Synthetic Psychedelics
Microgram doses. Twelve-hour journeys. The most studied psychedelic in history and still one of the most misrepresented. What you don't know about LSD is more dangerous than the substance itself.
Testing Kits — Non-Negotiable
LSD is active in microgram quantities — doses so small they're invisible. That same property makes it trivially easy to substitute with other compounds that look identical on a tab. NBOMe analogs, DOx compounds, and fentanyl analogs have all appeared in the supply sold as LSD. Some of them can kill you. A reagent test takes two minutes and costs less than a drink.
Testing doesn't guarantee safety — it gives you information. A positive Ehrlich test confirms an indole alkaloid is present, which includes LSD. It doesn't confirm LSD specifically or rule out other indoles. Multiple reagents give you a more complete picture.
Ehrlich Reagent
Purple/Violet = Indole alkaloid present (LSD, psilocybin, DMT)
The most important test for LSD. Turns purple or violet in the presence of indole alkaloids. NBOMe compounds do NOT contain indole alkaloids — if your tab doesn't turn purple with Ehrlich, it is not LSD. No reaction = do not use.
Hofmann Reagent
Blue/Purple = LSD likely present
More specific to LSD than Ehrlich. Named after Albert Hofmann who first synthesized LSD. Used in combination with Ehrlich for higher confidence. Differentiates LSD from other indole alkaloids more reliably.
Marquis Reagent
Orange/Brown = LSD or MDMA family
Purple/Black = Opioid present — serious danger
Good secondary test. Also helps identify opioid contamination — if your tab turns purple or black with Marquis, that's an opioid compound and you should not use it under any circumstances.
Fentanyl Test Strips
One line = Fentanyl detected — do not use
Two lines = Fentanyl not detected
Fentanyl analogs in LSD supply are rare but documented. Test strips are cheap, easy, and add a critical layer of safety. Dissolve the tab in water and test. One line means stop. Available from DanceSafe and most harm reduction organizations.
Where to get testing kits
DanceSafe (dancesafe.org) sells reagent kits and fentanyl test strips directly. Bunk Police is another reliable source. Many harm reduction organizations distribute free fentanyl test strips — check your local needle exchange or harm reduction center. This is not optional.
What You Might Actually Have
NBOMe compounds (25I-NBOMe, 25C-NBOMe, 25B-NBOMe) are synthetic psychedelics sold on blotter as LSD. They're cheaper to produce, active in similar quantities, and have caused dozens of documented deaths. LSD has an essentially perfect safety record by comparison — no confirmed lethal overdose in 80 years of documented use. NBOMe compounds do not share that record.
Knowing the difference could save your life or someone else's. The Ehrlich test is the fastest way to know. But there are also behavioral and physical differences worth understanding.
Real LSD
NBOMe Analogs
🚨 If your tab tastes bitter or numbs your mouth — spit it out
Real LSD is active in quantities too small to taste. If you put a tab under your tongue and it's distinctly bitter or causes numbness, that is a significant warning sign of an NBOMe compound. Spit it out, rinse your mouth, and do not redose. The amount already absorbed may still produce effects — monitor carefully and have someone sober present.
Dosing Guide
A standard "tab" of LSD contains anywhere from 50 to 300+ micrograms depending on who made it and when. There's no visual difference between a 75µg tab and a 200µg tab. Street tabs have no label. This is why "I just took one tab" tells you almost nothing about what someone actually took.
The ranges below describe typical effects at known doses. If you don't know your dose — which is almost always the case outside of clinical settings — start with half a tab and wait a full two hours before considering more.
Microdose
5–20µg
Sub-perceptual. Subtle cognitive shifts, mood lift, enhanced focus or creativity. No visual effects. If you can clearly feel it, the dose is too high for microdosing purposes. Goal is function, not intoxication.
Threshold
25–50µg
First noticeable effects. Mild visual enhancement, slight mood shift, increased sensory awareness. A reasonable entry point for first-timers. Effects are noticeable but manageable and brief relative to a full dose.
Moderate
75–150µg
Clear psychedelic effects. Visual patterning and tracers, emotional amplification, altered sense of time. Most recreational experiences fall in this range. Duration at this dose is typically 8–10 hours including afterglow.
High
200–400µg
Intense visuals, strong ego softening, significant time distortion. Challenging to navigate without experience. The upper end of this range approaches territory where ego dissolution occurs and external reality becomes difficult to access.
