This site is an "old internet" gem and I hope it never changes. I saw Earth and Fire (the creators of the project) speak at the Psychedelic Science conference a few years ago, quite a treat! Genuinely great people oozing integrity
My friends and I used to visit this site a lot in high school and got kicks out of reading experiences for the more "hardcore" drugs like nightshade. Who knows how many of them were legit, but it was a great stoner activity. Glad to see this site is still around.
I first came across Erowid in college when my friends were getting me into psychedelics. It’s an incredibly informative site, and as a kid who read the warning labels on _everything_, it really helped me feel comfortable.
I'm curious how people go about finding safe sources for something like LSD (to be clear I'm not asking for anyone to give specific details, just an explanation). While psilocybin is easy to try safely (just travel to a place where it is legal), LSD is illegal in every jurisdiction as far as I know. The thought of ingesting some substance from dubious sources, that could be contaminated with absolutely anything, terrifies me and I honestly don't know how people bring themselves to take this kind of risk. Am I missing the point and there is some safe underground supply chain for this sort of thing?
- Buy on the darkweb. Marketplaces exist with established vendors, open forums, feedback, customer support, escrow... I could write a long text about how this is an infinitely better way to do things for all concerned than to "force" non-violent people to interact with violent drug traders and adulterated products, but let's leave that for now. You can pay with Monero for untraceability.
- Test what you get. Some stuff being sold as LSD might actually be another synthetic psychedelic, potentially dangerous (unlike LSD). So test: even in jurisdictions in which LSD is banned, you can easily buy tests; for LSD, this would be Erhrlich's reagent. If it tests positive, and since there's no reason to have LSD and an adulterant (unlike other drugs such as cocaine), you're safe.
Back in the day (90s and before) the other substances that could fit on a blotter and still have an effect were very, very niche, and somehow LSD was very very cheap so if it worked at all it was probably the real thing.
> The thought of ingesting some substance from dubious sources, that could be contaminated with absolutely anything
People used to trust networks of friends, rather than stereotypical 'gangs' or 'dealers'. The problem now is that there is so much other stuff floating around that nearly anything you go after could be nearly anything else.
In the UK there is a service called WEDINOS, which is of interest in this area - you can anonymously submit them a sample of whatever it is and they will publish the result on their website. They use the data to track drugs (their particular interest is novel or 'emerging' drugs) around the country. You basically get a number, fill in a form and post it to them alongside a sample, and they will do GCMS. You're not supposed to send them things you know are illegal, but ... looking at the website people do, a lot.
As the other poster mentions reagent tests are available fairly widely and can give you a rough idea.
Also in many countries some LSD derivatives are not (yet) illegal, and in those it is quite often possible to order things like 1P-LSD, which is (as far as can be ascertained) a pro-drug that is quickly metabolised into LSD, on the open internet.
Likely. I spent a lot of my youth exploring the idea that the brain is sort of like a radio that could be tuned to different layers of reality using psychoactives. Also had a bit of a love affair with DMT for awhile, as well as trying to find the right combo of “soft” drugs that would induce hypnogogic dream states.
As fruity as all that sounds, I learned a lot about chemistry and how to conduct (or not conduct, perhaps), verifiable research, which is an important part of my thinking today as we navigate an ever-increasing flood of claims about tech, medicine and mental health. I have to imagine HN attracts some pretty analytical minds by default, my own being novice, at best.
I have a lot of great respect for the folks at erowid and I’m glad to see they’re still around.
This site is an "old internet" gem and I hope it never changes. I saw Earth and Fire (the creators of the project) speak at the Psychedelic Science conference a few years ago, quite a treat! Genuinely great people oozing integrity
Do you have a link to the video?
I'm not finding the exact one I was at (I saw them at the 2023 conference) but here is one from 2017- https://youtube.com/watch?v=lk9-PMKZPAY
Thanks!
