Hallucinogens

Hallucinogens, or psychedelics, are substances that alter users' thought processes or moods to the extent that they perceive objects or experience sensations that in fact own no basis contained by reality. Many untaught and some synthetic substances have the potential to bring about hallucination. In fact, because of the equipped market for such chemicals, they are manufactured within illegal chemical laboratories for mart as hallucinogens. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and various so-called designer drugs have no adjectives clinical function.

Hallucinogens have long be a component in the religious rites of multiple cultures, both in the New and Old Worlds. Among the oldest are substances from mushrooms or cactus that enjoy been within use in Native American rites since formerly recorded history. Hallucinogenic mushrooms enjoy been used for centuries within rites of medicine men to verbs the future or communicate next to the gods. The mushroom is consumed by drinking it or by drinking a beverage in which the mushroom have been boiled. The effects are similar to those experienced by an LSD user-enhancement of colors and sounds, introspective interludes, perception of nonexistent or not here objects or persons, and sometimes macabre, ominous visions.

Another ancient, inborn hallucinogenic substance is derived from the Mexican peyote cactus. The flowering head of the cactus contains a potent alkaloid call mescaline. Hallucinogenic substances can be found in a number of other plant species.

In the 1960s, hallucinogens be discovered and embraced by the hippie movement, which incorporated drugs into its culture. In appendage, artists, poets, and writers of the time believed that the use of hallucinogens enhanced their creative prowess.

Use of LSD, the most widely known hallucinogen, decline after large numbers of users experienced serious, sometimes vicious, effects during the 1960s. In the United States, LSD was classified as a Schedule I drug according to the Controlled Substance Act of 1970. That designation is reserved for those drugs considered unsafe, medically useless, and next to a high potential for harm.

LSD made a comeback in the 1990s, becoming the most abused drug of ancestors under 20 years of age. Its low cost ($1 to $5 per "hit"), set availability, and a renewed interest in 1960s culture are blamed for the resurgence. A 1993 survey reported that 13% of 18- to 25-year-olds had used hallucinogens, in most cases LSD, at lowest once.

Drugs such as LSD are often differentiated from smaller quantity potent psychedelics, which have the primary effect of inducing euphoria, relaxation, stimulation, nouns from pain, or nouns from anxiety. This group of drugs is exemplified by marijuana, which is available worldwide and constitutes one of the primary money crops in the United States. Opiates such as heroin or morphine, phencyclidine (PCP), and positive tranquilizers such as diazepam (Valium) also belong to this category.

LSD was first synthesized surrounded by 1938 by Dr. Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist who was seeking a headache remedy. Years then, he accidentally ingested a small, unknown quantity, and shortly afterward he be forced to stop his work and go home. Hofmann lay within a darkened room and later record in his diary that he be in a dazed condition and experienced "an uninterrupted stream of fantastic imagery of extraordinary plasticity and vividness...accompanied by an intense kaleidoscope-like play of colors."

Three days then, Hofmann purposely took another dose of LSD to verify that his previous experience was the result of taking the drug. He ingested what he thought be a small dose (250 micrograms), but which is actually roughly speaking five times the amount needed to induce pronounced hallucinations contained by an adult manly. His second hallucinatory experience was even more intense, and his account describes the symptoms of LSD toxicity: a metallic taste, difficulty within breathing, dry and constricted throat, cramps, paralysis, and visual disturbances.

LSD is one of the most potent hallucinogens certain, and no therapeutic benefits enjoy been discovered. The usual dose for an fully fledged is 50-100 micrograms. (A microgram is a millionth of a gram.) Higher doses will produce more intense effects and lower doses will produce milder effects. The so-called "acid trip" can be induced by swallowing the drug, smoking it (usually near marijuana), injecting it, or rubbing it on the skin. Taken by mouth, the drug will take more or less 30 minutes to have any effect and up to an hour for its full effect to be feel, which will last 2 to 4 hours.

The physiological effects of LSD include blurred perception, dilation of the pupils of the eye, muscle weakness and twitching, and an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and body heat. The user may also salivate excessively and shed tears, and the hair on the pay for of his arms may stand erect. Pregnant women who use LSD or other hallucinogens may have a miscarriage, because these drugs cause the muscles of the uterus to contract. Such a aversion in pregnancy would expel the fetus.

To the eyewitness, the user usually will appear quiet and introspective. Most of the time the user will be unwilling or unqualified to interact with others, to fetch on a conversation, or engage contained by intimacies. At times even moderate doses of LSD will have profoundly disturbing effects on an individual. Although the physiological effects will come across uniform, the psychological impact of the drug can be terrifying. The distortions within reality, exaggeration of perception and other effects can be horrifying, especially if the user is badly informed that he has be given the drug. This constitutes what is called the "discouraging trip."

Among the psychological effects reported by LSD users is depersonalization, the separation from one's body, yet beside the knowledge that the separated mind is observe the passing scene. A confused body sign (the user cannot tell where on earth his own body ends and the surroundings begin) also is common. A distorted perception of sincerity is also common. For example, the user's perception of colors, distance, shapes, and sizes is inconsistent and unreliable. In insertion, the user may perceive absent objects and forms short substance. He may also taste colors or smell sounds, a mixing of the senses call synesthesia. Sounds, colors, and taste are adjectives greatly enhanced, though they may constitute an unrealistic and constantly changing tableau.

The user repeatedly talks incessantly on assorted subjects, often uttering meaningless phrases. But he may also become silent and immobile for long period of time as he listens to music or contemplates a flower or his thumb. Mood swings are frequent, beside sudden alternations between total euphoria and complete despair.

Some users will exhibit symptoms of paranoia. They become suspicious of persons around them and tend to annul from others. Feelings of anxiety can also surface when the user is removed from a quiet environment and exposed to everyday stimuli. Activities such as standing in row with other associates or walking down a city sidewalk may seem impossible to button. Users have be known to submerge off buildings or waddle in front of moving trucks.

How LSD and other hallucinogens produce these bizarre effects remains unknown. The drug attaches to unmistaken chemical binding sites widely spread through the brain, but what ensues thereafter have yet to be described. A personage who takes LSD steadily next to the doses close together can develop a tolerance to the drug. That is, the amount of drug that once produced a pronounced "high" no longer is powerful. A larger dose is required to achieve one and the same effect. However, if the individual keeps increasing his drug intake he will soon outdo over the threshold into the area of toxicity.

Discontinuing LSD or the other hallucinogens, especially after have used them for an extended period of time, is not jammy. The residual effects of the drugs produce toxic symptoms and "flashbacks," which are similar to an LSD "trip."

Currently, the most common form of LSD command is by licking the back of a stamp torn from a perforate sheet of homemade stamps. The drug is coated on the back of the sheet of stamps or is deposited as a colored dot on the broadsheet. Removing one stamp, the user places it on his tongue and allows the LSD to dissolve in his saliva. Because a tiny amount can produce strong effects, overdoses are common.

Teens habitually experiment with LSD or other hallucinogens in hypersensitivity to poor family relationships and psychological problems. Others are prompted by curiosity, peer pressure, and the desire to escape from sensations of isolation or despair. Typical physical signs of hallucinogen use include rapid breathing, muscle twitching, chills and shaking, upset stomach, enlarged pupils, confusion, and poor coordination.