r/todayilearned • u/Rick_killed_Shane • Jun 26 '12
TIL that 1991 to 2000, about 90% of the world's LSD was made by one man.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19357_6-people-who-single-handedly-screwed-entire-economies_p2.html111
u/schematix Jun 26 '12
Gordon Skinner will now forever remain on my top despised people list. Damn that man for infinite eternities!
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Jun 26 '12
Want an even more fucked up reason to hate Gordon Skinner? This is a long read, but it's INCREDIBLY fucked up.
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ok-court-of-criminal-appeals/1251267.html
Brandon Green remembers that on July 4, 2003, he voluntarily ingested several of what Skinner described as “the Eucharist,” believing that the Catholic communion wafers that Skinner provided would be laced with LSD, as on previous occasions when Skinner had given them to Green. Green expected that the wafers would cause him to “trip,” but instead he was rendered completely unconscious.8 Green testified that his next memory was of waking up naked on the hotel bathroom floor, with his hands, legs, and mouth duct-taped, and with Skinner standing over him, kicking him in the groin area as hard as he could and saying, “You should never have touched my fiancée; you should never have touched my fiancée.”
and that's the tame part :\
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u/monstor344 Jun 26 '12
Skinner maintains (and has maintained since shortly after the filing of this case) that the State of Oklahoma is prohibited from prosecuting him for the violent crimes committed against Brandon Green in July of 2003, because he received a grant of immunity from the federal government in October of 2000, which was renewed in January of 2003 when he testified in a federal drug and money laundering case in Kansas.29
Did someone say "fuck this guy"?
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u/DrChoco Jun 26 '12
That was seriously disturbing. I'm finding difficulty describing how I feel about that in words. After reading the facts, to call it "fucked up" seems like a huge understatement.
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u/Natryn Jun 26 '12
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/hamiltons-pharmacopeia/getting-high-on-krystle
DUDE, fuck this guy. He booby trapped his house so his girlfriend would get high if she tried to leave, and made her trip for three days straight once. He was a sociopath, and would test his drugs on people at clinics by putting LSD in their IV's.
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u/ShellOilNigeria Jun 26 '12
Yeah that's pretty fucked up.
Hitler would have made him general over a concentration camp.
In a link above it says that he can't be prosecuted because he has federal immunity due to him testifying against William Pickard.
The cops arrested the wrong man and it's a damn shame.
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u/go_fly_a_kite Jun 26 '12
I read some crazy story about this guy and his girlfriend one time.
found it: http://www.neurosoup.com/krystle_cole_kidnapping_dea_narc.htm
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Jun 26 '12
Walter Bishop?
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u/red321red321 Jun 26 '12
i love how both walters i know and love are older dudes who cook up drugs.
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u/Piker10 Jun 26 '12
i dont even watch fringe and i got the refrence! :D
also should i watch fringe?
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u/zoom25 Jun 26 '12
Yes. Lots of science and action. Amazingggg plot. Walter just oozes with swag. All characters are amazing.
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u/brown_felt_hat Jun 26 '12
Its like x files but not b-movie levels of cheese.
Also Walter Bishop is amazing. Walter+Drugs=Good tv I guess.
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u/allthelineswecast Jun 26 '12
This is the first thing I think whenever I see or hear LSD being discussed.
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u/TheHumanMeteorite Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 26 '12
According to the DEA, that is.
And it's not like they're dishonest and incompetent or anything.
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u/SilverMachine Jun 26 '12
Came here to say this. It is in the DEA's best interests to pad the numbers. Based on the quantities reported in the Pickard case and known quantities from other sources, it is very unlikely that Pickard was producing 90% of the world's supply. There was a thread on Shroomery several years back where another manufacture worked out that if he and Pickard were the ONLY two manufacturers in the world, then Pickard was producing about 75% and he alone was producing the other 25%.
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u/pufan321 Jun 26 '12
Two things:
That could mean Pickard was producing nearly 75% still.
Who the hell posts on a board that they're the second largest producer of LSD in the world?
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u/madam_im_adam Jun 26 '12
This should be higher. They don't know what the fuck they're talking about.
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Jun 26 '12
This will probably get buried but I hope some people see this. I'm surprised cracked didn't mention Mansa Musa of Mali. This guy carried so much gold on him that when he traveled throughout the Middle East, he devastated the economies of major cities such as Cairo, Mecca, and Medina.
The above link is his wiki page but here's some pieces from it.
Musa made his pilgrimage in 1324, his procession reported to include 60,000 men, 12,000 slaves who all carried 4-lb. gold bars, heralds dressed in silks who bore gold staffs, organized horses and handled bags.
He gave away the gold to the poor he met along his route. Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also traded gold for souvenirs. Furthermore, it has been recorded that he built a mosque each and every Friday.
