You Should Never Do This: Make LSD

LSD is, without a doubt, the king of all hallucinogens. First synthesized on November 16, 1938 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel,Switzerland, as part of a larger research program, LSD’s psychedelic properties were quickly discovered. When the patents ended, individuals like  Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and Al Hubbard, began to advocate the consumption of LSD. Acid, as the drug became known, fueled the 1960’s counter culture and still remains a right of passage for pyschonauts today.

Nowadays the only way to experience the drug is to buy it, pre made, from a dealer. As an East Coast resident your only options may be west coast dealers, following a band, or drugs coming in from Europe. If you lack the patience for those kinds of means, the only option may be to produce it. It’s extremely dangerous and illegal, but with the right set of tools, it is doable.

Get Your Raw Materials

The basic ingredient is lysergic acid. This compound can be found in two plants. The easiest to find is Morning Glory seeds, which contain LSA, a more mild form of LSD that can produce a mild high on its own. This can be synthesized into LSD, however each seed contains a different amount of LSA, so potency will vary greatly with each batch and can be hard to quantify.

For authentic LSD, you need to harvest ergot. Ergot, which was used for the first synthesized LSD, is a fungus that develops on rye grain. Its toxicity is potent, and if not handled correctly, is fatal (it causes a type of gangrene that can kill you; not to mention making your arms and legs fall off). Ergot is the cause of a plethora of deaths in medieval times, because of poisonous rye. Any contact with the fungus requires gloves and a breath mask.

To produce enough you either need to farm a large amount of corrupted rye to harvest (improbable), or create a laboratory to mass produce the fungus. This bring us to:

Build Your Laboratory

Your laboratory needs have certain figures to succeed:

Use red or yellow photographic dark room light bulbs during any step of LSD manufacturing. Direct sunlight, electric filament, or fluorescent light bulbs (etc.) will hurt the above compounds. Dark room bulbs are cheap, and a must.

Use the cleanest glass wear available. Whether it is the petri dish you used to cultivate the fungus, or the glass wear you used to make LSD, all need to be additive free and dry as fuck. Any moisture will disrupt the chemical reactions needed to produce LSD and result in a bunk batch.

Never subject these compounds to excessive heat, or any type of temperature warmer than the inside of your refrigerator. LSD will decompose in excess heat, so store in a refrigerator. Rule of thumb: if you don’t need a jacket to work, it is too warm to make acid.

Synthesize the Fuck Out of it

The ergot alkaloid is synthesized into a lysergic acid compound called iso-lysergic acid hydrazide, through the addition of chemicals and heating processes. Then the iso-lysergic acid hydrazide is isomerized, which means that the atoms in its molecules are rearranged through a chemical process. The solvents and reagents (compounds used to bring about chemical reactions) are also incredibly dangerous. A chemical often used in the process, chloroform, can also cause cancer as well as severely damage the kidneys and liver. So again, the need for an amazing gas mask is needed for this process.

The chemical is then cooled, mixed with an acid and a base, and evaporated. What remains is iso-lysergic diethylamide, which is isomerized again to produce active LSD. The LSD is then purified once more, using the same process, and crystallized.

Store, Portion Out, Sell

In the past, LSD was then made into tablets (microdots), simply dissolved in water or other liquids to be dropped, or made into gelatin squares (windowpanes). It’s rare to see LSD in these forms today. Instead, it’s usually dissolved in ethanol. Sheets of blotting paper are then dipped into the LSD solution and dried. This is what we normally see today: strips of acid paper with funky designs, sold in bulk. One hit usually sells for $3 to $10 depending on the potency. Customer’s typically buy three to four hits at a time.

Conclusion

Honestly, if you’re a typical fan of LSD, it is easier to get it from your current suppliers than making it yourself. Unless you have a high education of chemistry, a working lab, and a resource supply; it is too dangerous of a job to make your own LSD. But, if you are willing to throw caution to the wind and risk making your own, you could be the creator of a second counter culture movement. It is up to you. Is it worth the risk?