminate the rice cakes.  When the jars cool off some, you're ready to go...



9.  Heat your wire loop/probe/whatever until it is GLOWING RED.  Put on your

dust mask or pull your shirt up over your nose and mouth.



10.  Lift the lid off the jar and set it down on a sterile surface, with the

inside face down.



11. Get out your sporeprint and hold it over the open jar at an acute angle.

Use the sterilized wire loop/probe to gently scrape and tap the sporeprint to

get the spores down onto the rice cake.  If you can see the dark specks fall

onto the rice, you've done it sufficiently--anything you can see is probably

a few hundred thousand spores.  A sporeprint the size of a nickel can EASILY

innoculate a dozen jars.



12.  Screw on the jar's lid tightly and shake the jar until the rice cake

breaks up, this will allow the spores to spread throughout the rice medium,

thus increasing the chances for success.  Next, unscrew the lid until it almost

comes off-- this allows for air to get into the jar.  I usu. just screw the lid

on about 3/4 of a turn--just enough where it won't fall off easily.



13.  When you've done this for all your jars, just put the jars in a safe,

clean place with a fairly steady temp., a dark place is OK.  In 3 days-2 weeks

you should see white, fluffy mycelia appear--looks like white fuzz.  Any other

color of fuzz (green, black, etc.) is mold, and the jar should be disposed of.

I'm not kidding about this!  Certain contaminants, molds in particular, can

cause illness or even death if you ingest the contaminated 'shrooms.  It's

better to be safe than sorry, believe me.  Also be on the lookout for bacterial

infections of the rice medium.  These will often appear as colored (orange or

pink) runny or clammy looking gunk in with the rice. These should be thrown out

immediately as well.  Bacterial infections may also give off a kind of putrid

odor, but of course you should not be taking the lids off the jars at all at

this stage.  Now, the rice itself will get very soft as a result of the pressure

cooking, and the initial shaking of the jar may smear gel-looking gunk all over

the insides of the jar.  But by comparing with the rest of the jars you should

be able to tell the difference between this gunk and a bacterial infection.

Like I said before, JUST USE YOUR HEAD!!



14.  This is not actually another step because you're done!  Just sit back and

wait for nature to take its course!  Shrooms are pretty much maintenance-free

until fruiting starts to occur.  It should take anywhere from 2 weeks to 1 month

for the mycelia to completely permeate the rice medium, then it will start

getting these stringy looking or fan shaped runners in the white fuzzy growth.

Mushroom formation is not far off, and the jars should be getting a couple of

hours of light per day--fluorescent is OK, and natural sunlight is superb, just

make sure the jars don't get too warm.  Of course at all stages be on the

lookout for any possible contaminants in the mycelia.  By the way, as the

mycelia mature, they may start staining blue, due to bruising, I think--so

don't mistake this for a mold infection, but keep a close eye on any change in

color from the white coloring.  The 'shrooms first appear as tiny white pinheads

and then they will darken (in P. cubensis) to a lovely reddish brown.

When the 'shrooms are growing the lids on the jars should be very loose.

Also, mushrooms grow best in an environment with a humidity of over 90%, so if

you think that your 'shrooms may need a more moist environment, one thing to do

is to simply use a spray bottle to spray boiled or distilled water directly onto

the lids of the jars.  I find that the moisture condenses inside the jars and

runs down the inside of the jars, moisturizing the mycelia.  You don't want

things TOO wet, however, as this will promote mold/bacteria growth.  Another

possible method is to replace the lids with a double layer of paper towel

which is misted daily--although I would think that not having an actual lid

on the jar would invite contamination.  Just my personal preference.  It is

important that air exchange takes place in the storage area--this becomes

more important as fruiting occurs, as the mycelia gives off CO2 and needs O2.



HARVESTING:



'Shrooms are "ripe" as soon as the white membrane connecting the cap to the

stem has broken somewhat, although you don't want to pick them before they have

reached their full size!  To harvest an individual mushroom, wash your hands

well--I usu. use rubbing alcohol, too.  Then take the lid off the jar and grasp

the mushroom firmly near the base.  You may need to use a pair of sterilized

tweezers to do this, which is what I usu. do--I avoid placing germy hands

inside the jars.  A brisk twisting motion will help to free the 'shroom from

the mycelia.