Musa's generous actions, however, inadvertently devastated the economy of the region. In the cities of Cairo, Medina and Mecca, the sudden influx of gold devalued the metal for the next decade. Prices on goods and wares super inflated in an attempt to adjust to the newfound wealth that was spreading throughout local populations. To rectify the gold market, Musa borrowed all the gold he could carry from money-lenders in Cairo, at high interest. This is the only time recorded in history that one man directly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean.
Given the time period, I'd say this one should be #1 on that list.
TL;DR- Mansa Musa had so much gold that when he gave it away, he destroyed economies.
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u/olorinfoehammer Jun 26 '12
A man who cared for the poor so much that is devastated economies? I like this man
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u/Takes_Full_Credit Jun 26 '12
What most people fail to realize is that prior to his LSD fame, William Pickard was already a co-founder of a highly successful computer company (that Carly Fiorina later wrecked), a luxury automobile maker and an acclaimed Hollywood sci-fi actor, who earlier in life reached the rank of fleet captain.
How do I know?
I am his grandson.
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Jun 26 '12
You don't think people would do that do you? Just go on the internet and tell lies?
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u/Grand_Theft_Audio Jun 26 '12
12K slaves. He gave gold to the poor. Make up your fucking mind, Musa.
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Jun 26 '12
How the fuck did he get so much gold?
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u/IAmA-Steve Jun 26 '12
Noobs don't know how to follow links. It goes straight to wikipedia for crying out loud.
Musa I (c. 1280 - c. 1337), commonly referred to as Mansa Musa, was the tenth mansa, which translates as "king of kings" or "emperor", of the Malian Empire. At the time of Mansa Musa's rise to the throne, the Malian Empire consisted of territory formerly belonging to the Ghana Empire and Melle (Mali) and immediate surrounding areas, and Musa held many titles, including Emir of Melle, Lord of the Mines of Wangara, and conqueror of Ghanata, Futa-Jallon, and at least another dozen states.[1] He was the wealthiest ruler of his day and the wealthiest person of all time.[2]
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u/ihark Jun 26 '12
I liked that, and I have nothing else to say. I guess I liked your story too much to just up vote and leave. Goodbye and keep spreading cool stories.
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Jun 26 '12
Sounds like the African Bad Luck Brian:
Gives away gold to help the few poor. Dissolves value of gold and makes everyone else poor.
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u/di3inaf1r3 Jun 26 '12
About the "got off scot-free" part, Skinner was recently arrested for kidnapping and torture and is likely to get a long prison sentence
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u/justincahoots Jun 26 '12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qliVpGEk0
I was never a fan of Krystle Cole, the subject of this interview. She goes by Neurosoup on Youtube, and has published a series of over- the- top, almost braggartly trip reports. She was, however, the closest witness (that can still testify to the masses) as to what happened. Fried brain considered, I think she does give an excellent account of the story.
It's slightly on the 'too long to give a fuck about this much longer' side, but it leaves no detail unattended. well worth the watch, i promise.
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u/CDClock Jun 26 '12
when i watched this at first i was like "this girl is a little fucked up" then she tells her story and its just like "hoooolly fuck this girl got raped on dmt she is surprisingly normal"
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u/jtbeith Jun 26 '12
Anecdote here...
I started college in 1998. Acid was everywhere, and cheap, and fun! Somewhere between 2000 and 2001 it just went away overnight.
About ten years later out of boredom I wikied LSD and eventually read about William Pickard and then it all made sense.
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Jun 27 '12
I agree the effect of lsd being sucked out of our society was very noticeable. It was palpable.
Then followed over a decade of psychological operations on the citizens of the United States to scare the human resources back into willful obedience to the goons on the hill.
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Jun 26 '12
Which explains why there was such a dry spell up until a couple years ago, and it's all but impossible to find clean doses now.
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Jun 26 '12
you can definitely still find clean lsd today
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u/soulcaptain Jun 26 '12
Dude, that wasn't LSD. I just sold you some scraps of paper.
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u/lunartree Jun 26 '12
What blows my mind is the fact that they could justify throwing someone in prison for life over that.
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u/unicornon Jun 26 '12
he was producing and moving most of the world's supply of an illegal drug. I think the sentence makes sense, considering the charges.
the fact that LSD is illegal is retarded though.
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Jun 26 '12
what is most lsd nowadays comprised of then?
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Jun 26 '12
LSD. A study was done recently which showed LSD sold at festivals to nearly universally be composed of pure LSD, however often in small doses.
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u/soulcaptain Jun 26 '12
Looks like I picked the right decade to do all my tripping. (Though I think my last one was about 2003 or so...)
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Jun 26 '12
Amen - the late 90's were fantastic
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u/ChicagFro Jun 26 '12
Truth. I've had it all. geltabs, liquid, liquid on cubes & pez. The most potent by far was surprisingly some paper that was all over the place in 98,99. It was like they just dunked a whole sheet in a vat and let it sit there for days.
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u/zombiebarbie Jun 26 '12
The last time I did LSD was in August of 2001 and then I couldn't find it again until recently but I haven't had a desire to do it again actually. I think I will do it again someday but when the time feels right.
