Nellerin
March 21st, 2013, 07:09 PM
Title is wrong, I mean LSD, typed it wrong in beginning :)
Excerpt from a book I was reading, I completely agree with it and feel that LSD/Shrooms should be made legal, what do you all think?
"I use the term 'psychedelic drugs' to classify those which have the ability to produce alterations in perception and consciousness without also producing disorientation. The most familiar of these drugs are three well-known hallucinogenic drugs: LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), mescalin and psilocybin. No deaths from direct toxicity of these drugs have been reported. They are believed to be nonaddictive, and to that extent at least it is arguable that a general case for their legalisation is stronger than a case for such addictive drugs as heroin and other opium-based drugs, cocaine or the more recently produced synthetic, methadone. LSD was originally extracted from ergot (a fungus of rye or wheat) and was first produced in Switzerland as a synthetic in 1938. In its pure form it is a crystalline solid. Mescalin in its pure form is the main psychoactive ingredient of the peyote 'button'—the dried crown of the spineless cactus peyote, found in Mexico and western parts of North America.[1] Like LSD, mescalin today can be manufactured synthetically, but it is incomparably more costly to do so. Psilocybin is the effective ingredient of psilocybic mushrooms, affectionately known as 'magic mushrooms', of which there is a large variety growing wild in many parts of the world.[2] Mushroom gatherers are expected to be fairly knowledgeable about local varieties, however, or to carry with them a reliable manual, as many species are also poisonous.
A 'normal' dose of any of these drugs produces in the subject an abnormal state of mind over a period of a few hours—a state referred to by aficionados as 'a trip'. An LSD or mescalin trip lasts for about six to ten hours, although in some circumstances it can last for considerably longer. A psilocybic trip, reputed to be more visual than the LSD or mescalin trip, is somewhat mellower and usually lasts for about three to six hours. Provided that they are taken orally, which is usual, each of these drugs takes effect within about a half-hour to an hour. The intensity of the reaction reaches a peak in about an hour or so from its taking effect; it maintains its potency for a period of one to three hours and gradually, very gradually, wears off.
Where these psychedelic drugs are taken in their natural form, as they were originally and still are in many areas of the world, there can be little cause for anxiety. Morning glory seeds contain lysergic acid amide—an alkaloid derivative, which is very similar to, and about one-tenth as potent as, LSD. South American Indians have long been aware of the morning glory's special powers, and the seeds were used extensively by these civilisations several hundred years ago. Peyote buttons were used as an hallucinogenic sacrament by Mexican Indians long before Europeans arrived there. During the time of the Spanish conquest, worship of the gods through ritual consumption of this plant was widely practiced by the Aztecs and other Indian communities, who also used it for healing purposes and for foretelling the future. Similarly, psilocybic mushrooms were also used by the Aztecs for centuries and in religious rites 3,000 years ago by a number of Central American Indian tribes.[3]
In Summary
To sum up in a paragraph: although medical opinion is by no means the decisive factor in any enlightened dialogue on the subject, it would be impossible on the existing evidence for an honest government to convince an informed public that regular recourse to these nonaddictive hallucinogens would be as pernicious to health as regular recourse to, say, alcohol or tobacco. However, even if they were as pernicious, the power of the state may never be arbitrarily extended, within a libertarian dispensation, to proscribe those activities which the state pronounces to be injurious to the health of the individual. Nor is it enough to point to possible dangers to minors or to the likelihood of injury to third parties. Hundreds of goods on the market today carry some likelihood of injury to third parties. Thus, only if the degree of risk to which third parties are exposed is exceptionally high and in the case of psychedelic drugs it is (notwithstanding highly coloured press reports) remarkably low—may a case be made for state controls. In all other cases the state can best serve the citizen by spreading information and by legislation designed to maintain standards of purity. As for the effects on modern society as a whole of legalising the psychedelic drugs mentioned, the benefits would include a substantial contribution toward the reduction of existing crime, if only by releasing much-needed police resources currently engaged in preventing victimless crimes for the better protection of the public from real crime. Finally, in our technocratic civilisation, in which adjustment to the machine entails becoming like the machine, the hallucinogenic experience is one way of releasing, for a while, the faltering human spirit trapped inside the machine.[34]"
Excerpt from a book I was reading, I completely agree with it and feel that LSD/Shrooms should be made legal, what do you all think?
