LSD Users Go Blind

The Legend:  Several students tripping on LSD stared at the sun until they were blind.

Status: Some Truth

Example: [Taken from the Internet]

Here is how the story was written up by the Los Angeles Times, 1967:

FROM SUN GAZING

WHILE ON 'TRIP'

Four LSD Users Suffer Serious Eye Damage

Exclusive to The Times from a Staff Writer

SANTA BARBARA -- Four college students have suffered permanent impairment of vision as a result of staring at the sun while under the influence of LSD, according to a spokesman for the Santa Barbara Ophthalmological Society.

One of the youths told his doctor he was "holding a religious conversation with the sun." Another said he had gazed at the sun "to produce unusual visual displays."  The students, all male, suffered damage to the retina, the sensory membrane which receives the image formed by the lens.

In the same way that a piece of paper will burn when bright light is beamed through a magnifying glass, a pinhead-sized hole was burned into the retina of each eye of the students as sunlight passed through the lens.

What this has left the students with is not total blindness but a blind spot in the center of their vision. As a result, the victims have lost their reading vision completely and forever, the ophthalmological spokesman said. [snip]

Analysis

A Staff Writer? A spokesman? The students? We want names!  What medical facility treated them? Who rescued them? What school did they attend? Even worse, this particular LSD horror story was picked up by the Associated Press and quickly spread all over the U.S., appearing in The New York Times and Time magazine. Does no one learn to fact-check in journalism school anymore?

This story showed up a second time in the news, 8 months later, only this time it supposedly happened in Pennsylvania. The PA version of the story, which eventually appeared in Newsweek, was planted by Dr. Norman Yoder who admitted he had made the whole thing up because of his concern over illegal LSD use by children. He was suspended from his post and checked himself into the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center. See, sometimes the truth is far more interesting than the legend.

A review of current medical literature finds two cases of solar retinopathy associated with LSD use. The earliest article appeared in 1973 (Schatz & Mendelblatt, 1973), 6 years after the California and Pennsylvania incidents were reported. The second article appeared in 1976, (Fuller, 1976).

There are a few articles about solar retinopathy acquired after sun-gazing in prayer or as the result of mental illness, (Mwanza et. al., 2000). However, the bulk of research on solar retinopathy focuses on "Eclipse Burns," or eye damage resulting from watching a solar eclipse, (Hallmark & Ygge, 2005).

So is it true that people tripping on LSD stared at the sun until they were blind? We don't know if the California report of this taking place is true because there is no way to fact-check an article that contains no facts. What we do know is that it is possible to cause permanent damage to your eyes if you stare at the sun, and there is reliable record of a few LSD users doing this.

Road Tripping

The Legend: Two friends are under the influence of LSD and get pulled over for going too slow.

Status: Probable

Example: [Taken from the Internet]

"Two buddies are road-tripping to a Grateful Dead show, and to make the drive more interesting, they each eat a dose of LSD. They're rolling along the interstate and start to trip out, they're laughing and having fun driving along. Suddenly, they notice a cop car with its lights on in the rear-view mirror, and start freaking out. The driver repeatedly says, "OK I'll just admit to speeding, I'll get a ticket, and it will be OK." He rehearses this plan over and over until the cop knocks on his window, and then he says to the cop, "I'm really sorry officer, I know I was speeding, I know I was wrong. I'm sorry I was going too fast." The befuddled cop then says, "Well, that's all well and good, but you were doing 10 mph."

Analysis

There are a few things about this emailed gem that make it more of a story and less of a true account.  It is littered with puns. "Road tripping," is an LSD reference. "Rolling along," is an ecstasy reference. Of course they are going to a Grateful Dead show, right? Never mind that Jerry Garcia, leader of that band, died in 1995 and this email started circulating in 2001.

This email is also similar to a scene in a 1996 Chris Farley/David Spade movie called Black Sheep. In that movie the driver and passenger become high on a nitrous oxide leak while driving. When they're pulled over by the police they think they were speeding when it turns out they were only going 7 mph.

Even though this particular emailed account is just a story, there are many instances of drivers being ticketed for going too slow, some of them stoned. Being under the influence of a hallucinogen, whether it is a mild one like marijuana or a stronger one like LSD, is going to change your perception of your environment. That is the reason you did the drug to begin with. One of the outcomes of that changed perception is going to be that you become a lousy driver, so let someone sober drive.

Gnome Sweet Gnome

The Legend:  Teens high on LSD steal a talking garden gnome that turns out to be a small child.