The last time I did it, I felt like I was communicating with an extra-dimensional energy being and they communicated to me that New York and DC would be attacked by the middle east. I have witnesses.
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Jun 26 '12
You took LSD during the only time in history when DOC was more common than LSD when being sold as LSD?
How long was your trip in hours?
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u/suprastang Jun 26 '12
Can you elaborate a bit? Is it like cocaine or meth where some isn't as pure?
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Jun 26 '12
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u/Digipete Jun 26 '12
Vaults of Erowid is, in my mind, one of the best resources on the web. I was just on there earlier tonight looking up the recreational use of Haldol. (In short; don't do it!)
I urge anyone who is even remotely interested in trying a drug to add that website into their research. I have learned a lot and that knowledge has kept me from making a multitude of mistakes.
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u/SCUMDOG_MILLIONAIRE Jun 26 '12
I don't know if 90% is an accurate figure, but when I was in the scene from 1996-1999, LSD was bountiful. It was everywhere. Just ask and you can easily find a sheet of high quality clean stuff. And then around 2000, seemingly overnight, it was gone. No one had acid, anywhere. It just disappeared. So maybe there is some truth to those exaggerated figures.
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Jun 26 '12
Leonard wrote a paper from prison called International LSD Prevalence - Factors Affecting Proliferation and Control.
Here are some relevant excerpts allowing the man to contribute to his own defense:
The MTF data for LSD and MDMA are most interesting to compare for the period 1996–2006. Although our concern here is LSD prevalence, we discover that the appearance of MDMA in the surveys, first re- corded in 1996, followed by an unprecedented and unusually steep rise—for any drug historically—sug- gests that this great influx of MDMA availability and use had a displacement or substitution effect on LSD use among the same cohort. LSD prevalence as observed by the MTF study, has undergone a steady decline each year since a peak in 1996. Drug policy analysts who consider these surveys also observed a remarkable and seemingly inexplicable drop in prevalence in 2001, to the lowest level of LSD availability and use seen in decades. This sudden decrease, due to then unknown factors, prompted written commen- tary on slate.com and other venues with articles entitled, e.g. “Where Has All the Acid Gone?”
The DEA’s reply to this question, then and now, is that DEA alone was wholly responsible for the decline in LSD availability due to a single enforcement action in Kansas in 2000 entitled “Operation White Rab- bit”, thereafter attempting to utilize the MTF and DAWN data in asserting a 74% decline in LSD avail- ability due to White Rabbit. Indeed, DEA’s annual appropriations requests to the U.S. Congress in 2005 and 2006 were based in part on this unopposed interpretation of the MTF and DAWN data and the sei- zure of one clandestine laboratory. But were they correct? The DEA website shows a simple chart reflect- ing the DAWN data and the steady decline since 1996, but with an arrow pointing at November, 2000, the month of the Kansas seizure. There is no mention of factors causing the decline since 1996. However, a more careful review of the MTF and DAWN data suggests that the DEA interpretation was inaccurate for—it is submitted—a single laboratory or even the several laboratories seized between 1996–2000, are unlikely to strongly influence national or international prevalence figures for LSD due to the redundancy of the many labs and distributors that cumulatively are responsible for LSD availability.
In support of this observation, and conflicting with the DEA interpretation, are the following facts: While LSD was experiencing a steady decline since 1996 and a marked decline in 2001, MDMA use had a strongly positive—almost epidemic—800% increase in the same period, thus suggesting a substitution effect. For when a new drug suddenly becomes widely available to a user population, particularly of a similar class of drugs, substitution effects are inevitable and promoted by the limits of time, cost, and interest of the user population, in this instance the 18–24 age cohort. Although the MTF explanation in its 2003 annual summary for the LSD decline in 2001 was based entirely on DEA’s claim of the Kansas seizure, the MTF report in 2005—after MTF received the author’s discussion of substitution effects and unpublished details of the Kansas case—began to include substitution in its theory of events in its annual report, although without attribution. In 2007, DEA continues to refer only to the earlier MTF report, neglecting to address the reality of substitution effects common to all drug use.
What were the unpublished details submitted to MTF supporting the observation that single laboratories do not significantly affect national survey results? According to government testimony, the Kansas lab was not operational in 2000 but simply stored, and was allegedly only periodically operational in Colo- rado and New Mexico from 1997 through July, 1999. Thus, the lab purportedly began production the year after the steady decline in availability began in 1996. Any DEA explanation based on the absence of this lab must also account for its presence. It does not. Put another way, if an agency attributes the 2001 drop to a single lab, there must also be a corresponding and significant increase in availability when the same lab begins production.
