LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

The use of LSD peaked in the late 1960s, when psychedelic music reached the height of its popularity. By the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s, LSD use declined. Reports of bad trips turned off many recreational usersUsing a drug solely to achieve a high, not to treat a medical condition., and the media gave widespread coverage to tragic stories of lives shattered by the drug's effects. The term "bad trip" is used to describe a negative LSD experience, which is characterized by anxiety, panic, and despair. Such trips can be extremely traumatic.

After ravesOvernight dance parties that typically involve huge crowds of people, loud techno music, and illegal drug use. began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, other drugs—most notably ecstasy—became far more popular among drug users than LSD. However, a small group of ravers did rediscover LSD, which is said to enhance the sights and sounds of the rave experience. This new generation's interest in the hallucinogenic effects of LSD accounted for the spike in use that appeared around 1997.

Tracking LSD into the Twenty-first Century

According to the "National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)," conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), approximately 1 million Americans were using hallucinogenic drugs in 2003. That number is similar to the estimate for 2002. One percent of youths age twelve to seventeen took hallucinogens in 2003. About 1.7 percent of young adults age eighteen to twenty-five reported hallucinogen use that year.

The results of the 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study were released to the public on December 21, 2004. Conducted by the University of Michigan (U of M), it was sponsored by research grants from NIDA. Since 1991, U of M has tracked patterns of drug use and attitudes toward drugs among students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. (Prior to that, from 1975 to 1990, the MTF survey was limited to twelfth graders.)

The Language of LSD

Certain terms are used to describe different aspects of the LSD experience. A sampling of LSD lingo follows.

  • acid head: an LSD user
  • coming down: the experience of the drug wearing off
  • coming home: the end of an LSD trip
  • drop: a common term used to describe the taking of LSD, as in "dropping acid"
  • hit: a dose of LSD
  • talk down: the process by which someone helps users high on LSD reconnect with reality by calmly explaining that their hallucinations are not real; reassuring them of their safety; and reminding them that the effects are only temporary
  • ten packs: 1,000 dosage units of LSD
  • trails: visual distortions produced by LSD that make moving objects seem to leave multiple images behind them
  • travel agent: an LSD supplier
  • trippin' or trippin' out: getting high on a psychedelic drug such as LSD

MTF researchers reported that the use of hallucinogens such as LSD "remained stable among all grades from 2003 to 2004." In 2004, 4.6 percent of twelfth graders admitted using LSD at least once in their lives, as did 2.8 percent of tenth graders and 1.8 percent of eighth graders. Those percentages were down significantly from the 1990s. In 1997, for example, 13.6 percent of twelfth graders, 9.5 percent of tenth graders, and 4.7 percent of eighth graders had reported using LSD during their lifetimes.

Despite the downward trend in actual use of LSD, MTF researchers noted a negative change in attitude toward the drug among the youngest students surveyed (the eighth graders). "A significant decrease occurred in the percentage of eighth graders who disapprove of taking LSD regularly," wrote the authors of the 2004 MTF report. If this attitude remains the same over the next few years, these students may be more likely to use LSD by the time they reach their senior year of high school.

Usage Drops Off with Time

According to the authors of "An Overview of Club Drugs" (2000): "Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop using it over time, since it does not produce the same compulsive, drug-induced behavior of cocaine and heroin."

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) tracks hospital emergency department (ED) visits caused by drug use. The latest statistics published as of mid-2005 were from the last two quarters of 2003. During those six months, 656 ED visits were reported for LSD poisoning. Nearly 94 percent of the individuals involved in LSD-related ED visits were male, and about 85 percent were white. The majority of patients were under the age of thirty-five.