LSD
2-D structure of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information
Structural/Chemical background
LSD stands for lysergic acid diethylamide which is a hallucinogen. Lysergic acid “is a naturally occurring substance and can also be synthesized. It occurs naturally in ergot and is a chemical produced by a specific type of fungus that grows on grain like rye and wheat” (Narconon). LSD has a “complex effect on serotonergic systems including antagonism at some peripheral serotonin receptors, both agonist and antagonist actions at central nervous system serotonin receptors, and possibly effect on serotonin turnover” (PubChem). Serotonin receptors, when bond to serotonin, are responsible for “numerous core physical processes such as the regulation of sleep, appetite, and aggression [… .] a key player in mood, anxiety, fear and the general sense of well-being” (Integrative Psychiatry). LSD binds to these serotonin receptors and reciprocates the actions of serotonin itself, thus, affecting one’s mood, sleep, appetite and one’s sense of self.
Historical background
LSD is naturally occurring; however, it was first synthesized on November 16, 1938, by Albert Hofmann, a Swiss Chemist at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland (Das, Saibal, et al). Albert Hofmann intentionally ingested the chemical in 1943 that’s when he discovered the “psychical effects” (Pletscher 7). Alfred Pletscher was a world-renowned chemist whose “scientific contribution had an enormous impact on the development of Biochemical Neuropsychopharmacology worldwide” (Wegener). His second exposure to LSD was deliberate, where Hofmann experienced a mixture of emotions, ranging from confusion to fear of going insane.
In the 1950s, following Hofmann’s discovery, LSD “research was conducted on animals and later on humans” (Grinker 1). Researchers immediately engaged in research over the therapeutic effects of LSD and a few years later “LSD and other hallucinogens were legally available for clinical use as an experimental treatment until the mid to late 1960” (Das, Saibal, et al). As people became familiar with LSD and its effect, “people began using LSD for recreational and spiritual purposes” (Das, Saibal, et al). According to an unverified source, LSD was made illegal in 1965, however, according to The Hallucinogenic Drug Regulations in 1967, its use was “restrict[ed] [. . . for use] only by qualified practitioners” (Das, Saibal, et al). This was done in hopes of “minimiz[ing] the risk of harmful behaviors and consequences, which had received extensive publicity in the daily press, and unfortunate experiences resulting from self-use and experimentation by the lay public” (Das, Saibal, et al).
LSD use in the United States was very much diverse. The drug was initially considered by the CIA during WWII as a top-secret research program. The OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, organized “half-dozen prestigious American scientist” and “pressed [them] to come up with a substance that could break down the psychological defenses of enemy spies and POWs” (Lee 3) The CIA intended on researching the effects of the drug in order to gain information about their WWII enemies. Prior to the use of LSD as a mind control drug for the CIA, chemicals such as cocaine, heroin, morphine and even concentrated cannabis was researched and used by the CIA during interrogations. After the war, due to the potency of LSD, the CIA concluded that it was to be tested “under threat conditions beyond the scope of civilian experimentation,” thus “POWs, federal prisoners and Security officers” were used as test subjects for this new “truth serum.” (Lee 14) After many years of secret military testing, the CIA concluded that “LSD was not really a truth serum” in the sense that “the drug often proved more a hindrance than an aid to interrogation process” (Lee 15). These hindrances included the ability for the enemy to recognize that they have been drugged whereby compromising their interrogation. Although the CIA recognized the ineffectiveness of LSD in interrogation, they were not quite ready to give up. The funded numerous research programs around the United States to research the drug more extensively. Due to the popularization of the drug in the US, its ties to the CIA and its intended use spread among the counterculture. The counterculture movement in the United States was against the involvement of the government in their daily lives, as a result of the spread of information about a new drug, they popularized the drug recreationally. The name “acid” was attached to the drug and its use increased in the 1960s. The US government then banned the drug and suspended its research to a limited number of researchers and programs in the US.