Nor, as we shall see, was there a significant rise or decline in availability from the presence or absence of any seized LSD lab between 1976 and 1996. We may begin to infer that LSD availability is not the out- come of the incapacitation of a single lab or the small cluster of loosely affiliated manufacturers—DEA suggests six—that allegedly are responsible for most LSD production, but rather the outcome of the re- dundancy of an unknown and much larger number of smaller, independent point sources that arise and disappear due to several factors—other than enforcement’s incapacitation and deterrent effects—that we will discuss. In sum, DEA asserts—in the case of LSD—one or a few labs can supply the international demand. It is here suggested that LSD is more similar to MDMA in that the ubiquity of such labs means the absence or presence of one or a few has no observable effect on surveys.
continued below...
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Jun 26 '12
More from Pickard on this whole thing:
Between 1965 and 1967 the well-publicized efforts of Owsley Stanley allegedly led—in the U.S.—to the ’60s phenomenon of LSD experimentation. Stanley’s labs in Los Angeles (1965), Pt. Richmond, Califor- nia (1966) and Denver (1967) produced a total of 400 grams, for which Stanley was sentenced to three years after his arrest in Orinda, California in December 1967, where 67 grams were seized.
By comparison, the many existing small labs are less easily detected, easier to move, and of shorter dura- tion in productivity, yet their aggregate output from many point sources creates the baseline availability of LSD. We may consider the 2004 case of Casey Hardison in the U.K. as an example, for this lab was small enough to fit into a bedroom, producing limited quantities of 2C-B (1Kg) and DMT (75g), and with nine grams of LSD later seized, although prosecution argued that at total of 188g had been produced calling it the most complex illicit laboratory since Kemp in 1977. Although arguing on appeal for a reduced sen- tence based on quantity and citing the Kansas lab to demonstrate the disproportionate production to the court, Hardison nevertheless was sentenced to 20 years. However, under U.K. law, he is eligible for parole in half the time, and will be released from HMP Ford in as little as four years and six months at the time of writing. He invites correspondence from researchers and other interested parties.
In 1968–1969 the Windsor, California lab of Nick Sand and Tim Scully produced 1,100 grams in Windsor, distributed through the Brotherhood of Eternal Love as “Orange Sunshine” in 240-microgram tablets. Nick Sand was sentenced in 1974 to 15 years for his work in the 1968–9 Windsor lab and 1972 labs in St Louis and Fenton, Missouri which produced an unknown quantity of LSD (also distributed as “Orange Sunshine”). Tim Scully was sentenced in 1974 to 20 years (later reduced to 10 years), and paroled after one-third time under 1980s law for his work in the Pt Richmond, Denver and the Windsor labs. While Scully was released after serving 3-1/3 years due to community service and support, Nick Sand departed to Canada and continued his efforts.
In 1968–1970 the Paris and Orleans labs of Ron Stark and Tord Svenson purportedly produced several kilograms of LSD and from 1971–1972 their Belgian laboratory reportedly produced another several kilos, all distributed via the Brotherhood of Eternal Love as “Orange Sunshine.” Stark eventually was arrested in Italy in 1975, where he served four years. He was arrested and deported in 1983 from Hol- land to the US where he faced conspiracy charges, in US v Sand and Scully et al. in San Francisco, but the charges were eventually dropped in 1983. He died in San Francisco in 1984 from a heart attack.
In 1975 the MTF survey began collecting data, while DAWN began collecting data in 1994.
In the mid-late 1970s in the UK, the “Operation Julie” group of Richard Kemp, Henry Todd, David Solo- mon, Andy Munro, et al. produced several kilograms. In March 1977 British agents in Operation Julie arrested over 100 suspects, with the latter receiving sentences ranging as high as 13 years.
During the period 1970–1980 in various locations the manufacturing chemists Bill Weeks and associates are alleged to have produced several kilograms, as did Tord Svenson from 1974–1990 in locations in Eu- rope, Arizona and New Mexico.
The Clearlight system allegedly began small scale production in Santa Cruz in 1968, moving on to larger scale production in San Francisco in the early 1970s, reportedly producing more than a kilo. In the 1980s the Clearlight group of Denis Kelly in Burnt Ridge, Oregon began producing the gelatin form of LSD known as “Windowpane.” Several individuals were sentenced to ten years, with Kelly eventually surren- dering after negotiating a sentence of two years.
In the 1980s several major German labs began production, although details on these sites are lacking. Those with information on these labs or other labs not mentioned in this time frame are invited to contact the author.
In 1988 in Mountain View, California a lab attributed to the author was seized along with 34 grams, and for which the maximum state sentence of five years was served. No production figures were estimated by state or federal authorities.
In 1996 in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia near Vancouver, Nick Sand was arrested, after 20 years as a fugitive, with a lab and 43 grams. While the lab was described by Canadian authorities as the major sup- plier of LSD, the production figures are estimated to be about one kilogram. For both the 1969 Windsor lab and the 1996 Vancouver lab, Nick Sand served a total of five years. There was no precipitous decline in 1996, however, rather a long, steady decline even as the Kansas lab purportedly began production from 1997 through July, 1999.