STORAGE AND METHODS OF INGESTION:



Avoid crushing fresh mushrooms.  The blue staining that is common in psychedelic

mushrooms is evidence of oxidation--meaning that the active ingredients

(psilocin and psilocybin) are being oxidized, too--rendering the 'shrooms

inactive.  While refrigeration is recommended, freezing fresh mushrooms should

be avoided, since the expansion of the freezing water in the cells ruptures the

cell walls and thus opens them up for oxidation.  Mushrooms that were frozen

while fresh may be an attractive blue color, but they are inactive....

Storage of fresh mushrooms should be in a breathable container such as a paper

bag stored in a refrigerator, avoid putting fresh 'shrooms in a ziploc bag, as

they may become slimy--ugh!  I have heard of people also storing fresh shrooms

by chopping them up and mixing them into honey--the 'shroom honey is then spread

on bread or whatever and eaten.

I have not had good experiences with drying mushrooms, although there are a

couple ways to do it.  One is by placing them on a cookie sheet in an oven on

the lowest temp. with the door slightly open.  Sun drying will also work.

My main problem with dried shrooms is that in my experience they are only about

half as potent as fresh 'shrooms.  I believe the reason for this is that the

two psychoactive ingredients (psilocin and psilocybin) are present in equal

amounts in fresh shrooms.  BUT, psilocin is an unstable compound compared to

psilocybin, and breaks down readily when exposed to heat and oxygen.  The

normal dosage for dried shrooms is 2 - 5 grams, dried.  But I have never

had a "trip" from dried shrooms--only with the fresh stuff.  I ate 4 grams once

and only got a buzz--like being stoned or drunk.

So, I like my shrooms fresh, and of course, I have that luxury since I grow my

own.  Whether they are dried or fresh, there are many interesting ways to take

them.  My current favorite method is to blend fresh ones in a blender with

orange juice--the effects are fantastic!  I believe due in part to the fact

that the shrooms are almost completely liquefied by the blending process,

releasing the "good stuff" into the orange juice and making it more readily

absorbed by the stomach.  Another good method, one which I have used to eat the

rice cakes, was to chop the rice cake (or shrooms), and brown them for JUST

a few seconds in butter before pouring in an omelete mixture.  Mushroom

omeletes!! Not only a meal, but a good trip, and a tasty way to ingest the

shrooms!  (I happen to dislike the taste of shrooms by themselves)  Yet another

method of taking shrooms is to make a milkshake in a blender, and add the

shrooms, you can make kind of a "strawberry smoothie" in this way.  Another

way is to boil the shrooms, fresh or dried (or a rice cake) in a couple cups of

water for about 15 minutes, and then either add a tea bag for hot tea, or

make Kool-Aid with the cooled water (straining out the shrooms, of course).

Sprinking fresh or dried shrooms (chopped) onto pizza, or into spaghetti sauce

is another treat--fun for a "shroom party".  Since psilocin and psilocybin are

soluble in both water and alcohol, soaking shrooms in any liquor will release

these active ingredients into the liquor, making for a powerfully intoxicating

liquor a la' the way an "Emerald Dragon" is made with marijuana...

I have tried smoking a couple dried shroom caps, but only got the slightest buzz

from the VERY harsh smoke, no real effects to tell the truth.

I should mention again that once shroom production has really tapered off (and

you'll be able to tell) after 2 - 3 months, the rice cake can be eaten/used, if

you closely examine it and decide that there is no green or black mold

contaminant present.  I should note that the rice cake will probably be all

kinds of funky colors--a mix of white, steel blue, gray, maybe even purple in

places from spores falling on it!  I have ingested several scary-looking rice

cakes, however, with no ill effects.  A single rice cake is enough for 2 - 4

people to trip on, although 2 is probably the better figure.  Some of my best

trips were on half a rice cake chopped up and cooked in an omelete!  That's

what I love about the rice-cake method--when the shrooms stop growing there's

no waste!  Speaking of no waste, if I ever had a rice cake that I didn't

want to risk eating I might use it to innoculate a compost pile or a pasture

full of cow shit by inserting a small piece into each cow-pie or into the

compost pile...Wild mushrooms...Just something to think about.





