In January of this year 2006, there was a symposium in Basle, Switzerland. It celebrated the 100th birthday of a very special man, and the discovery of a remarkable chemical. The man was Albert Hofmann, and the chemical was LSD-25.
And shit, me and my friend Tom were gonna go. But then we ran out of money, and it was hard explaining to our parents exactly why we wanted to go to a conference in praise of an illegal drug. So we didn’t go.
And then I read this.
Jesus H. Christ!! I mean I knew there’d be acid floating around the event, but I had no idea that someone would turn up with Sandoz acid! For those who don’t know much about LSD, here’s the rundown: Albert Hofmann discovered it when working for the Sandoz pharmaceutical company in Switzerland. Once the effects of the drug were known it was distributed worldwide to psychologists under the brand name ‘Delysid’ with the suggestion that it mimicked states of psychosis. Of course it was far too much fun for the doctors, and in the sixties the drug escaped the labs and hit the streets, predominantly in San Francisco. By 1967 it was illegal, and Sandoz were forced to stop producing it. As of that point in time, acid was driven underground.
Ever since then, some old hippies have been saying “Ah, the acid you kids get these days is crap. You should have tried that Sandoz stuff! My God, that was acid.” One of my favourite authors, Hunter S. Thompson, talked about using pure ‘Sandoz’ in such a way as to imply that anything else just isn’t good enough. Of course, no one could ever prove them wrong or right, because the Sandoz acid was long gone by the end of the seventies.
Until 2006. When someone, some unknown genius, brought some Sandoz Delysid from 1951 to the event and said: “Hey guys! Let’s trip on the real fucking deal!“
The results are interesting. You can read them for yourself here, but the rub is this: Sandoz acid is pretty much the same as the acid you can buy from your dealer today.
What does this mean? Well, for one thing it means that LSD is just as good as it ever was, and that’s definately a good thing. But how could this misconception have been brought around in the first place?
Well personally I think it’s down to two things. The first is that the strength of the doses has steadily decreased since the sixties. Back then it was common to get 300 micrograms from a single blotter, but these days it’s more like 50 micrograms (I would know – I once had some acid where I had to eat five blotters just to hit mild effects) – so any old hippie who tripped his face off on two blotters in 1965 would probably think that two 1980’s blotters were ‘worse’ acid than the sixties stuff.
The other reason is that you become very… suggestable, when on acid. If you take it with the subconscious belief that what you’re taking isn’t as good as the stuff forty years ago, you’ll invariably end up experiencing that.
What’s my point? I don’t know. I’m just pleased that the concensus now is that LSD = LSD. Go forth and trip.
Monday 30 June (2008) at 19:05
Does anyone know where to get some good doses in the boston area?
I had some ta bs from bonaroo but it was a tease.
Friday 25 July (2008) at 20:46
this is a really interesting topic. But i feel allot better now that i know the acid I’m taking is just as good as the Sandoz acid from he sixties.
Saturday 16 August (2008) at 21:56
The thing is, the typical lsd dose in the 60s was around 400mics, and now its about 100. So your acid is probobly as good, but you need to buy 4 hits instead of 1
Monday 25 August (2008) at 19:20
So in other word the hippies are right, the acid nowerdays is nothing compared to the acid in the 60s. not because of the lsd itself, but because of manufacturers putting less in the tabs… its like saying X today is nothing compared to 15-20 years ago, which is true, not because of a downgrade in the quality of the MDMA, just because the dose per pill is less. Personally i thought this would be obvious, since a chemical doesn’t just get weaker as the years go on, its the same lsd-25 isnt it?
Friday 24 October (2008) at 1:46
Sorry I’m a little late to this party.
I haven’t done acid since the early eighties so I can’t comment on what’s available today. However, my very first trip in the mid-1960s was with Sandoz LSD-25. It came in a tiny tablet wrapped in extremely thin aluminum foil.
Nothing I had after that, including a massive dose of Owsley’s Sunshine in crystal (pre-tableted) form, came even close. The Sandoz was that incredible.
Tuesday 23 December (2008) at 2:54
I’ve taken acid well over 150 times (different occasions) since 1970. I took 4-way windowpane about 1972 that was absolutely the strongest, longest, and meanest trip ever. No blotter or microdot since came close to that experience. I also took Purple Haze and that ran a close second. While I’ve had decent trips in the 1990’s and early 2000s (it’s been a few years — hard to locate anymore…), I have to say the early acid was better. I mean, one could take 1/4 of a windowpane and be gloriously happy for hours; I’ve done 6-8 blotters over the course of the evening and it hardly registered. Good luck out there, brothers and sisters…
Tuesday 17 February (2009) at 20:16
Two points: I first did acid in 1970 and last did acid, well, not too long ago. Night and day difference. Modern street acid is milder (significantly smaller doses per hit: Owsley and other ‘underground chemists’ normally tabbed 250-500 mics while much of today’s acid is 1/10 that amount) but cleaner (less additives and impurities: 250 mics of LSD laced with God knows how much speed packed an extraoridnary wallop).
A single tab of barrel Orange Sunshine in 1971 (which could be had for less than $3)would get two people off, launching them like a rocket that ignored gravity (it was usually during the first cuppla hours that bad trips took root, as the “getting off” period could overwhelm even experienced trippers), keeping them eight miles high for 8-12 hours, and leaving a most wondrous afterglow through the next day.
Point 2: If, in fact, the Sandoz that showed up in 2006 was from 1951, the deterioration of the acid must have been considerable. . .
Hope this helps. Thanks for the inspiration to write and please keep posting intreresting observations.
NEAL UMPHRED
Tuesday 8 September (2009) at 16:48
I concur the deterioration must have been significant.
However, I believe street acid is generally as good as the 60’s stuff. I think set, setting, dosage and rose tinted glasses are the major factors in this v interesting debate.
Sunday 4 October (2009) at 0:39
i think it all depends on whos making it. but it’s cool to know that the quality is the same. i think alot of chemists limit the doseage to save money. it makes sense. i’ve had acid that was really weak but then again i’ve also had shit that sent me to a whole different dimension.
Sunday 11 October (2009) at 20:13
So, it’s safe to get the stuff these days off the street? How do you know before taking it that it’s weak? I last took it in the 70’s and I would probably be able to say as a result of that experience “this is too weak” and just take more. Is that what’s being recommended?