MAPS: Special Digest: LSD on Blotter Paper

[smiile@xxxxxxxx]

Contributions from Kit Bonson, robert keil, Peter Webster, Anthony Steele,
psilo, Chris Cappuccio, Bob Wallace, and Gennady Rut

----------------
From: kbonson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kit Bonson)  
Subject: Re: MAPS: Special Digest: Re: Questions on "LSD on paper" 

>From: Edmond Kelly <edkelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"
>
>It is my understanding that a piece of blotter paper is only capable on
>holding 200 micrograms of any drug substance.

        Actually, this may not be true.  A couple of years ago there was a
report in a psychiatric journal saying that a patient reported taking
mescaline in blotter form.  I asked our pharmacist at work if this was
possible, presuming that an effective dose of mescaline of ~400 mg would
not go into a small blotter.  But the pharmacist and I figured out, based
on solubility and such, that it was possible.
        Of course, it is extremely unlikely that someone would attempt to
dissolve mescaline or other substances (amphetamine, strychnine,
whathaveyou that's been claimed to be in blotter) at such a sludge-like
concentration (ie:  the smallest amount of liquid possible) and then
re-apply this sludge to a piece of blotter.
        So it is still next to zero that blotters have mescaline or
adulterants in them.

>I know of no psychoactive
>drug other than LSD that is active orally at doses that low.

        Fentanyl, an opioid, is extremely potent and is psychoactive for
pain at 100 micrograms (it is 80 times more potent than morphine).


>the FBI reports that from its analysis of seized blotter paper LSD, they
>believe that all blotter paper LSD is either totally the real thing or
>nothing at all. Basically, this means that blotter paper LSD is the single
>safest "street drug" in the sense that you always know what it is.

        This is true, however.  And I believe the late PharmChem labs
reported similar data.


>I have known people who claim that their blotter paper LSD was still good
>after they pulled it out of storage after more than a year which leads me to
>believe that if it is stored properly, it can last much longer than Albert
>Hofmann estimated. It must be protected from oxidation by the paper to some
>extent. The reports of continued potency after over a year involved storage
>in aluminum foil in a freezer. Perhaps the cold and lack of air contributed.

        I believe someone told me that if kept properly that it will lose
only approximately half its potency in something like 10 years.  On the
other hand, I know a scientist who says the original Sandoz LSD he received
for experiments in the 60's is still just fine for his investigational
needs in animals.

        Kit

--------------------
From: robert keil <rnkeil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re:MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"


    I became fascinated by the question of what adulterants could appear
in blotter paper and undertook a few simple experiments to determine
just how much material you could get onto a piece of paper.
    I used caffeine and another amine salt (alpha-methylbenzylamine.  A
completely inactive compound with similar chemical properties to
amphetamine.  It is completely legal) and made concentrated solutions of
both of these.
    I then took several sheets of absorbant papers, ranging from
notebook paper to thicker art paper, to paper towels and soaked them in
these solutions.  I found that, in general, the maximum amount of salt
that a paper will absorb when dried in on the order of 5-10mg/cm2.
When you get above this region, the salts start forming a coating on the
surface.
    The upshot of this is that there aren't many compounds that are
active at the 5-10 mg range.  It seems that aldulterating paper sheets
with strychnine, amphetamine, etc, would be somewhat difficult and not
terribly cost effective for the dealer.
    I too am curious about purity of paper and pill LSD samples, and
have not seen many reports on the subject.
    As regards your oxidation question, any reaction occuring on a paper
surface is going to involve many variables (temperature, exposure to
oxygen, humidity, pH of the paper, amount of light exposure)  that make
it difficult to predict how fast the compound will degrade.  I don't
think it is possible to give a simple rule of thumb for this process

    robert keil phd
    professor of chemistry
    moorpark college

all opinions are my own, not my schools etc etc

------------------------
From: Peter Webster <vignes@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: MAPS: Special Digest: Re: Questions on "LSD on paper"

>From: Edmond Kelly <edkelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"
>
>It is my understanding that a piece of blotter paper is only capable on
>holding 200 micrograms of any drug substance.

It is possible to put speed or perhaps strychnine on a bit of paper in an
amount that might be psychoactive, but nearly all suspicions of such are
more of paranoia than likelihood. If an outfit can manufacture LSD they are
very rarely going to put speed on the paper with it. If their output is so
limited that they resort to this, they are not going to produce an amount
that will enter general circulation.

Here's a sure-fire way to judge blotter. Put a blotter dose at the bottom
of a small test tube, and squirt in a few ml. of water, while observing it
under a long-wave blacklight. Room lights should be off. LSD is very
soluble in water, and in solution it fluoresces a brilliant blue-white
colour under blacklight illumination. AS a reference, quinine, as in the
tonic or quinine water used to make gin & tonic, fluoresces the same color.

Blotter paper can be stored for long periods in an airtight bottle in a
freezer. It will decompose slowly, but the decomposition products are not
harmful or active in the doses produced by the decomposition. AND, if you
disslove off the active LSD in water as above and then pull out the
blotter, you will see that the dark stain mostly remians on the paper, thus
the water solution has purified the dose to a significant extent. Of
course, the amount dissolved will not be optimum, so it may be necessry to
use tPeter Webster or even more to arrive at a full dose. With some
practice, using the same test tube size and amount of water, the brightness
of the fluoresence will even give a reasonable test of the strength. Bright
blue fluoresence is what you are looking for, if it looks only pale yellow,
there is not much left.

pw

-------------
From: "Anthony Steele" <asteele@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Holger Wagner" <Holger.Wagner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"

> I know that there have been reports of
> speed and even strychnine being sold as LSD - but I assume that those

There are also reports of MDMA causing Parkinson's disease ;) but that
doesn't make it true.