MAKING SPORE-PRINTS:



This is really easy, just take a fresh shroom and gently twist the cap off away

from the stem.  Then place the cap, gills down, on a sterile card or piece of

glass.  Cover the cap and card with a clean, small container to keep drafts

from blowing the spores away, and to prevent dust/contaminants from settling on

the card/glass.  I usu. use a small juice glass for this purpose.  Leave the

covered 'shroom cap on the card/glass overnight and, voila!  I suggest folding

the card the next day and keeping it in an airtight container (sm. ziploc bag)

in a refrigerator.  I have been told that spore prints will keep for up to a

year in an airtight refrigerated (not frozen) environment.  From personal

experience I know that they last at least 3 months.



..............................





In the middle 80's I had obtained a copy of Stafford's Psychedelic

Encyclopedia and read the description of 5-MeO-DMT.  It didn't sound

as fun as other mind drugs (eg, lsd) but the book said it was legal

and different.  (like having elephants dance on your head...)



So, I made up a company and used a quasi-safe address and money order,

and bought 250 mg from A******h chemical co.  They called and wanted to

make sure that it was for "laboratory use only".  I assured them it

was, so they were off the hook.



The first time I tried it, I was frozen with my pipe in hand.  It hits

within seconds and is like being thrown into the peak of a really

strong trip.  Thrown by being picked up and bounced on your head.

There was very momentary visual distortion ---like the visual world

was made of rubber being stretched at the center--- that lasted for

maybe half a second.  But the big effect is purely mental: you become

a catatonic psychotic for ten minutes.  Your body feels weird, you may

see a little of the acid-sheen on surfaces.  But mostly, everything

seems very strange and you sit there and wait for it to subside.  And

you're convinced you know what its like to be crazy, in a different

way than acid.  You don't talk for a minute after taking the hit.

You better sit down when you try it.



Note that this is different, though chemically related, to DMT, aka

'businenessman's trip', which is supposedly mostly visual.  Alas,

this poor monk has not tried that sacrament.  Born too late, I suspect.



The burnt chemical smells awful; use a disposable pipe, or clean it in water

after use.  Use a tiny amount ---maybe the amount of 3 grains of salt or so.

It either works or it doesn't; the dose-response curve is more like

a step-function than any other drug I know of.



There are no aftereffects evident, and you can talk to your parents

in half an hour.



It is the most potent demonstration of the physical basis of mind that

I know of.



I've let 3-4 people try it over the course of several years, (hi

Peter!) and the effects have been similar.  It is not ecstatic like

lsd, and after doing it, there is no great desire to repeat it soon

after.



The chemical is a constituent of various south american snuffs, which

contain other ingredients too.  It may also be a component of

cerebrospinal fluid.



..............................









LSD, MDMA, plus some other compounds are being used in Europe, legally,

as part of various psycholytic[*] therapies and research studies by

qualified investigators.  Newsletter #2 of the Albert Hofmann Foundation

focuses on psychedelic research in Europe and is being mailed now

( 14 pages and GROWING!!! ).  Here are only a few tidbits from Robert

Zanger's recent trip to Europe...



                             *  *  *



Jan Bastiaans of Leyden, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the

University of Leyden and former Director of the Psychoanalytic

Institute in Amsterdam, was the last researcher permitted to use LSD in

the Holland.  He reached the mandatory retirement age for Dutch

professors -- 70.



                             *  *  *



Hanscarl Leuner of West Germany ( Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at

the University of Gottingen ) is currently working with Ketamine and a

new empathogen ( an unidentified phenethylamine from Shulgin, twice the

activity of MDMA, and used at 50 mg. ).  Michael Schlichting is doing a

pilot study of the phenethylamine, as part of his doctoral thesis, and

initial neurotoxicity studies have found no neurotoxicity at normal

dosage levels.



Leuner's psycholytic clinic administers Ketamine in 3 intramuscular

injections, beginning in the morning, and spaced 90 minutes apart ( 1st

dose moderate, 2nd higher, 3rd lower again ).  The phenethylamine is

taken orally, usually in just one dose.  Patients have guides.



                             *  *  *



Milan Hausner of Prague, formerly Medical Director of Sadska Hospital,

has joined the Advisory Board of the A.H.F. and will be its first

scholar-in-residence.  Hausner will spend 6 months in the U.S. putting

together results from his 20 years experience with LSD in therapy.