LSD use and abuse following its banishment in the United States rose in 1960 because it was a new drug. The recentness of the drug coupled with the counterculture movement in the United States contributed to its abuse in the 1960s. Studies have shown that LSD use also peaked in the 1990s, however, its “abuse has been declining steadily since 2002” (LSD Statistics & Facts).
Perspectives
After the psychological effects of LSD were discovered, there was “a rich period of scientific and therapeutic investigation into mind-altering substances started” (Gasser, Peter, et al.). In a study conducted on patients suffering from anxiety and depression due to a life-threatening disease, the therapeutic nature of LSD is shown to be beneficial. The study found that “for STAI state, repeated ANOVA measurements showed a significant main effect of time F (2.16)=15.7, p=0.0002 and significant reductions between baseline and end of study (p=0.0008) and follow-up (p=0.0005, Tukey post hoc tests) (Gasser et al., 2014). For STAI trait scores, the main effect of time was F (2.16)=9.5, p=0.002. Post hoc test confirmed significant reductions at the end of study (p=0.006) and follow-up” (Gasser, Peter, et al.), where STAI stands for Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, a measurement of anxiety. Patients reported in an interview that initially they experienced a “panic trip” (participant #3) related to their situation, however, throughout the course of the experiment, their experience changed to a “much more positive basic emotional tone” (Gasser, Peter, et al.). Patients also reported that there was a “long-term increase in their quality of life” (Gasser, Peter, et al.)
For more information on the study: from procedure to result, click the following link: http://www.maps.org/research-archive/lsd/Gasser2014-JOP-LSD-assisted-psychotherapy-followup.pdf
Research relating to the recreational use of LSD is scarce due to the lack of use of the drug in the 2000s. The lack of use of LSD in the 2000s is due to the lack of research associated with the drug. People are unaware of its effects while there have been numerous research dedicated to other drugs in the United States. Deaths relating to LSD overdose or LSD inspired/ involved is also limited due to its lack of popularity today. The lack of LSD overdose is important in the sense that although the drug is able to affect the psychology of its users, it does not directly lead to the death of the user. This lack of overdose statistic is directly related to the lack of use of LSD. More information about the possible effects of LSD overdoses can be found at the following link: https://erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_death.shtml
Table 2: a survey conducted in Miami in 1992. The study shows that LSD use in the 1990s was high among high schooler but the study admits that the sample size was “small relative to the total population” (Yarnold). For more information on this study visit http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/pr0.1999.85.2.431
Politics of health
Due to the lack of knowledge about LSD, research for it was conducted throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as stated in the historical section. The wide popularity of the public and researchers led to the federal government banning LSD altogether. Although LSD is still illegal today, it has been pharmaceuticalized for specific research under The Hallucinogenic Drug Regulations in 1967. In the study above, standard non-lethal doses of LSD was administered to the participants.
The participants in the study were considered to have developed their disorders from a life-threatening disease, which may have affected their decision in participating in the research study. Although research in the United States of LSD halted, research abroad continued. After World War II, it is said that the United States Army used the excuse “a code for barbarians and not for civilized physician-investigators,” with respect to the Nuremberg code, to “exempt it from the need for informed consent” (Horner). This exact excuse utilized by Nazi doctors and also American doctors concerning “radiation in the Nevada desert (1953): Navajo uranium miners (1949-60) and LSD experiments by the CIA (1953)” (Horner). This is an example of “ready to recruit” “ready-to-consent,” where the CIA in the United States conducted LSD experiments on Americans and soldiers after WWII. The lack of adequate research of the drug left the researchers or the CIA with mere speculations about its psychological effects, thus, could not properly inform the participants.
