On Sat, 27 Feb 1999 Nancy Melucci went:
> Tipspersons:
Or "Captain Tips"...
> One of my introductory psychology students posted at my discussion WebBoard a
> question regarding whether taking too much LSD could kill a person. I know
> that people can hurt/kill themselves due to the hallucinations. My question
> is "is it possible to overdose and die?"
Short answer: I'd say that in practical terms, it's impossible.
In the sickest statement ever published in _Science_, West (1962)
reported that "doses up to 6.5 mg/kg intravenously are required to
kill a cat." For humans, that would be the equivalent by weight of
4500 hits of acid (assuming that each hit is 100 micrograms).
Well, there are no reports of human ingestion of 4500 hits. But there
is a report about eight people who survived a huge dose (Klock et al.,
1975). The story is this: these eight folks were at a California
dinner party in 1972, and to top off their meal they snorted lines of
a white powder that they thought was cocaine. It was not cocaine. It
was almost pure LSD. Based on how much they'd bought minus how much
was left over, it appears that they each snorted 40,000 micrograms,
the equivalent of 400 hits. Within five minutes, they had symptoms
such as anxiety, restlessness, muscle aches, and vomiting. Ten
minutes later they were (somehow) all in the ER. Five were already
comatose; the others were very hyperactive, with severe
hallucinations. When needles for IVs were put in, the patients oozed
blood; there was also blood in their vomit and urine. A likely
explanation for this is that LSD was interfering with the function of
their blood platelets (which have serotonin receptors).
According to Klock et al.: "Some of them were able to converse after 4
to 5 hours, and all were normal within 12 hours. Most did not remember
being brought to the hospital; otherwise, no apparent psychologic or
physical ill effects were noted in a year of followup examinations of
5 patients. Most of the patients continue to use LSD intermittently."
So even at a dose equivalent to 400 hits, there were no lasting
sequelae--none of the "permanently insane" stuff of Urban Legend.
Heck, the trip itself lasted only 12 hours!
Fysh et al. (1985) reported what they claimed was a death from LSD
overdose, but the serum toxicology was desperately inadequate: the
victim tested negative for amphetamine and cannabinoids, so Fysh et
al. concluded that "LSD was the only drug detected in this case" and
proceeded merrily from there. The amount of LSD detected--14.8 ng/ml,
which I think comes out to 72 micrograms in the entire bloodstream--
seems very small, especially given the earlier tale of the dinner-
party guests.
Finally, there is an infamous report (West et al., 1962) of an
elephant named Tusko who died after being injected with LSD at a dose
of 100 micrograms per kilogram (297 mg, the equivalent by weight of 50
to 70 hits). (The researchers were trying to determine whether LSD
would induce a strange elephant behavior called musth...for reasons
never made entirely clear.) Three minutes after the injection, "he
began to sway, his hindquarters buckled," and he had trouble standing
up. Five minutes after the injection, he trumpeted, collapsed onto
his right side, and seemed to be having a seizure. An hour and 40
minutes after the injection, he was dead. However, during that hour
and 40 minutes, he had been given several injections of other drugs in
an effort to save him; most latter-day accounts of the incident
suggest that he was killed by the combination of drugs, or by the
ineptness of the injections themselves. I think you can find more
about that at www.maps.org; I think it's also discussed in Alexender
Shulgin's new book _TIHKAL_ (Tryptamines I Have Known And Loved).
--David Epstein
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sources:
Fysh RR et al. A fatal poisoning with LSD. Forensic Science
International 28: 109-113, 1985.
Klock JC et al. Coma, hyperthermia, and bleeding associated with LSD
overdose: a report of eight cases. Clinical Toxicology 8: 191-203,
1975.
West LJ et al. Lysergic acid diethylamide: its effects in a male
Asiatic elephant. Science 138: 1100-1103, Dec 7 1962.