Czechoslovakia even made their own LSD, Lysergamid-SPOFA, and supplied

it for 8 years after Sandoz halted production in 1966.



                             *  *  *



Albert Hofmann of Burg, just received is 3rd honorary doctorate from

the University of Bern ( biochemistry of ergot alkaloids ), and has

been talking a lot lately about the medical uses of LSD, plus

celebrating Sandoz's drug Hydergine.



                             *  *  *



Peter Baumann of Zurich, President of the Swiss Association of

Physicians for Psycholytic Therapy, brings some of the best news --

that permission was granted in Switzerland ( Office of Pharmaceuticals

and Narcotics, of the Department of Public Health of the Ministry of

the Interior ) for private practitioners to use LSD, psilocybin,

mescaline, and MDMA!  Baumann's group, however, is currently using only

LSD and MDMA, and the LSD is being synthesized at the University of

Bern.



Jorg Roth of Bern, Research Director for the Association, is setting up

a whole ward at Lindenhof Hospital to study the "therapeutic efficacy

of both LSD and MDMA", at the prompting of Swiss health officials.



George Ricaurte of Baltimore, MDMA researcher at Johns Hopkins

University, will be working with the Swiss Association.  Swiss subjects

will be donating spinal fluid ( before and after ) for Ricaurte's study

( currently illegal in the U.S. to collect such data... ).



                             *  *  *



If you're currently on the Foundation's mailing list, you should be

receiving the newsletter soon.  If you're not, write for information:



    The Albert Hofmann Foundation

    132 West Channel Road, Suite 324

    Santa Monica, CA  90402



[*]  European investigators seem to like the word "psycholytic", i.e.

     mind-dissolving, over the term "psychedelic", i.e. mind-manifesting.



P.S. The 4th Symposium of the European College for the Study of

     Consciousness is focusing on PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES AND ALTERED

     STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN RESEARCH AND THERAPY this December

     8th-10th ( 1989 ) in West Germany.



     European ethnopharmacologists are planning the FIRST INTERNATIONAL

     CONGRESS ON ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY for June 5th-9th ( 1990 ) in France.



     Write the Foundation or send e-mail for more details on these.







..............................







                             ENTHEOGENIC RESOURCES

                            =======================

                                  Spring 1991





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It seems to me that among the many positive benefits from drug use, especially

acid and to a lesser degree other hallucinagens is an enhanced appreciation of

beauty. That is finding aesthetically pleasing images that other people tend to

ignore or not appreciate. Things like enjoying the pattern of frost that forms

on a glass, or the lights of a city, or just the paterns formed on the inside of

our eyelids. This is not just limited to the periods when one is actually under

the effects of the substance. For example while driving into a city at night

with a mixed group of people, one of the persons in the car who occaisionally

uses acid was very taken with the image and described it in very poetic

picturesque words, without exception those who also used drugs were able to

sympathize and understand what the person was talking about. The rest of the

car just looked at them strangely. Or annother instant that comes to mind is

the time someone came in from outside very excited and told about how pretty

the lights shining off the frost on the cars in the parking lot looked, the

only people who went back out to look at this were those that had at some point

partaken of these psychoactives. Annother example is a time early in the

morning after a long night of talking and general togetherness, everyone was

sitting back with thier eyes closed and talking about the images that were

coming to thier mind, talking about what they could see in thier mind's eye,

and sharing it with the others there, going from one person to annother

around the room, the people who did drugs had visions that were remarkably more

detailed, vivid, and unusual. Further they could seem to relate to what the

otehr people wer describing better.



Let me emphasize that in none of these instances was anyone under the

influence of anything, this was merely their normal mindset. It is not that the

non-users couldn't see the beauty, it is just that they wer not excited or

empassioned about it, it did not touch them as deeply.



..............................





The Sacred Record

December 1990



Peyote Way Church of God

Star Rt #1 Box 7x

Willcox, Az.,  85643



Edited by Rev. Anne L. Zapf, President



The Peyote Way Church of God advocates:



1) The sacramental use of peyote;

2) a wholistic lifestyle (the health of the body, of the family, and of the

Earth -- see Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints);

3) the pursuit of personal experiences of the Holy Spirit within and

without ourselves;

4) self discipline;

5) compassion;

6) non-violence;

7) selfless service;

8) the recognition of the central role of the female as the giver of life;

9) family oriented cottage industry.