In the case of Dr. Ewen Cameron, “a respected psychiatrist who served as president of the Canadian, the American, and the World Psychiatric Associations,” who was also the director of the Allain Memorial Institute at Montreal’s McGill University, the lack of consent during experimentation was evident (Lee 23). At this specific university, “he developed a bizarre and unorthodox method for treating schizophrenia. With financial backing from the CIA, he tested his method on fifty-three patients at Allain. The so-called treatment started with ‘sleep therapy,’ in which subjects were knocked out for months at a time. The next phase, ‘depatterning,’ entailed massive electroshock and frequent doses of LSD designed to wipe out past behavior pattern . . . patients, once again heavily sedated, were confined to ‘sleep rooms’ where taped-recorded messages played over and over from speakers under their pillows. Some heard the same messages a quarter of a million times” (Lee 23). Later investigations led to “Cameron’s methods […] discredited, and the CIA grudgingly gave up on the notion of LSD as a brainwashing technique. But that was little consolation to those who served as guinea pigs for the CIA’s secret mind projects” (Lee 23).This investigation and its conclusion are related to Fisher’s article concerning ready-to-recruit ready-to-consent individuals. These individuals were given limited information about the effects of LSD because the drug was relatively new. For POW and enemies who were direct test subjects of the CIA’s attempt to develop a truth serum, their lack of consent due to the value placed on their lives relate directly to Fisher’s article. This fact is proven in the sense that “nine of Cameron’s former patients have sued the American government for $1,000,000 each, claiming that they are still suffering from the trauma they went through at Allain. These people never agreed to participate in a scientific experiment” (Lee 23). Their lack of consent to participate in such experiments further attest to the lack of care for participants under government verified experiments with LSD. This lack of regulation was due to the fact that “there were no strictly prescribed rules or operating procedures regarding what drugs should be employed in a given situation” (Lee 7). The lack of regulation concerning the use of drugs by the CIA after the war also meant that they tested patients with bizarre doses of drugs to attempt to induce the effects they wanted.
However, the lack of articles about the CIA permitted research leave room for a large number of speculations but one can safely assume that some research was conducted unethically without proper consent from the participants.
Works Cited
“Integrative Psychiatry.” Neurotransmitter Testing, Dopamine Supplements, Serotonin Supplements & Psychiatric Consultations, www.integrativepsychiatry.net/seritonin-and-serotonin-deficiency.html.
“LSD Statistics & Facts.” LSD Statistics & Facts – LSD Addiction, www.lsdaddiction.us/content/lsd-statistics.html.
Das, Saibal, et al. “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: a Drug of ‘Use’?” Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, SAGE Publications, June 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4910402/.
Gasser, Peter, et al. Es. LSD-Assisted Psychotherapy for Anxiety Associated with a Life-Threatening Disease: A Qualitative Study of Acute and Sustained Subjective Ef. SagePub, 2014. http://www.maps.org/research-archive/lsd/Gasser2014-JOP-LSD-assisted-psychotherapy-followup.pdf
Grinker RR. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1963;8(5):425. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720110001001, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/488317
Horner, JS. Retreat from Nuremberg: Can We Prevent Unethical Medical Research? Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, 1999, www.publichealthjrnl.com/article/S0033-3506(99)00160-2/pdf.
Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. Acid Dreams: the Complete Social History of LSD: the CIA, the Sixties and Beyond. Pan, 2001.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Database; CID=5761, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/5761 (accessed Feb. 16, 2018).
Pletscher, Alfred. 50 Years of LSD: Current Status and Perspectives of Hallucinogens: a Symposium of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, Lugano-Agno (Switzerland), October 21 and 22, 1993. The Parthenon Publ. Group, 1994.
Specialist, Narconon Drug. “History of LSD.” Narconon International, 2015, www.narconon.org/drug-information/lsd-history.html.
Wegener, Gregers. “Alfred Pletscher.” INHN, 30 Mar. 2016, inhn.org/profiles/alfred-pletscher.html.
Yarnold, Barbara M. LSD USE AMONG MIAMI’S PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS. Department of Public Administration Florida International University, 1992, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/pr0.1999.85.2.431
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