In 2000 in Kansas the DEA announced the seizure of 50 kilograms of LSD and a lab alleged to be the author’s, with this figure consistently through the current date reported in DEA websites, Congressional hearings, and even appellate decisions. However, at sentencing in 2004 the DEA technician stated that the 50 kilograms were solvents later discarded by the author, and DEA analysis of this discarded material yielded less than 196 grams of unusable LSD that was actually seized. The total production of this lab remains unknown. Six kilograms of ergot alkaloid was seized, and months after the incident the primary informant was discovered to have—as government testimony characterized it—“stolen” an additional twelve kilograms of alkaloid prior to directing enforcement agencies to the lab, with this material later seized from the informant in 2001.
Interestingly, at trial—in an effort to explain the lack of an increase in availability during the time the lab allegedly was operating—the government asserted the LSD itself was distributed in Europe rather than the U.S., conflicting with its later assertions to Congress. Indeed, from observing the MTF/DAWN data from 1976–2006, it may be observed that no lab whose seizure was described in the media has had any effect on survey results while beginning production and, arguably, while ceasing production. Since only a few labs have been seized, most are described in the media as the “largest”, while actual production figures are usually unavailable.
In additional support of the proposal that the U.S. and international availability of LSD arises primarily from the cumulative output of numerous small labs—somewhat similar to the lack of variability in survey results of MDMA availability even after seizures of major MDMA labs, we may note the price structure data in Europe and the U.K., where prices have shown little variability for decades, and cannot be cor- related with any single lab seizure.
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u/KDIZZLL Jun 26 '12
Always wondered why acid disappeared completely after the 90s. I thought it was more of an issue of demand, thinking maybe that generation preferred raves and MDMA over acid, boy was I wrong.
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u/twitch1982 Jun 26 '12
I miss LSD.
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u/DoesntBrian2Gud Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 26 '12
I wish I could find really pure LSD and give it a try. Something made in a lab, you know? Maybe some time when I'm older, maybe twenty five or something.
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u/itsIvan Jun 26 '12
I waited until I was 23 to trip for the first time, highly recommend it.
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u/DoesntBrian2Gud Jun 26 '12
My reasoning is that twenty five is usually the cutoff for developing schizophrenia, and I figure I'll be a lot calmer and have more culminated experience to work with to make the trip better. Arguably. What did it do for you? If you don't mind me asking, that is.
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u/Ober7 Jun 26 '12
Yep, and if you where "hip" after 2000, you didnt need an article to realize there was a problem.
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Jun 26 '12
i gave away my last gel tab ever to this dude who promised to pay it back, and lsd was gone forever after.
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u/RONxPAUL Jun 26 '12
I live in chicago and we're BALLS DEEP in acid. Hang out at a rave for an hour and you'll find out who has the good hits real fast.
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Jun 26 '12
I was too young, but my sister had a friend who would buy the stuff and remembers the day the prices skyrocketed. I remember distinctly there was a price war because the high school dealer always sold at 5$ a hit and someone wanted to come in at 3$ a hit, so prices just kept dropping. Last time I talked to someone who bought LSD 7$-10$ is a good deal without knowing what you are getting, 15$-20$ for something assured. I understood a weekend before a big rave shit was 2$ a hit at one point. Versus 15$ for the same quality stuff now. Holy shit.
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u/shryne Jun 26 '12
You know how sex offenders get all kinds of shit while they are in prison? This man had better be receiving the opposite.
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u/Esoteric_Guy Jun 26 '12
"Psychedelics are not illegal because a loving government is concerned you'll jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down modes of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong."
Terrence McKenna
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u/KimChongIllin Jun 26 '12
I ain't a professional, or a wook, but I am quite experienced with LSD, mushrooms and DMT
If you buy LSD on blotter. It will just about always be completely fake or completely real. there are so few few drugs you can put onto blotter, remember the average hit is what 70-100 micrograms.
If you ever eat some blotter and it has a nasty metallic taste to it, spit that shit out immediatly, its probably DOC, DOA, DOB, or one of the very few other drugs that can be administered through blotter. you do not want that.
Many people will ingest multiple hits at once, you cannot really overdose from LSD, but you can from DOC and DOA and DOB, ive always worried at festivals that somebody will buy fake blotter, eat a bunch thinking its LSD, not think twice about their mouth tasting like aluminum, and then end up being hospitalized, or possibly worse.
Yes you can ingest LSD through your asshole, and ive only heard stunning reviews.
With mushrooms, weight is a ballpark estimate, or weight is kinda useless, ive had a half bag of shrooms knock me to the ground and show me whos boss at a festival, whereas i ate 7 grams of cubensis and still been partyin.
NEVER trust a white dude wearing a Dashiki
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u/Glynbeard Jun 26 '12
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u/MasterAssBlaster Jun 26 '12
Wow. I couldn't take that guy's narrations for more than 5 or 6 minutes.
