Peyote (Mescaline) Psilocybin and Psilocyn, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), MDMA, Bufotenine
"A", Acid, Adams, Buttons, The Beast, Blotter, Blue Chairs, Blue Cheers, Blue Mist, Brown Dot, California Triple Dip, Cube, Dot, Flat Blues, Gelatin, Green Wedge, Hawk, LSD, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, M and Ms, Mescal, Microdot, Mighty Quinn, Mind Detergent, Owsley Acid, Owsley Blue Dot, Pearly Gates, Pink Wedge, Pink Owsley, Purple Owsley, Sandoz's, Strawberries, Sugar Cube, Sunshine, Uncle, Vacation, Wedding Bells, Window Panes
The first two photos are the "Peyote Cactus" and "Peyote Cactus (cut surface) with capsules ready for sale. The second two photos show the psilocybin mushroom in its natural state. Peyote is a small, spineless cactus, Lophophora williamsii, whose principal active ingredient is the hallucinogen mescaline. Psilocybin and psilocyn are both chemicals obtained from certain mushrooms found in Mexico and Central America. Like peyote, the mushrooms have been used in native rites for centuries. Both psilocybin and psilocyn can be produced synthetically. The hallucinogenic dose of both substances is about 4 to 8 milligrams or about 2 grams of mushrooms with effects lasting for about six hours.
Lysergic Acid Diethyl Amide (LSD)LSD is shown above in it's most common street forms: a blotter, sugar cubes and pills (see photo below). The most commonly used hallucinogen is LSD. The most common medium is that of "blotters." Liquid LSD is absorbed into a large (usually decorated) blotter (see photo at left), which allows buyers to purchase doses of the drug by purchasing small squares of the blotter. Other forms of impregnable paper are also used. Several doses of LSD can be easily concealed in a small piece of paper.
Hallucinogens are drugs that cause hallucinations. A hallucination is a sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind. It may involve hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting or feeling something that isn't really there. Or, it may involve distorted sensory perceptions, so that things look, sound, smell, taste or feel differently from the way they are. Pseudo-hallucinations may result in which the user typically knows that what he or she is seeing, hearing, smelling, etc. is not real, but is a product of the drug. This makes it virtually impossible for the hallucinogen-influenced person to function in the real world.
Another form of hallucination produced by these drugs in called synesthesia. This hallucination occurs when the user sees a particular sight that may cause the user to perceive a sound. Hearing a sound may cause him or her to perceive an odor. Sometimes, the hallucinations can be very frightening to the user. The user may be panic-stricken by what he or she is seeing or hearing, and may become uncontrollably excited, or even try to flee from the terror. Hallucinogen users call these kinds of experiences "bad trips." The users of hallucinogens have been driven into permanent insanity by these experiences. A "bad trip" sometimes may be re-experienced as a flashback. Hallucinogen flashbacks apparently do not occur because of a residual quantity of drug in a user's body. Rather, flashbacks apparently are vivid recollections of a portion of a previous hallucinogenic experience. Essentially, flashbacks are very intense and very frightening daydreams.
There are three types of flashbacks: emotional, somatic, and perceptual. The emotional flashback is the most dangerous. It brings back strong feelings of panic, fear and loneliness and creates an intense and very real recollection of the original "bad trip." A somatic flashback can consist of altered body sensations, such as tremors, weakness, nausea, and dizziness that were part of the original "trip." In a perceptual flashback, the user re-experiences some of the sensory distortions of the original "trip." In general, hallucinations intensify whatever mood the user is in when the drug is taken. If the user is depressed, the drug will deepen the depression. If the user is feeling pleasant, the drug usually will heighten that feeling. If the user expects that the drug will help him or her achieve new insights or an expanded consciousness, the drug will seem to have that effect. However, use of hallucinogens often uncovers mental or emotional flaws of which the user was unaware. Such flaws can result in the panic and terror of a "bad trip" even though the user was expecting a pleasurable experience.
It is unlikely that hallucinogens directly are life threatening. However, overdoses have often indirectly resulted in death. The extreme panic and agitation of a "bad trip" have been known to lead to suicide, or to accidental deaths as users have tried to flee from their hallucinations. The most common danger of a hallucinogen overdose is an intense "bad trip," which can result in severe and sometimes permanent psychosis. There is some evidence that prolonged use of LSD may produce organic brain damage, leading to impaired memory, reduced attention span, mental confusion, and impaired ability to deal with abstract concepts.
