Biology, in An Introduction to Vocational Psychology

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LSD Use
by Andrew D. Carson, Ph.D.

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is an illegal hallucinogen; its use may lead to hallucinations and sensory distortions, and some of its advocates have claimed that its use expands their consciousness, increases their creativity, and frees them to lose bad traits and adopt healthier new ones. Its use has also been associated with increased risk for psychotic episodes and suicidal behavior. The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States apparently used LSD a program of research related to mind control. Timothy Leary lost his position as a Harvard professor in part because of the nature of his experiments with LSD on students and others.

LSD has continued to the present day, although its active use is confined primarily to late adolescence through young adulthood, and its use tends to abate when users adopt stable occupational roles. It is not nearly as popular as marijuana; last-month use among high school seniors has remained around 2 percent since 1975 (Henderson & Glass, 1994). According to Henderson and Glass, it is also a drug primarily used by white, middle-class, affluent adolescents from suburbia; they describe it as a drug of affluent discontent. Because LSD "transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary and unpredictable...it is favored by youths for whom boredom is a major fact of life and avoided by those who feel their lives are already too challenging and unpredictable" (Henderson & Glass, p. 35).

Lowman (1993, p. 224) suggests that artists and other creative individuals may indulge in substance use when they perceive themselves as being unable to creatively produce, but I know of no research testing this hypothesis. However, enough anecdotal evidence exists to suggest that the advocates of LSD as a means of enhancing vocational performance in some artists and musicians that such claims deserve to be taken seriously. New empirical research on this issue -- particularly as it relates to LSD use and effects -- would appear to be impossible to carry out today. Nevertheless, it may be worthwhile to conduct archival or even biographical research on the vocational correlates and consequences of LSD use.

I have heard from several users who have take the drug for several decades that the LSD they obtained in the 1960s was "pure," while in more recent decades dealers have mixed it with other substances, especially amphetamines, to achieve a mix of stimulation and mind-expanding highs. If so, the manufacturers and dealers may also be seeking to capitalize on the highly addictive characteristics of amphetamines to maintain a steady demand for their hybrid products.

Links:
Hallucinogens (CEIDA, NSW Health).
LSD (from Encyclopedia.com)
LSD, in Factfile on Drugs (BBC News).
1995 Review of Henderson and Glass (1994) by Jacob Sullum (ReasonOnline).
Timothy Leary (from Deoxy.org).
Report: Consumers Union Report: Licit and Illicit Drugs, by Edward M. Brecher (1972, from Schaffer Library of Drug Policy).
Famous Drug Users. Lists a number of individuals from several occupations (but mostly artists, including musicians, authors, actors, and other types) who had reportedly used LSD.
Journal: LSD Journals of an Artist's Trip (Harriette Frances).
LSD Blotter Art Collector Aquitted. "San Francisco artist Mark McCloud -- notorious in the annals of psychedelic art for his 25-year-long quest to compile a complete collection of LSD blotter art -- was acquitted by a local jury of felony charges of conspiracy to distribute LSD" (artnet.com).
Essay (excerpt). Mescaline, Psilocybin, and Creative Artists, by Stanley Krippner (1969/1972).

References to citations in the text.

Credits:
1 LSD tabs and blotter, believed to be in the public domain, from http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/prevention/govphoto.html