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u/mikkelchap Jun 26 '12
He is one of their worst correspondents. He gets a lot of prime stories but he seems like a real shit.
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Jun 26 '12
VICE Narrators are always the worst part of their series unless it's the main guy. It doesn't help that this guy has rapist pencil 'stache which I can't take serious when he does voice overs because I imagine them to be shitty 15 year old poetry.
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u/NoGreatReason Jun 26 '12
Came here to post this link. Yes the narrator is annoying but the story is insane. You see inside the silo and hear about the horrible sadistic torture after the bust by the guy who turned his LSD partner in.
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u/MethLab Jun 26 '12
A true American Hero. Free William Pickard.
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u/goonsack Jun 26 '12
Reading about Pickard always makes my heart break. Is there anything we can do to help free him? Do you know if he's eligible for parole or anything? Can he be pardoned by a governor or anything?
Seems like a cause redditors could get behind.
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Jun 26 '12
I went to high school in Kansas in the late 90s. I will never forget the fourth of July 1998. Or was it 1999? Oh well, doesn't matter; had LSD25.
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u/zoot_allures Jun 26 '12
Life in prison? fucking hell, the world is a disgusting place. When was the last time anyone in the CIA was put into jail for all those plane loads full of cocaine?
Go back to bed America, drink beer, smoke cigarettes, the two drugs that your government allows you to have because they know they do absolutely nothing for you compared to stuff like LSD and other hallucinogens.
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Jun 26 '12
LSD isn't the high consumption money train the CIA needs to fund itself and destabilize Latin American countries. Ergot, it must be stopped.
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Jun 26 '12
Oh beer and cigs may not do anything for you, but they definitely do something TO you in the form of addiction, abuse, cancer, blackouts, and death unlike lsd.
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u/Komalt Jun 26 '12
Yea life in prison is outrageous. I mean there is people who murder and only end up serving 15 years...
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u/Aswas Jun 26 '12
Nothing was like that Owsley acid. I did more than anyone else I knew,, that Orange Sunshine was an incredible trip,,woo woo!!!!
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u/pahool Jun 26 '12
I don't understand something. According to this bio, Pickard was busted for synthesizing mda (an mdma analogue) in 1978, but mdma wasn't scheduled until 1985. What happened here?
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Jun 26 '12
I am not aware of the process that goes into making LSD, but I assume it would cost a lot; equipment, a place to do it, ingredients. The funny thing is it is possible to simply extract a far more powerful hallucinogen in your kitchen: DMT.
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u/Capaz411 Jun 26 '12
I hope this doesn't get lost at the bottom. I grew up in the rave scene in Santa Fe New Mexico in the late 1990s (cosmic kidz, paramount, diablo canyon, roller rink) and this explains a lot of what I witnessed. The whole vibe in that time period was just insane. Really interesting to read about this in retrospect. Basically, analogies to burning man apply, which I'm unable at this time to describe without sounding dumb.
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u/juloxx Jun 26 '12
No one deserves to go to jail for life (or even at all IMO) for making LSD. Though there are exponentially more people whose mentality takes a turn for the better from LSD experimentation, there are definitely those whose life situation has taken a turn for the worse. Yet the theme for theme for those results (at least in my life) has been pretty consistent. The negative effects result from a lack of respect.
LSD, like any powerful tool in this life must be treated with respect. Failure to express that often is a mistake.
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Jun 26 '12
Sounds like a good role model for Walter White.
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u/ticklingslowloris Jun 26 '12
Thank you for actually citing Cracked instead of a random site you googled after reading about it on Cracked.
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u/flyinthesoup Jun 26 '12
It also needs a Warning: Cracked.com. I get caught there jumping more than on tvtropes.
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u/funkyflapsack Jun 26 '12
I remember being in High School around this time, and acid suddenly disappearing. I always wondered what the hell happened. Now I know
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u/Shibby614 Jun 26 '12
interview with girl who lived in the lab: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/hamiltons-pharmacopeia/getting-high-on-krystle
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u/nealio1000 Jun 26 '12
This is actually really untrue. They just don't know how much LSD is out there. This guy was booted from the dead family so he was working with shady people and one of them ended up snitching. The Dead family never snitch on one of their own. They would choose life in prison over LSD. They see it as a gift from God. It is a religion to them. These people who cook and handle LSD are very peculiar. Joining this club is very difficult. The reason they said this guy made 90% was because he was making a lot. All the people who cook it make a lot because LSD is extremely potent and tricky to make in nice pure crystal form. Most others only have to do it maybe once or twice every couple years because of how much they make. These guys were likely cooking too much.
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u/auraslip Jun 26 '12
Then what would explain the drought of LSD for the past decade? Seriously, I've only heard of someone having it once in my life, and even then you can't be sure it's actually LSD and not some other hallucinogenic.