Status:  False

Variations

• They believe they've caught a goblin, which turns out to be a small child.

Analysis

The story goes like this.  A group of friends are high on LSD and driving around the countryside when they think they see something run across the road in front of their car.  One of them declares it was a goblin, and because they are high, this makes perfect sense to everyone. They get out of the car, find the goblin, bring it home with them, and eventually shut it into the closet so it can't get away.

The next morning in the sober light of day, they open the closet to find a small boy cowering in fear in the back of the closet. Some versions say the child is a girl too scared to speak, others say the child is an autistic boy. One ending has the boys recognized as heroes for finding a lost child, another has the boys arrested for child abduction.

It seems reasonable that teenagers tripping on LSD might see a garden gnome as animated and talking to them. But there are no news stories of small children ever having been mistaken for a goblin, abducted and hidden away in a closet overnight. Garden gnomes have been stolen and taken on vacations and any manner of silliness, but not by tripping teenagers who thought it was Yoda.

This is another scare story about LSD, similar to the babysitter who accidentally cooks the baby thinking it is a turkey. The message is that drug users can hurt our children, and that using illegal drugs can lead to horribly tragic events.

LSD and Strychnine

The Legend: Most LSD contains strychnine and can poison the user.

Status: False

Variations:

• Strychnine is cheaper so unscrupulous drug dealers sell it as a substitute for LSD.

• Strychnine is a byproduct of LSD synthesis, so it's in all real LSD.

• Strychnine is necessary to bind the LSD to the blotter paper.

• For you to be able to get high from the LSD there has to be some strychnine in it.

• The body produces strychnine as a result of LSD metabolism.

• Body aches and fatigue after LSD use are caused by the strychnine.

Analysis

None of these statements are true, but that hasn't stopped well-meaning drug educators and health teachers from repeating them for the past 20 years. Even drug users repeat these rumors, as evidenced by browsing through online chat rooms and message boards.

If this were true, if there was strychnine in LSD, it would follow that people would die from using LSD. Conversely, if people were dying from using just LSD there would be some backward logic in saying that there must have been a poison involved. In fact, while there are a few cases of LSD overdoses and massive ingestions, there are few if any deaths reported to have been absolutely caused by LSD.

The active does of LSD for a human is 50-200 micrograms. A microgram is a millionth of a gram.  It takes over 12,000 micrograms, or "mikes," of LSD to kill a lab rat. Do the math. If it takes 120 hits of acid to kill a 1 lb. lab rat, and a human weighs about 150 lbs., a lethal dose for a human would be, well, a whole lot of LSD. Something like 18,000 hits. Considering the extremely low potential for overdose deaths, it seems odd that rumors about poison-laced LSD would originate and persist, but they have.

If you consider our culture's ingrained message that illegal drugs are deadly and to be feared, then add the belief that drug dealers are unscrupulous people who would think nothing of selling strychnine as LSD, then this rumor makes a little more sense. Or at least it is understandable why it has persisted.

LSD is commonly absorbed into blotter paper, the user then consumes the small square of paper. A dose of blotter is not big enough to hold enough strychnine to harm a human. You just can't get enough poison on a tiny square of paper.

Strychnine is an odorless white powder. However, it is very bitter and can be detected in miniscule quantities way below a toxic dose. Since most LSD in ingested orally, the user would notice this adulterant.

There have been a few murder investigations where one person tried to poison another person by mixing strychnine with LSD or other drugs, but it has never been associated with recreational LSD sale or use.

Human strychnine poisoning is rare with less than 100 cases a year being reported.  That does not stop the rumors, though.

LSD on Pay Phone Buttons

The Legend: Gang members apply a deadly mixture of LSD and strychnine to the buttons of pay phones.

Status: False

Email example: [Taken from the Internet]

Subject line:  FW: Please be careful using payphones!

Text:  "Hello, this is to warn everyone of a new thing happening in communities as a gang initiation and such.  If you care about anyone, please forward this to them immediately so they can learn of the possible harm. Even if you don't read this, at last forward it to people.

My name is Tina Strongman and I work at a police station as a phone operator for 911. Lately, we've received many phone calls pertaining to a new sort of problem that has arisen in the inner cities, and is now working its way to smaller towns. It seems that a new form of gang initiation is to go find as many pay phones as possible and put a mixture of LSD and Strychnine onto the buttons. This mixture is deadly to the human touch, and apparently this has killed some people on the east coast. Strychnine is a chemical used in rat poison and is easily separated from the rest of the chemicals. When mixed with LSD, it creates a substance that is easily absorbed into the human flesh, and highly fatal.

