Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: [g--b--t] at [utkvx.utk.edu] (Garbett, Shawn) Subject: RE: LSD Lethal Dose Info Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 19:28:00 GMT This is from some private conversations I had about my post, and the original authors have agreed to anonymously post some comments back. ------------------------------------------------------------------ > Also the report was from the Haight-Ashbury clinic I think in > November of 1967. A drug lab could have easily been on the same block. It was later than that, around 1970. I just read the original paper. It looks like there is no reason to doubt the data... apparently the victims had up to 0.026 ug/ml LSD in the blood and up to 7mg/100ml in the gastric contents. The police recovered about 200mg of the powder in question which was reportedly 80-90% pure d-LSD-25 tartrate. The hospital emergency room was within walking distance of the residence in which the exposures took place (reportedly among guests at a dinner party), and at least one patient walked to the hospital. > The medical text is a very good source of info, and dispells a lot > [...] > is a 1980's textbook. Yes, and it's unfortunate that since the 1980s, the toxicological literature has increasingly become revisionist, dogmatic and biased with respect to illegal drugs. Misstatement and outright fabrication are becoming all to frequent, with a strong tendency to accept antidrug dogma at face value. > One interesting fact was that they claimed 0.8 persons out of 1000 who > take LSD suffer from prolonged psychosis. I personally know of someone It would be interesting and instructive to look at the percentage of the general population, particularly any segment which is selected by socioeconomic, vocational, experiential, intellectual, behavioral or other factors associated with use of given substances, to determine the background rate of psychosis. The most common unbiased conclusion seems to be that post-LSD psychosis represents activation of a latent psychological instability similar to that seen in other post-traumatic-stress scenarios. There appears to be little or no evidence to support the conclusion that psychosis is in any way a direct or specific biochemical or behavioral consequence of LSD exposure. In article
you write: >A report of eight patients with severe LSD intoxication resulted from the >substitution of LSD for cocaine, which the patients then snorted in >doses greater than 2 "lines" each. The product was analyzed and found >to be 80 to 90 percent pure, thus comprising a massive ingestion >(milligram amounts). On presentation 10 minutes later, five patients >were comatose, three with depressed respirations requiring endotracheal >[...] > >If anyone out there cares to translate this for the rest of us >please do so. It sounds quite bad. I just read the original paper in its entirety. The patients were all attendees at a dinner party at which cocaine was being consumed. The authors pointed out that "snorting" of LSD tartrate was common at the time when a more rapid onset was desired. The effects described are consistent with ergot alkaloid poisoning. Patients exhibited varying degrees of anticoagulation (abnormal blood clotting), minor bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), transient hypertension (high blood pressure) and fever. Three patients suffered depressed respiration or respiratory arrest requiring use of a ventilator. All suffered hallucinations and sensory disturbances. Keep in mind these people undoubtedly consumed roughly 1,000 times the usual active dose. LSD is derived from the same family of chemicals, the lysergic amides and amines, which are the active principles in ergot (a fungus which grows on rye) poisoning. At high dosage, LSD exhibits the same systemic effects as other ergot alkaloids. The hallucinogenic effects occur at very low dosage, where the systemic ergot-like effects are minimal. At such high dosage as those reported, it is to be expected that the toxic effects of ergotism would be observed. Many drugs considered "safe" have a margin between effective and toxic dosage of 5 to 10. Here, the margin of overdosage was nearly 1000. Note also that only three patients required respiratory support, and that none of the patients suffered any permanent injury. All patients recovered fully in 12 hours, and none suffered any lasting effects, including five who were followed clinically for some years thereafter. It is not surprising that LSD would exhibit ergot-like effects at extremely high dosage. The hallucinogenic effect is apparently a more specific phenomenon which occurs at very low concentrations. Other ergot alkaloids exhibit varying degrees of hallucinogenic activity, though most do so only at toxic levels. ---------------------------- I didn't write this Shawn Garbett