What is LSD?
LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide), commonly called "acid," is the most powerful known hallucinogen - a drug that radically changes a person's mental state by distorting the perception of reality to the point where, at high doses, hallucinations occur. Although it is derived from a fungus that grows on rye and other grains, LSD is semi-synthetic. It is chemically manufactured in illicit laboratories, except for a small amount which is produced legally for research.
Even in very minute doses (for example, 50 to 100 micrograms - a microgram is 1/1,000,000 of a gram), LSD can significantly alter one's perceptions to the point of hallucination - that is, one sees or hears things that don't, in reality, exist. Hence LSD's classification as a hallucinogen.
Pure LSD is a white, odorless crystalline powder that dissolves in water. Because an effective dose of the pure drug is almost invisible, it is mixed with other substances, such as sugar, and packaged in capsules, tablets, or solutions, or spotted on to gelatin sheets or pieces of blotting paper.
The availability of LSD has increased in the United States in the last 2 to 3 years; the hallucinogen is available in at least retail quantities in virtually every state. The sources of supply for most of the LSD available in the United States are believed to be centered in northern California.
At the wholesale production and trafficking levels, LSD remains tightly controlled by relatively small, fraternal California-based organizations that have evaded drug law enforcement operations successfully for over two decades. Mid-level distribution networks generally are comprised of individuals who have known each other through long years of association and common interests.
Over the past several years, an increasing number of individuals have attempted to manufacture LSD. Many of these individuals are not associated with the traditional northern California groups that are believed to have produced most of the LSD available in the United States since the late 1960's.
Compared with methamphetamine, PCP, and other illicit drugs manufactured in the United States, few LSD laboratories have been located or seized. Six illegal LSD laboratories have been confiscated by the DEA since 1981; however, there have been no seizures since 1987. This is due primarily to the shifting of law enforcement focus to target and dismantle the rising number of cocaine trafficking organizations established during the crack epidemic that began during the mid-1980's and continues into the present.
Public and private mail systems appear to be the primary means used for the transportation and distribution of wholesale and retail quantities of LSD. LSD is relatively inexpensive with an average street dosage unit or "hit" costing about $5 and often as little as $1 or $2. Retail-level doses are available primarily in paper form; microdot tablets and gelatin squares also have been encountered.
LSD is ingested orally. A microdot tablet or square of the perforated LSD paper is placed in the user's mouth, chewed or swallowed. Paper squares are most common because their small size makes them easy to conceal and ingest. Also, because LSD is not injected or smoked, paraphernalia are not required.
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