Dear Friends,

	We've been pretty busy around here making our last minute

preparations for winter.  Matthew has been especially busy filling

Christmas Pottery orders.  The final days of summer brought many Spirit

Walkers, finishing off the last of our supply of the Holy Sacrament Peyote.

	A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Appeals court, in

Houston, heard oral arguments appealing Judge Robert Maloney's ruling

against the Peyote Way Church of God on August 8.  Two weeks before the

scheduled oral arguments, our attorney received a call from repreentatives

of the Native American Church of North America.  They requested a metter to

discuss the effect of our appeal on the Native American Church.

	Two days later, we met with two attorneys representing the Native

American Church and one Native American Church member at our attorney's

office in Safford.  The attorneys requested that we drop our appeal.  They

stated that they had a "generic" bill which would accomplish recognition of

the religious use of the holy sacrament by non-Indians.  They expressed

confidence that they could work for the good of both our Churches.  The

N.A.C. representative indicated that the Native American Church would work

with the Peyote Way Church.  After several hours of discussion, they

requested that we ask for a delay in our oral arguments.  Their major

concern was that the judges wold rule that the Texas and Federal statutes

concerning Peyote are unconstitutional, and that the exemption for the

N.A.C. would be struck down.

	The Board of Stewards was advised of the situation and gave serious

consideration to their request over the next week.  Our attorney researched

their arguments carefully and learned that their fears were unfounded.

Should the judges in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals determine that the

exemption is unconstitutional, the law itself would have to be struck down,

making the Holy Sacrament Peyote legal!  We felt that our beest course was

to continue our appeal for justice.  We are, as always, ready to work with

the Native American Church.

*************

	We would like to encourage support of the "Religious Freedom

Restoration Act of 1990," introduced by Congressman Stephen Solarz.  The

Bill (#HR5377), now in Committee, was prompted by the recent Supreme Court

ruling in Oregon vs Smith which stated that the State did not need to show

a compelling interest in enforcing laws which restrict religious observance

(see The Sacred Record, July and August, 1990).  Please write to your

Congressional Representatives asking them to support this Bill.

*************

	A few folks have written to ask about the Church since brother Guy

Mount has decided to discontinue "Friends of the Peyote Road."  He is

committed to continuing _The Peyote Book_, which has reached many folks and

been a great influence on their opinions about the Holy Sacrament Peyote.

He has donated the $2,150.49 received by the "Friends" to the Peyote Way

Church of God.  We plan to use the funds received from "Friends" to

construct the Sacramental Greenhouse Facility.

	The pump which is the only source of Church water has seized up on

several occasions, alerting us to the imminent need to repair or replace

it in the ensuing months.  We are expecting it to be a major expense.  We

would rather not use the funds received from the "Friends" to make this

expensive repair.  All donations are gratefully received and

tax-deductible.  Those who would rather not donate money to the Church

could help us by donating building materials: lumber, glass, nails, etc,

which could be used in th construction of the Greenhouse.  We also need

latex paint (white), carpets (new or used), a refrigerator, copier

cartridges for a Canon PC 5 copier, video camera, recycled copier paper, and

Fonts and a scanner for the Macintosh Plus computer.



	The Goddess

	She is beautiful

	She is terrible.

	What you can imagine is less than what you can see in the eyes of

the Goddess.

	She is all form... ever balanced and changing.

	She is everything that was and is and will be.

	-MSK



	Associate membership is available to all, over the age of eighteen,

regardless of race or spiritual disposition.  Upon the receipt of

twenty-eight dollars lifetime membership dues, we will send a membership

card and a copy of the Church Bylaws.

	All donations are Tax-deductible, and go toward the sustaining of

one hundred and sixty acres of Church land for Spirit Walk, the maintenance

of Church buildings and facilities for Spirit Walk communicants and

visitors during their stay at the Mother Church; food for visitors;

Newsletters; care of four-legged Church Stewards; and the planned

construction of a Sacramental Greenhouse Facility.  Our Tax-exempt ID # is

94-2722621.



Literature:	(suggested donations)

Bylaws					5

Freedom under the Constitution		3

letter to Mrs. Bush			2

The Spirit Walk				3

back issues of the Sacred Record	1

Section 89: A Word of Wisdom		n/c

bibliography of books and articles	n/c

Please include .29 for n/c items and .45 for other items.



