What is Acid?

Learn what you should know about acid, the drug.

1. Acid is a street name for the compound LSD.

LSD is a hallucinogenic drug - so acid is a hallucinogenic drug.

2. Acid’s effects include visual distortions and a “dreamlike” state for ~8-14 hours

The effects of acid include:

  • Rapid and sometimes extreme changes in mood1
  • Visual disrotions and illusions1
  • Time perceived as going faster or slower than normal1
  • “A detachment within the self regarding one’s mind or body, or being a detached observer of oneself”1
  • Altered sense of reality1

See more on LSD/Acid’s effects.

3. Acid can sometimes be “fake”

NBOMes are sometimes sold as acid, which is bad, because NBOMes appear to be dangerous compounds.

4. Acid and LSD are two words that are used to mean the same thing

See more at LSD vs Acid.

5. Bad trips do happen, though possibly not as often as you’d think

A 1955 paper found that anxiety occured in 9% more people who took 25-75 micrograms of LSD, and 14% more people who took 100-225 micrograms of LSD, compared with the placebo group.2

Granted, it’s important to note that this was in a research setting - if you’re taking acid and going to a haunted house, I’d imagine that much more than 9% of people on 75 micrograms of LSD would have a bad trip!

From LSD Side Effects.

6. Acid has a good safety profile relative to other drugs

Drug Safety Chart: LSD vs Other Drugs

“This inquiry … indicates that with proper precautions [LSD and mescaline] are safe when given to a selected healthy group.”3

“A large number of previous human trials indicate that LSD [acid] can be safely administered within a research or psychotherapeutic setting.”1

“if you look at the literature with clinical use, both with psilocybin and with LSD, you see that those drugs can be administered safely in research settings.”4

From LSD Side Effects.

7. The inventor of Alcoholics Anonymous believed that LSD had great benefits

“Some of my AA friends and I have taken the material (LSD) frequently and with much benefit,” Wilson told Jung, adding that the powerful psychedelic drug sparks “a great broadening and deepening and heightening of consciousness.”4

References

Recent Guides

More

How Long Do Edibles Last?

How Long Do Edibles Take to Kick In?

Opioid Epidemic Solutions

DMT Guides

All Guides

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Have more questions, or want more resources and info? Visit /r/PsychedelicTherapy or /r/Psychedelics.