"I use the term 'psychedelic drugs' to classify those which have the ability to produce alterations in perception and consciousness without also producing disorientation. The most familiar of these drugs are three well-known hallucinogenic drugs: LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), mescalin and psilocybin. No deaths from direct toxicity of these drugs have been reported. They are believed to be nonaddictive, and to that extent at least it is arguable that a general case for their legalisation is stronger than a case for such addictive drugs as heroin and other opium-based drugs, cocaine or the more recently produced synthetic, methadone. LSD was originally extracted from ergot (a fungus of rye or wheat) and was first produced in Switzerland as a synthetic in 1938. In its pure form it is a crystalline solid. Mescalin in its pure form is the main psychoactive ingredient of the peyote 'button'—the dried crown of the spineless cactus peyote, found in Mexico and western parts of North America.[1] Like LSD, mescalin today can be manufactured synthetically, but it is incomparably more costly to do so. Psilocybin is the effective ingredient of psilocybic mushrooms, affectionately known as 'magic mushrooms', of which there is a large variety growing wild in many parts of the world.[2] Mushroom gatherers are expected to be fairly knowledgeable about local varieties, however, or to carry with them a reliable manual, as many species are also poisonous.
A 'normal' dose of any of these drugs produces in the subject an abnormal state of mind over a period of a few hours—a state referred to by aficionados as 'a trip'. An LSD or mescalin trip lasts for about six to ten hours, although in some circumstances it can last for considerably longer. A psilocybic trip, reputed to be more visual than the LSD or mescalin trip, is somewhat mellower and usually lasts for about three to six hours. Provided that they are taken orally, which is usual, each of these drugs takes effect within about a half-hour to an hour. The intensity of the reaction reaches a peak in about an hour or so from its taking effect; it maintains its potency for a period of one to three hours and gradually, very gradually, wears off.
Where these psychedelic drugs are taken in their natural form, as they were originally and still are in many areas of the world, there can be little cause for anxiety. Morning glory seeds contain lysergic acid amide—an alkaloid derivative, which is very similar to, and about one-tenth as potent as, LSD. South American Indians have long been aware of the morning glory's special powers, and the seeds were used extensively by these civilisations several hundred years ago. Peyote buttons were used as an hallucinogenic sacrament by Mexican Indians long before Europeans arrived there. During the time of the Spanish conquest, worship of the gods through ritual consumption of this plant was widely practiced by the Aztecs and other Indian communities, who also used it for healing purposes and for foretelling the future. Similarly, psilocybic mushrooms were also used by the Aztecs for centuries and in religious rites 3,000 years ago by a number of Central American Indian tribes.[3]
In Summary
To sum up in a paragraph: although medical opinion is by no means the decisive factor in any enlightened dialogue on the subject, it would be impossible on the existing evidence for an honest government to convince an informed public that regular recourse to these nonaddictive hallucinogens would be as pernicious to health as regular recourse to, say, alcohol or tobacco. However, even if they were as pernicious, the power of the state may never be arbitrarily extended, within a libertarian dispensation, to proscribe those activities which the state pronounces to be injurious to the health of the individual. Nor is it enough to point to possible dangers to minors or to the likelihood of injury to third parties. Hundreds of goods on the market today carry some likelihood of injury to third parties. Thus, only if the degree of risk to which third parties are exposed is exceptionally high and in the case of psychedelic drugs it is (notwithstanding highly coloured press reports) remarkably low—may a case be made for state controls. In all other cases the state can best serve the citizen by spreading information and by legislation designed to maintain standards of purity. As for the effects on modern society as a whole of legalising the psychedelic drugs mentioned, the benefits would include a substantial contribution toward the reduction of existing crime, if only by releasing much-needed police resources currently engaged in preventing victimless crimes for the better protection of the public from real crime. Finally, in our technocratic civilisation, in which adjustment to the machine entails becoming like the machine, the hallucinogenic experience is one way of releasing, for a while, the faltering human spirit trapped inside the machine.[34]"