LSD --- I think, of all the drugs on the black market today, LSD is the most interesting and the strangest. It is the most recent major drug to come to life in the psychedelic subculture. Huxley experimented with mescaline many years before psychedelics reached their mass-market proportions, but this experimentation was not with the same frame of mind as these drugs are handled today. Probably the great-granddaddy to the whole psychedelic community was Antonin Artaud, who personally experimented with peyote in Mexico. The difference between Huxley's and Artaud's experimentation was that Huxley managed to keep his experiences under laboratory controls, which he set up himself, whereas Artaud allowed his experiences to become part of his life. Artaud was changed by his encounters with peyote, but is this bad? A dirty shirt is also changed when it is washed. Through this change, Artaud was able to see and understand ideas and concepts on a different level. He was able to tear apart rationalizations, without regard for contemporary methods of organization, or even contemporary versions of truth. Artaud found, in his own way, his own truth and his own structure of values. They locked him up.... I died at Rodez under electroshock. I died. Legally and medically dead. Electroshock coma lasts fifteen minutes. A half an hour or more and then the patient breathes. Now one hour after the shock, I still had not awakened and had stopped breathing. Surprised at my abnormal rigidity, an attendant had gone to get the physician in charge, who, after examining me with a stethoscope, found no more signs of life in me. This passage is taken from The Artaud Anthology, published by City Lights Publishers. I find it extremely difficult to throw this off as the ravings of a madman for, if that be true, then there can be no truth, only madness and sanity, logic and illogic. If one then accepts the acceptable, he finds a narrow channel is clear, but the presence of illogic and the so-called insanities will always pry and harp in the distance. LSD has never caused insanity. It does not have that power. Only man can distinguish between sanity and insanity. I have never seen an insane bird. Granted there are some individuals who shouldn't take psychedelics, but this is, and must be, their choice. All LSD does is allow a man to look upon ordinary things, everyday things, and even on himself, many times for the first time, with clarity of vision. He can look and not be hampered by false- propped values and socially limited scope. He can look upon the world and see beauty where it did not exist before. He can perceive the ugliness for the first time. He can roar with laughter at the multitude of absurdities surrounding him. He can look into himself and see truthfully the mildew and the rot. LSD cannot bring out latent qualities in your personality. It cannot make you into a crazy, just as it cannot make you into a warmer, more beautiful person. What LSD can do is show you what you as a person are comprised of, and break down truthfully your make-up. LSD is not a religion, and I've never found anything really divine about it at all. The real religion, if you want to put it in those terms, is the being itself. LSD is nothing more than a medium to discover the essence of being. LSD, or acid, has been illegal for and last decade or so; therefore it is readily available on the black market. When buying anything on the black market, there are a couple of things to note, but these are especially important with acid. [1> Never buy from a stranger, or on the street. [2> Never front money. [3> If you are holding a large amount of money, do not go anywhere alone with someone you do not trust. Many people who have got into dealing pot and acid are, in reality, junkies. [4> When going to make a deal for dope, do not take a weapon with you. This is provoking violence and legal hassles. If you don't trust the guy, then don't deal with him. [5> Never buy a large quantity of any drug without first sampling it. [6> When making a deal for acid and you are at the dealer's apartment, do not accept food or drink from him; for the real acid may be in the food rather than the cap you sample. [7> Bad acid is nothing more than speed, or rat poison. [8> A long time ago there was a substance called L.B.J. going around. If you happen to come across it, do not buy it. L.B.J. is a mixture of acid, belladonna, and heroin. It is the freakiest, worst, most fucked-up trip you will ever go on. Belladonna in quantity is a deadly poison. [9> About 99 percent of all of what is claimed to be T.H.C. (synthetic pot) that is for sale on the street is not really T.H.C. at all. The expense of making synthetic pot is said to be about $15 per capsule, and a capsule of alleged T.H.C. usually sells on the street for about $3 - $6. Obviously the vendors are either philanthropists (not likely) or they are selling you something other than T.H.C. [10> When buying grass, watch out for damp grass or grass sprayed with sugar, as this adds a lot of weight to the dope. [11> Another favorite con game is "in the front, out the back". This usually occurs when your dealer tells you he is going up to an apartment to get your stuff, but you have to front the money, and wait for him on the street. You may be waiting a long time. [12> Do not attempt to smuggle any drugs across the border from Mexico. The federal government has imposed a crackdown and they're busting people left and right. ************************************************