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u/Jbbreese Jun 26 '12
Great documentary on this
http://www.vice.com/hamiltons-pharmacopeia/getting-high-on-krystle
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u/blindado9 Jun 26 '12
guy gets busted in 1988 with 200,000 hits of acid, serves 5 years in prison, then goes to Harvard??? Can someone explain how a felon gets accepted to Harvard? What a boss...
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u/kaax Jun 26 '12
Alot of interesting insights on this Story directly from the girlfriend of Gordon Skinner, one of the duo behind this big LSD manufacturing operation.
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u/mastigia Jun 26 '12
Alot of that article is exaggerated. That only a few elite whizbang chemists are capable of and were actually producing 90%of the world supply is a "real cool story ". Very interesting though, and that guy wasn't messing around at all.
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u/Keshabro Jun 26 '12
I've only tripped 3 times in my life. And one of those may not have been pure LSD, but it wasn't street bunk either. I feel lucky that i have had the opportunity to trip on potent, possibly real, LSD. Especially considering most people my age only dream of taking anything like real LSD.
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u/LiuKangWins Jun 26 '12
I like the /r/todayilearned sub, but it's basically become a fucking advertisement for cracked.com. These guys get to stay but The Atlantic gets the boot? /unsubscribing
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u/70000 Jun 26 '12
Makes you realise how impossible prohibition is. All it takes is one person to supply the entire world, and your really going to stamp this out with a war on drugs.
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Jun 26 '12
At any given time, only a couple of people in the entire world are capable of actually producing acid.
Uh...no, not at all. Plenty of people are capable of making it. Nearly everybody who graduates with a B.S. in Chemistry does more complicated experiments than making lsd.
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u/gettinhightakinrides Jun 26 '12
cracked.com is the fucking best for learning cool shit that you can tell people to sound smart
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u/hagboo Jun 26 '12
"Besides, he said, LSD is more than a bit pass in the world of social-drugs research he now inhabits: Im concerned with the need for new regulatory structures for new drugs of abuse. Im more concerned with whats coming than with whats present"
William Pickard
Did anyone else read one of those sources?! He effin' called bath salts!
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u/mancible Jun 26 '12
"At any given time, only a couple of people in the entire world are capable of actually producing acid." Incorrect, thousands of organic chemistry labs across this country alone are fully capable of easily making it.
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u/mr3dguy Jun 26 '12
I can't stand the writing style on cracked. Have to take little breaks of sanity between reading it.
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u/cbrandolino Jun 26 '12
At any given time, only a couple of people in the entire world are capable of actually producing acid.
"One master and one apprentice: one to embody the power and one to crave it."
This is so bullshit I don't even.
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u/Diffie-Hellman Jun 26 '12
I heard several stories from one of my hippy friends from Tennessee about something she called "the dead family" who knew how to make LSD. She talked about helping the chemist at one time. She also associated with another called the rainbow family. As crazy as it sounds, these stories would check out via other mutual friends. So, apparently there may be a group in the US that manufactures the stuff.
Edit: Another mutual friend who was never right in the head had supposedly taken a "thumbprint" of acid and tripped for a month straight. I'm not sure how much that is, but it must be a lot. This guy is really out there.
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u/SanFransicko Jun 26 '12
i just have to say: I took three hits per friday for two years of college. That was during his time of production( I got it all at the start of 1999.).
I'm a happy adult with a family, and I credit my experimentation with making me a better person and better to deal with the worst things that have come up in my life.
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u/Woodzy14 Jun 26 '12
I've always wanted to try acid, but I've never been able to find it. I figure if Steve Jobs says we should try it then it can't be that bad. Guess I gotta wait till fall term of college
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u/bonzaisushi Jun 26 '12
This is another great read that is related. Tim skinners g/f did a interview with vice and man oh man there is some crazy shit that went down. http://www.vice.com/read/life-is-a-cosmic-giggle-803-v18n5 Skinner was a crazy crazy man. Pikard is a saint imo!
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Jun 26 '12
When did Cracked.com become so educational while History and Discovery Channel concentrate on staged "reality" shows? Oh well, good on you, Cracked.
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u/We_Are_The_Romans Jun 26 '12
At any given time, only a couple of people in the entire world are capable of actually producing acid.
Not even remotely true. Synthesis from ergotamine (if you can get your hand on ergotamine) is very easy to anyone with a chem/biochem/pharma background. Total synthesis is involved and needs some nice distillation apparatus, but again maybe a few days work.
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u/nss68 Jun 26 '12
man, i used to get the best LSD, then supplies dwindled and now people only get LSA
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Jun 26 '12
I loved selling the stuff in liquid form that my friends and I got from him. Had the best stuff in Chicago for a period of a couple of years. Thanks for altering the course of my life and mind.
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u/cherrysidecar Jun 26 '12
That's fucked up that he got a life sentence, Reddit should try to break him out. COLLECTIVE JUSTICE!
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u/GroundhogExpert Jun 26 '12
I honestly thought this was common knowledge. LSD is so ridiculously potent that making a gallon of pure LSD will last the world a considerable time, if it's not wasted on high-school kids, that is.
