Research Paper Example on LSD
This essay will illustrate what LSD is, how and where it was first originated from, as well as the effects of LSD on the brain and how it affects the way we think, and feel. We will also analyze by who this drug is currently used by and what it was initially used for when created. LSD is the acronym for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and categorized as a hallucinogen. For those unaware of what a hallucinogen is, it is a “drug that changes a person’s state of awareness by modifying sensory inputs, loosening cognitive and creative restraints, and providing access to material normally hidden in memory or material of an unconscious nature.” (Abadinsky, 2014, pg. 98)
According to NIH, LSD is “one of the most potent mood and perception altering hallucinogenic drugs, it is clear or white, water-soluble material synthesized from lysergic acid.” Is a compound derived from the rye fungus; LSD originally came in crystalline form. It is then produced as a tablet or thin square called window panes because it is soluble in liquids. It is most commonly found as a square paper tablet. It was first synthesized in 1938 by Ibert Hofmann in Basel, Switzerland and who also who experienced the first LSD “trip” in 1943. In 1949, In the United States, LSD was first introduced as an experimental medicine to treat mental “illnesses, but until 1954, it remained a relatively rare and expensive drug” because it was difficult to prepare the ergot fungus from which it was obtained.
According to the 2019 National Survey on drug use and health on the topic of hallucinogen use, imply that between the ages “twelve years or older increased from 1.8 percent or 4.7 million people, in 2015 to 2.2 percent or 6.0 million in 2019. Between the ages of eighteen to twenty-five of age in 2019 7.2 percent of 2. 4million used some sort of hallucinogen drug. Those of age from twenty-six or older increased from 0.8 percent or 1.7 million people in 2015 to 1.5 percent or 3.1 million in 2019.” (Abuse) It is said that LSD is not a usually addictive drug, but it is taken because of the reactions related to the drug such as the sights, sounds, and discoveries experienced while on this “trip.” It is used to experience the hallucination effects and it is usually seen used by those in high school to have a “good time”. A good time is referred as a “good trip”, those who take it to experience a “good trip” usually feels as if they are floating away, full of joy, some say their thinking is abnormally clear and some say they experience as if they have some such thing as superhuman powers and feel unstoppable or unafraid of anything.
According to the history website, the U.S drug policy originated in 1970, when the Controlled Substances Act or the CSA was enacted into law by Nixon. Nixon then declaring the “War on Drugs”, stating that the drug abuse was “public enemy number one.” When Ronald Reagan became president in the 1980s, he pushed and expanded Nixon’s War on Drugs policies. (History.com Editors) Today in the United States, “LSD is a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substance Act. Which means they are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. The federal penalty for the first offense of LSD possession is a maximum of one year in prison or a minimum fine of $1,000.” (LSD Drug Laws Today- LSD Drug | HowStuffWorks)
Additional violations might result in a sentence of up to three years in jail. The penalties from producing or selling LSD are infractions committed, but also by the amount associated with. Additional crimes can extend the jail time to three years. Penalties for manufacturing or selling LSD are not only based on the number of violations, but also on the amount involved. Therefore, even if it is the first crime, if the amount is as high as ten grams, the offender can go to jail for five to forty years and face a fine of two million dollars. Higher amounts may result in life imprisonment. A ruling by the Supreme Court in 1991 found that the weight of paper can be included when weighing blotting paper acid. Regardless of the amount or intentions, no matter what, owning any amount of LSD is a felony. Penalties vary based on the individual’s previous records and personal stories.
LSD is usually taken by mouth; its color ranges from clear to white when in its purest form to tan to black when degraded. To cover item insufficiencies and camouflage staining, wholesalers frequently apply LSD to grayish, tan, or yellow paper. Typically has a harsh taste or no taste by any stretch of the imagination and is normally alluded as "corrosive." LSD is anything but a hard medication to get tightly to, you can generally observe it being sold in the city. The LSD drug is normally positioned in a retentive paper and afterward isolated into little squares, each square addressing a portion. For the people who are ignorant of the amount LSD to allow for it to impact is just 0.01 milligram.
When ingested the medication then, at that point, flows all through the body and to the mind. LSD is used in the liver and is discharged in the pee after around 24 hours. LSD is known to cause visual and sound visualizations by keeping serotonin receptors from working regularly. The impacts of this medication range from obscured vision to a visual field loaded up with weird items. Three dimensional spaces seem to contract and develop, and light seems to change in power. Hear-able impacts likewise happen yet less significantly. These progressions are known to be wordy. There is change in temperature, and body parts seem to drift. Time is in some cases apparent as running quick forward or in reverse. (Abadinsky, 2014, pg.100)
Sensations and sentiments change considerably more significantly than do the physical signs, which differ as the psychological ones and incorporate enlargement of the pupils, increased heart rate, circulatory strain, and internal heat level, mild dizziness or nausea; chills; trembling; slow, deep breathing; loss of appetite; and insomnia. (Abadinsky, 2014, pg.101) For LSD it's anything but a habit-forming medication and there are no actual withdrawal indications. Despite the fact that there are no actual withdrawal side effects LSD use has its risks. The utilization of LSD can and will deliver mydriasis, which is prolonged dilation of the pupil of the eye, raised body temperature, fast heartbeat, raised circulatory strain, expanded glucose, salivation, tingling in the fingers and toes, weakness, tremor, palpitations, facial flushing, chills, gooseflesh, abundant sweat, sickness, dizziness, improper speech, obscured vision, and extreme uneasiness. Notwithstanding, passing identified with LSD misuse has happened because of frenzy responses, mind flights, hallucinations, and distrustfulness encounters.
There are no known actual risks in long haul use, despite the fact that psychosis has been accounted for a couple of occurrences. Reports for encountering extreme, alarming contemplations or sentiments; dread of letting completely go; dread of craziness and passing; and despondency while utilizing this medication. Fatal accidents are reported to occur under LSD intoxication. From a friend who has experienced a bad trip with LSD claims “It was every emotion I could feel, intensified without the ability to control which one came in. Because I was unable to control it, I was feeling crazy anxiety, without the right setting, the anxiety was only intensified even more.”
According to the American Addiction Centers since LSD is not a known drug to become addicted to there isn’t any known government approved medications to specifically treat LSD dependence. However, there are inpatient treatments that can provide benefits such as: preventing access to LSD, monitoring their psychological and physical wellbeing during the early abstinence, and providing group as well as individual therapy to help them overcome withdrawal symptoms. After the individual completes the LSD program there are after care programs which are programs that are continued care for those individuals who are recovering from the substance disorder.