The redosing trap
LSD has a slow, sometimes deceptive come-up — especially at lower doses. Redosing because "I don't feel anything yet" after 45 minutes is one of the most common ways people end up in a far more intense experience than intended. Wait a full two hours before making any decision about redosing. The experience you're waiting for is still coming.
Tim's Take
That not everything sold as LSD actually is. NBOMe compounds get passed off as acid constantly — same blotter, same vibe, completely different and genuinely dangerous substance. The old harm reduction line is worth knowing: if it's bitter, it's a spitter. Real LSD is essentially tasteless. If your tab has a strong chemical bite, that's a red flag. Test your substances. Every time.
Duration
LSD lasts longer than almost any other psychedelic. At a moderate dose you are committing to a full day. People who don't account for this — who have obligations, who take it at the wrong time of day, who plan to "just do it for a few hours" — consistently report that the duration was the hardest part of a difficult experience.
Plan for 12 hours from ingestion to feeling baseline. Clear your schedule for the day after too. Sleep after LSD can be elusive for hours even after the acute effects pass.
0–1hr
Come-up
Slow onset. Some people feel nothing for 45–90 minutes. Mild body sensation, slight visual shimmer, anticipatory anxiety common. Resist the urge to redose.
1–3hr
Onset & ascent
Effects become clear and begin building. Visuals develop, emotional amplification increases, sense of time begins to stretch. This is when most people realize what they've committed to.
3–6hr
Peak
Full effects. Visuals at their most complex, emotional and cognitive shifts most pronounced, time perception most distorted. The bulk of the experience happens here. Surrender is the right move.
6–9hr
Plateau & descent
Gradual softening of effects. Still clearly active, still not baseline. Thinking becomes more linear. This is a good time for reflection, conversation, or gentle creative work.
9–12hr
Afterglow & return
Residual effects — a gentle clarity, mild visual enhancement, openness. Most people can function but are clearly not fully baseline. Sleep is often difficult until hour 12 or beyond.
12–24hr
Next day
Most people feel a gentle afterglow — clear-headed, somewhat tired, emotionally open. The neuroplasticity window is active. Rest, reflect, and don't make major decisions yet.
The Science
Both LSD and psilocybin are serotonergic psychedelics acting on 5-HT2A receptors, but the pharmacological differences produce meaningfully different experiences. Understanding why helps set expectations.
LSD
Psilocybin
Cross-tolerance is real and complete
LSD and psilocybin share complete cross-tolerance — taking one significantly blunts the effects of the other for up to two weeks. This is true for most classical psychedelics. Plan accordingly. There's no shortcut around the tolerance reset window.
Microdosing
LSD microdosing produces a more stimulating, energetic effect than psilocybin microdosing. Many people find LSD better for productivity-focused protocols and psilocybin better for emotional and creative work. Neither is objectively superior — it depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
The same sub-perceptual principle applies: if you can clearly feel it, the dose is too high. LSD microdoses are typically 5–15µg. The challenge is that without knowing what's in your tab, precise microdosing requires volumetric dosing.
Volumetric dosing for LSD microdosing
Dissolve one tab in 10ml of distilled water (or alcohol). Each 1ml then contains 1/10th of the tab's dose. If the tab is approximately 100µg, each 1ml is approximately 10µg — a reasonable microdose. This is the only reliable way to microdose LSD without knowing the tab's exact potency. Use a precise dropper or syringe.
Day 1
Dose day — 5–15µg. Morning. Note any effects, energy shifts, or mood changes throughout the day.
Day 2
Transition day — no dose. LSD's longer half-life means some residual effect may still be present.
Day 3
Rest day — no dose. Full clearance. Prevents tolerance accumulation.
Day 4+
Dose day again. Continue for 4–8 weeks then take 2–4 weeks off to assess what's changed.
Tim's Take
Dosing is everyone's own journey. Some people take one hit and find exactly what they were looking for. Others get completely overwhelmed at the same amount. That variance is real and it's not a character flaw — it's biology, mindset, and context all at once. The principle I keep coming back to: you can always take more, you can never take less. Start low, give it time, and don't let anyone pressure you into a dose that doesn't feel right.
Set & Setting
Everything that applies to set and setting for psilocybin applies to LSD — and the duration multiplies the stakes. A difficult experience on mushrooms lasts a few hours. A difficult experience on LSD lasts most of a day. Getting set and setting right is not optional.
LSD also has a stimulating quality that can feed anxiety loops more readily than psilocybin. Anxious thoughts can accelerate and repeat. Having tools to interrupt those loops — music changes, environment shifts, grounding techniques — is especially valuable with LSD.