Thank you





..............................







presumably some persons have always "abused " cerain drugs --alcoohol for

millennia, opiates for centureies.  However, only in the twentieth centruy

have certain paterns of drug use been labelled as "adictions".

Traditionally, the term "adiction" has meant simply a strong inclination

toward certain kinds of conduct, withlittle or ;no pejorative meaning

attached to it.  Thus, the Oxformd English Dictionary offers such

pre-twentieth-century examples of the use of this term as being adicted "tyo

civil affairs", "to useful reading" -and also "to bad habits".  Being

addicted to drugs is not among the definitions listed.



From



Ceremonial Chemistry: The ritual persecution of drugs, addicts, and pushers

Thomas Szasz, M.D.

1985

Learning Publications Inc

PO Box 1338

Holmes Bch FL  34218-1338



Available by mail: 1-800-222-1525



..............................



I believe Gordon Wasson did a huge amount of anthropological

sleuthing into the use of mushrooms in ancient societies and

developed a compelling argument that the original tree of

knowledge (from which Adam and Eve consumed forbidden fruit)

was an abstraction of the "fruiting body" of mushrooms--

although I don't recall many of his points I do remember one

particularly facinating illustration that was a rendering of

the earliest known tree-of-life/knowledge drawing: it was

carved in stone and was simply a cap and a stem--the

stereotypical representation of a mushroom.  Wasson did his

research in the early fifties and never got much recognition.



..............................



>> Page 58 of this week's _Time_ magazine carries a very interesting

>> article headed: "Do Humans Need to Get High?" and is subtitled "A

>> scientist says society should provide safe, nonaddictive drugs."

>>

>> Basically, a UCLA researcher named Ronald Siegel argues that man's

>> very nature is to seek altered states from time to time, and we'd

>> be better off trying to find safer, better drugs, rather than trying

>> to kill the ones that exist.

>Check out his book:

>

>Ronald K. Siegel. Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise.

>New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989, 390 pp.

>

>Dr. Will



	Also, along the same lines, there is an excellent book called

_The Natural Mind_, by Andrew Weil, which deals with exactly the same

subject.  He postulates the search for altered states of consciousness

is a normal and, in fact, essential part of the human psyche.  He then

goes on to deal with how the mindset towards drugs should be changed,

and why it is as confused as it is.

	It's a really good read, and left me with a very hopeful

feeling.  It was originally written years ago (69? Early 70's?) and

recently reprinted with a new preface.

	Weil also co-authored a book called _From Chocolate to

Morphine_, a sweeping treatise on psychoactive substances.  This has

got to be one of the best pieces of drug-related literature I've ever

read.  It discusses why we do drugs, reiterates Weil's thesis that

altered states are not evil, and catalogues all the many and varied

psychoactive substances they could fit in a book.  The information on

each class of drug and individual substance consists of background,

history, subjective effects, dangers, physiological effects, and more.

The attitude put forth by this book is one which everyone should be

exposed to.  Drugs, food, amusement park rides, in fact anything, are

not inherently bad, only your RELATIONSHIP with them can be bad.  Only

when people get into bad (dependent, overloading, etc...)

relationships with psychoactive substances do problems occur.



..............................



>IMHO, this theory should be obvious.  Profound religious experiences

>involve non-ordinary states of consciousness.  Period.  This doesn't

>necessarily mean that every religious experience involves leaving your

>body and being taught how to fly by psychedlic jesus jellyfish, drugs

>need not be involved and there are plenty of different religious "highs."



I think a very interesting question is, What are those circuits doing there

in the first place?



Its easy to understand what the circuits for, e.g., love, ie,

pair-bonding are for: humans take forever to raise, and its easier if

you have two helping.  Many animals share these features.



I've read that it was useful in smaller societies to have the ability to bond

to one's tribe and feel brotherhood; of course this has been exploited in

patriotism and is part of many modern religions.



So, an interesting question is: Are states of religious awe and

ecstacy artifacts or have they been selected for?



.."Think anyone will mind that I don't have a tie?" ---Cliff Stoll

.."Don't worry," Bob said.  "At your level of abstraction, it doesn't make

any difference"  ---Robert Morris, chief scientist, NSA