Absolutely critically experience vaults here. In my youth these were invaluable
Some previous discussions of Erowid:
What do people see when they're tripping? Analyzing Erowid's trip reports (263 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43171007
An Experience with Modafinil (343 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30067264
My friends and I used to visit this site a lot in high school and got kicks out of reading experiences for the more "hardcore" drugs like nightshade. Who knows how many of them were legit, but it was a great stoner activity. Glad to see this site is still around.
I first came across Erowid in college when my friends were getting me into psychedelics. It’s an incredibly informative site, and as a kid who read the warning labels on _everything_, it really helped me feel comfortable.
We did exactly the same :) The thornapple trip reports were particularly nasty.
I've spent a lot of time reading those. They are entertaining and terrifying.
Erowid's a really good source of "Hey, you know, maybe I don't want to get involved in that" at times.
I'm curious how people go about finding safe sources for something like LSD (to be clear I'm not asking for anyone to give specific details, just an explanation). While psilocybin is easy to try safely (just travel to a place where it is legal), LSD is illegal in every jurisdiction as far as I know. The thought of ingesting some substance from dubious sources, that could be contaminated with absolutely anything, terrifies me and I honestly don't know how people bring themselves to take this kind of risk. Am I missing the point and there is some safe underground supply chain for this sort of thing?
Find a source, get a test kit, test meticulously, stick to the source. If you're getting a new source, test again and try a very small dose first.
Also, besides Erowid, other reliable information sources have popped up. Psychonautwiki, tripsit.me for example.
Some countries have anonymous test pipelines via hospitals or universities, but it's less common. Test kits are available online.
- Buy on the darkweb. Marketplaces exist with established vendors, open forums, feedback, customer support, escrow... I could write a long text about how this is an infinitely better way to do things for all concerned than to "force" non-violent people to interact with violent drug traders and adulterated products, but let's leave that for now. You can pay with Monero for untraceability.
- Test what you get. Some stuff being sold as LSD might actually be another synthetic psychedelic, potentially dangerous (unlike LSD). So test: even in jurisdictions in which LSD is banned, you can easily buy tests; for LSD, this would be Erhrlich's reagent. If it tests positive, and since there's no reason to have LSD and an adulterant (unlike other drugs such as cocaine), you're safe.
Of course, this is what my friend told me.
Back in the day (90s and before) the other substances that could fit on a blotter and still have an effect were very, very niche, and somehow LSD was very very cheap so if it worked at all it was probably the real thing.
> The thought of ingesting some substance from dubious sources, that could be contaminated with absolutely anything
People used to trust networks of friends, rather than stereotypical 'gangs' or 'dealers'. The problem now is that there is so much other stuff floating around that nearly anything you go after could be nearly anything else.
In the UK there is a service called WEDINOS, which is of interest in this area - you can anonymously submit them a sample of whatever it is and they will publish the result on their website. They use the data to track drugs (their particular interest is novel or 'emerging' drugs) around the country. You basically get a number, fill in a form and post it to them alongside a sample, and they will do GCMS. You're not supposed to send them things you know are illegal, but ... looking at the website people do, a lot.
As the other poster mentions reagent tests are available fairly widely and can give you a rough idea.
Also in many countries some LSD derivatives are not (yet) illegal, and in those it is quite often possible to order things like 1P-LSD, which is (as far as can be ascertained) a pro-drug that is quickly metabolised into LSD, on the open internet.
I found a hippie with a jar of liquid lsd in a safe.
You just gotta trust people and be a Guinea pig, if you aren’t going to test drugs you buy.
This feels like a good audience for Erowid.
I'm sure there's already a significant overlap.
Likely. I spent a lot of my youth exploring the idea that the brain is sort of like a radio that could be tuned to different layers of reality using psychoactives. Also had a bit of a love affair with DMT for awhile, as well as trying to find the right combo of “soft” drugs that would induce hypnogogic dream states.
As fruity as all that sounds, I learned a lot about chemistry and how to conduct (or not conduct, perhaps), verifiable research, which is an important part of my thinking today as we navigate an ever-increasing flood of claims about tech, medicine and mental health. I have to imagine HN attracts some pretty analytical minds by default, my own being novice, at best.
I have a lot of great respect for the folks at erowid and I’m glad to see they’re still around.
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