Time this right
Start in the morning. A 10am dose means peak effects around 3–4pm and return to functional baseline by 10pm. Starting in the evening means being in peak effects at 2am and unable to sleep until morning. Timing is one of the most underrated variables in LSD experiences.
The anxiety loop problem
LSD can accelerate thought patterns — including anxious ones. If you notice an anxiety loop forming, change something physical: move to a different room, go outside, change the music, lie down. Doing something different breaks the loop faster than trying to think your way out of it.
People in your environment
More important with LSD than almost any other psychedelic. Unexpected social interactions — a neighbor showing up, a phone call from a family member — can be significantly destabilizing during peak effects. Protect your environment proactively.
Have a playlist ready
Music has an outsized influence on LSD experiences. Building a playlist in advance — one that moves through different energies and has an intentional arc — is a practical tool that can guide the experience. Don't leave music to chance.
Tim's Take
Follow your comfort. I've been at music festivals, holiday parties, and in my own garage — and the common thread isn't the environment, it's whether I actually wanted to be there. LSD amplifies everything around you, including social pressure and unfamiliar energy. The "right" setting is wherever you feel safe and free to let go. Don't let anyone tell you there's only one correct way to do this.
Harm Reduction & Contraindications
LSD's physiological safety profile is excellent — it's non-toxic, non-addictive, and has caused no confirmed lethal overdose in its documented history. The risks are psychological and contextual. Know them.
Lithium is a hard contraindication. Combining LSD with lithium has caused seizures and death. If you're on lithium for bipolar disorder, LSD is not safe. Full stop. No dose is safe. This is not a risk to manage around.
SSRIs significantly blunt effects and create unpredictable interactions. Serotonergic antidepressants reduce LSD's effects substantially. Some people compensate with higher doses — which increases risk. Do not stop medication to try LSD without medical supervision.
Stimulants amplify cardiovascular strain. LSD already causes vasoconstriction and mild heart rate increase. Combining with cocaine, MDMA, or amphetamines significantly increases cardiovascular load. Combining with alcohol or cannabis also changes the experience unpredictably.
Personal or family history of psychosis or schizophrenia is a hard contraindication. Same as psilocybin. LSD can precipitate psychotic episodes in predisposed individuals. This risk is well documented.
HPPD risk is higher with LSD than psilocybin. Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder — persistent visual disturbances after use — is most commonly associated with LSD, particularly with frequent use at high doses. The risk is real, though the prevalence is debated.
Tolerance builds and clears faster than psilocybin. After one experience, significant tolerance persists for about a week and full sensitivity typically returns in two weeks. Taking LSD two days in a row produces dramatically diminished effects.
Test your substance. Every time. This is the most important harm reduction step for LSD specifically. NBOMe analogs are dangerous. Fentanyl contamination is rare but documented. Ehrlich reagent and fentanyl test strips are cheap and available. There's no excuse not to test.
Legal Landscape
LSD is Schedule I federally — no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse in the DEA's framing. The research landscape is changing faster than the law. Oregon and Colorado have created legal frameworks for supervised psychedelic use that may eventually include LSD analogs, but currently apply to psilocybin and other compounds.
Decriminalized
Oregon decriminalized personal possession of small amounts of all drugs under Measure 110. Several cities have deprioritized enforcement. Decrim is not legal — possession is still technically a crime.
Research Context
Clinical trials for LSD-assisted therapy are ongoing in Switzerland, US, and UK. MAPS and other organizations are conducting Phase 2 trials. FDA Breakthrough Therapy is possible but not yet granted for LSD specifically.
Federal Status
Schedule I. Same federal classification as heroin. No legal medical use. Penalties for distribution are severe. Personal possession enforcement varies significantly by jurisdiction.
If you or someone you know needs support
The Fireside Project provides free emotional support during or after a psychedelic experience. Available by call or text 24/7. Non-judgmental, confidential, staffed by people with lived psychedelic experience. LSD's duration means a difficult experience can last a long time — having this number matters.
Call or text · Available 24/7 · Free · Non-judgmental
Know Before You Go
Test with Ehrlich reagent before every use. No purple reaction means it's not LSD — do not use.
If the tab tastes bitter or numbs your mouth — spit it out. Real LSD is tasteless.
You are committing to 12 hours. Clear your schedule. Start in the morning.
Lithium is a hard contraindication. No dose is safe. This is not negotiable.
Wait two full hours before deciding to redose. The come-up is slow and deceptive.
Fireside Project: 623-473-7433. LSD lasts long enough that having support matters.