Please be careful if you are using a pay phone anywhere. You may want to wipe it off, or just not use one at all. Please be very careful. Let your friends and family know about this potential hazard."

Analysis

OK, public telephones can be pretty disgusting, but chances are that you won't get an unexpected LSD trip from using one. The Centers for Disease Control has debunked this rumor. There is no proof that anything like this has ever happened. This is just another "death by LSD" scare story.

The rumors about strychnine being found on surfaces like buttons of pay phones and killing people through transdermal absorption also aren't true. Strychnine absorption does not occur easily through intact skin. Dermal absorption is possible and can make you sick but it takes a large amount, much more than what could be put onto pay phone buttons, (Greene & Meatherall, 2001).

This email has all the earmarks of a hoax. You are told to forward this to everyone you know, even if you don't read it yourself.  The information is being given to you by a pseudo-authority. We are told that this gang/drug problem has originated in the inner city, because you know that is the only place where there are drugs and gangs. [insert eye-roll here] Be afraid of touching things in the city. Cities are dirty. There is some inaccurate science about how these immoral gang members are getting the strychnine, and then you are reminded again to forward this to everyone, that is "if you care about anyone."

Some versions of this email are signed by a military official and contain a phone number to the Pentagon. The Pentagon denies any connection to this rumor. Some versions contain a hotmail address that is supposed to belong to Tina Strongman. No such hotmail account exists.

Bottom Feeders

The Legend: Blotter LSD doses on the bottom of the sheet are stronger.

Status: False

Analysis

This one is interesting. It is said that when LSD is manufactured, the sheet of perforated blotter paper is soaked in a pan of LSD solution. After the LSD is absorbed the sheet is hung to dry, presumably clipped to a line like how you would dry photographs. While hanging, the LSD solution is pulled to the bottom of the blotter paper, leaving the doses along the bottom significantly stronger and the doses along the top weaker.

This makes sense, if LSD were actually manufactured in this way.  The definitive text on LSD manufacture is an underground book called Practical LSD Manufacture (1995) written by  the pseudonymous Uncle Fester.  In this book it is explained in great detail that manufacturing LSD involves delivering a single carefully measured droplet from the tip of a burette onto each sugar cube or perforated square of blotter paper. No wetting pans or clotheslines are involved.

To support this manufacturing process, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that virtually all of the LSD that they have seized and tested has been of relatively uniform dosages. Assuming the DEA's LSD seizures have included doses from both the top and bottom of sheets of blotter, if the hits at the bottom were indeed stronger then there would be greater disparity in their reported dosage levels, and there isn't.

'Blue Star' LSD Tattoos

The Legend: LSD-laced tattoos with a blue star or Mickey Mouse design are being given to young children on playgrounds.

Status: False

Analysis

This legend is most often seen as a flyer sent home from school or church, an article in the local paper or school newsletter, or a warning from local police department.  It is not often circulated as an email.

It often reads:  [Taken from the Internet] "A form of Tattoo called "Blue Star" is being sold to school children. It is a small piece of paper containing a blue star. They are the size of a pencil eraser and each star is soaked with LSD. The drug is absorbed through the skin simply by handling the paper. There are also brightly colored paper tattoos resembling postage stamps that have the pictures of Superman, Mickey Mouse, Clowns, Disney characters, Bart Simpson and Butterflies.  Each one is wrapped in foil. This is a new way of selling acid by appealing to young children. These are laced with drugs. If your child gets any of the above, do not handle them. These are known to react quickly and some are laced with Strychnine."

Supposedly, this is a scheme to get the kids "hooked" on LSD so they become regular customers, a doubtful notion since LSD is not physically addictive.

This particular rumor persists because well-meaning teachers, parents and police officers duplicate and distribute the flyers. The flyer often has a heading such as "Warning to Parents." There is enough true information included that even reasonable people may believe it. For example, some LSD does indeed have cartoon characters on it, and handling LSD really can be dangerous as it can penetrate your skin and enter your bloodstream that way.

During the mid-1980's when this legend was in full swing, New York State conducted a systematic examination of all police departments to determine if there had ever been even one case of children mistaking blotter acid for tattoos and accidentally getting high.  There were no documented cases.

The greatest danger to children is exposure to drug use by the adults around them, high levels of availability of drugs and alcohol in their environment, and misinformation like this.