" A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
- Mark Twain [Attributed]
Hallucinogens are drugs that distort the information you get from your peripheral nervous system, creating visual, tactile, and aural hallucinations. They can also create synesthesia, or the mixing of senses. Drugs in this category include not only chemicals like LSD, but magic mushrooms (psilocybin) and ecstasy as well.
Our basic fears of losing control seem to be played out in these legends about hallucinogens. We're warned that we might lose control by unwittingly dosing ourselves with a lollipop, interacting with the wrong person, or using a contaminated pay phone - or so these legends would have us believe.
While there aren't a whole lot of deaths associated with the use of hallucinogenic drugs, use can precipitate depression, paranoia or a prolonged psychotic reaction resembling schizophrenia. Newer research has shown that hallucinogen use may trigger schizophrenia in predisposed individuals.
Per Veritatum Vis - Strength through truth.