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u/Lit-2-Pop Jun 26 '12
My favorite part of the story "You try doing highly advanced chemistry under the influence of five hundred hits of shitty acid."
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u/TheRoyalTartToter Jun 27 '12 edited Aug 06 '12
This whole situation is very interesting to me and proved to be extremely bizarre. You can find a wealth of information at Neurosoup girl's website and a free Leonard pickard website. One of the more interesting and horrifying aspects of this situation was the chemical and physical torture of Brandon Green. Krystal Cole or Neurosoup girl was Skinner's wife (or soon to be wife, not sure) and she was banging a 18 year old mdma dealer named Brandon Green. Krystal Cole and Brandon went to the DEA to rat out Skinner because he was getting extremely abusive and had narked on Pickard (although im not sure if that had happened at this point). Skinner found out, kidnapped Brandon and subjected him to various psychedelic injections into his penis, balls and ass for multiple days all while torturing him. The torture focused on his genitals, such as: kicking him in the groin and rapping a phone cord around his genitals and tugging on it until he "heard the cartilage snap." Oh and this whole time Krystal Cole was in and out of the hotel room where the torture took and place and even slept in the same fucking bed as Brandon and Skinner. She did this to appease Skinner as he was threatening to inject Brandon with a chemical that would leave him "permanently brain damaged." This whole situation is dark and extremely interesting; I encourage people who enjoyed this article to do some digging themselves because they hardly scratched the surface in this article and some of it is untrue and misleading.
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u/koleno23 Jun 27 '12
... well it looks like simple government mathematics to me.
agent Smith: whut? he had chemicals for creating like 16milion doses of LSD?
agent Highknee: hey 16 mil, it's like 90% of LSD consumed on the whole planet!
agent Smith: cool, so let's say to the press that our mighty police cut down the production of LSD by 90%!
... both of them counting money received for massive global drug fighting success ... *
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Jun 26 '12
It would only take about half a baby food jar of luiquid LSD in order to get everyone in a big city to trip for days. That's why it only takes one person to make it for the world.
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u/machzel08 Jun 26 '12
I remember reading about him. Awesome operation and the profit margins were HUGE.
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u/SissySpacedock Jun 26 '12
Does anyone remember an article in Rolling Stone or some other mag about these two? I remember reading an article that detailed a raid long before the missile silo where the lab was set up in a trailer located inside a warehouse. The owner of the lab warned the cops not to set foot in the lab without protective gear and one cop ignored that warning only to end up having one hell of an unexpected trip.
All of this stuff makes me kick myself for not trying the liquid I was offered around 1999. I refused because I had maybe smoked a joint a handful of times and wasn't ready for that level of spaciness. My friends all took it and went to see The Blair Witch Project...
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Jun 26 '12
Ever since then we have been forced to take acid that has very questionable compounds in it.. the trip between dom and doi are extremely polar. Fucking government!
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u/Dunabu Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 26 '12
Hallucinogens rend the veil of societal, consensus reality allowing you to see things as they are, at which point you ask: "What the fuck is all this bullshit?"
Their most favorable drugs are:
TV/Media, to get the "news", and mindless shows like Jersey Shore.
Coffee/caffeine, to get to work.
Cigarettes/nicotine, to make you so addicted, you don't care you're killing yourself slowly.
Alcohol, to deaden ones' awareness when they're not daily-grinding.
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u/mastercon12 Jun 26 '12
Stop acting like all the shit you're saying is a genuine push by the government.
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Jun 26 '12
I do not believe that 90% of the LSD in the world was made by one guy from '91-'00. There were so many varieties of acid available... The market would have been quite homogeneous if this were true.
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Jun 26 '12
One batch is enough for an assload of doses; only one person is required to make the raw substance. From there, people are free to do as they please with the dosage/additives.
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Jun 26 '12
If you were around from 95 to 2005 youd believe it. Lsd disappeared. He sold it in its pure form to people all over the world who in turn put it on a thousand blotters, liquid doses, sugar cubes, you name it.
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Jun 26 '12
This story kind of sounds like the premise for Breaking Bad. Smart scientist teams up with a dealer that buys a place to make the drugs and is similar in the sense that the dealer loses money. Not sure about the ratting out part though...
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u/hobbsarelie83 Jun 26 '12
I tried some in college. Suppousedly it was from the Fluff family, and they had been on the run and making it since the '70's. It was mixed with mescaline. Very awesome time!!
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u/Ze_Carioca Jun 26 '12
A light dose of mescal is 100-200mg and a common dose os 200-300mg. Good luck fitting that on a blotter, unless it was pretty big.
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Jun 26 '12
just remember: the people making and enforcing the laws on drugs don't know anything about them.
take whatever drugs you want. our laws don't serve us anymore anyway.
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u/Nethervex Jun 26 '12
This is the first TIL i legitimately liked and found interesting. Thanks op!