Read http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/synthetics/lsd/strychnine.html for a
reality check

"a 5mm x 5mm "standard" square of blotter LSD only weights about 2mg and if
the paper itself was made completely out of pure strychnine it is still on
the very low end of Strychnine's threshold of activity"

The other documents at http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/synthetics/lsd/ are also
quite good.


> a) I understand that LSD is a very potential hallucinogen, and *assume*
> that this is a reason why it is possible to distribute it on paper
> instead of tablets. Are there other drugs which could be distributed
> that way, or: does that make sure that on paper-LSD, there can be no
> other drugs in effective doses?

> Are there any reports available on what doses or
> drugs are sold as "LSD on paper" (like it exists for Ecstasy)?
>

Yes, there is one at
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/synthetics/lsd/lsd_data.html Quite old (Early
70s), and most of the data is about non-paper forms.


DOB is also active in very low does and can apparently be found on blotter,
the report is at:
 http://members.xoom.com/curse/LSDorDOBLetter.htm

> b) In "LSD - my problem child", Albert Hoffman says that LSD is easily
> oxidated and thus would hardly "survive" more than a few weeks or months
> (p. 78f, German version). However, some people claim they used
> "paper-LSD" that has been months old and that it was still effective. If
> that is true - does it mean that there must have been some other drug
> involved which is not as vulnerable to oxygene as LSD, could that be the
> result of a placebo effect or is it possible that LSD lasts much longer
> than expected under certain circumstances?
>

How long LSD lasts depends on how you store it.
(Mod. note: psilo, below, continues discussion of storage.)
------------------
From: psilo <psilo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"

> that is true - does it mean that there must have been some other drug
> involved which is not as vulnerable to oxygene as LSD, could that be the
> result of a placebo effect or is it possible that LSD lasts much longer
> than expected under certain circumstances?

It depends on storage methods.  If one keeps LSD in a cool, dark place,
well sealed, than the decomposition can be kept to a minimum.  Otherwise,
keeping it in, say, ones wallet, the LSD will breakdown and any remaining
activity will likely be from other stable isomers with a similar activity
(but not as desireable as clean, pure LSD-25).  Most users of LSD know
that long term storage decreases the potency of blotter acid, and that a
once potent set of blotter can turn into, while still active, mediocre
grade.

Hope this has been of some help,
aloha
psilo

------------------------
From: Chris Cappuccio <chris@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: MAPS: Special Digest: Re: Questions on "LSD on paper"

Please read the following two links, they are very informative and raise some
good questions about this.

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/synthetics/lsd/cleanliness.html

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/synthetics/lsd/lsd_purity.html

----------------------
From: Bob Wallace <bobw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"


Holger Wagner wrote:
>I have a few questions about LSD as it is sold on the black market.
>Obviously, a major problem is that there is no way of finding out which
>dose comes on one "portion". 

According to DEA seizure stats, in the US anyway it's about 40-80 mcg. 

>However, I've been wondering about a few more things:
>
>a) I understand that LSD is a very potential hallucinogen, and *assume*
>that this is a reason why it is possible to distribute it on paper
>instead of tablets. Are there other drugs which could be distributed
>that way, or: does that make sure that on paper-LSD, there can be no
>other drugs in effective doses? 

A few; DOB is probably the most likely, which is also a psychedelic. 
There are other psychedelics as potent, but they are uncommon and 
probably would be more difficult to make than LSD. "Mescaline microdot" 
is probably really DOB. 

>result of a placebo effect or is it possible that LSD lasts much longer
>than expected under certain circumstances?

Most likely the paper was just stored in an oxygen-free environment, 
such as a ziplock, or even within the pages of a book or magazine 
with coated paper. 


- Bob Wallace (just my opinion);  bobw@xxxxxxxxxxx

Mind Books offers publications about psychedelics; 
books@xxxxxxxxxxx, or http://www.promind.com

-------------------------
From: Gennady Rut <anyservice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: MAPS: Special Digest: Re: Questions on "LSD on paper"

At 12:12 PM 1/14/99 -0500, you wrote:
>From: Edmond Kelly <edkelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: MAPS: Questions on "LSD on paper"

>It is my understanding that a piece of blotter paper is only capable on
>holding 200 micrograms of any drug substance. I do recognize that such a
>claim would assume a standard size square of blotter paper so one may wish
>to add a margin of error of 20 to 40 micrograms. I know of no psychoactive
>drug other than LSD that is active orally at doses that low.

Somewhere on the Lycaeum I read the trip report (Interactive Spiritual Growth,
I have it locally on my HD) about administration of 500 micrograms of
2,5-DIMETHOXY-4-BROMOAMPHETAMINE, DOB. Experience was profound. Shulgin in
PiKHAL began from 400 micrograms and experienced

          a distinct enhancement of visual perception,
          and some strengthening of colors. A clean,
          cold feeling of wind on the skin. <He> felt an 
          enriched emotional affect, a comfortable and 
          good feeling, and easy sleeping with colorful 
          and important dreams. 



No doubt it was racemate material. L-isomer is double as strong and therefore
we do have substance (substances, counting the DOI) that can be active in such
a small, 200-250 micrograms, amount.

Gennady
Simferopol Crimea Ukraine  

 
 



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