A young and promising life succumbed to LSD
According to Detective Branch (DB) police sources, Dhaka University’s information science and library management student Hafizur Rahman took LSD on May 15 along with three other friends in the university’s Curzon Hall premises. Subsequently, Hafizur was witnessed to behave wildly and hacked himself to death with a sharp object.
The Bangladesh context
LSD has been seized in a raid for the first time in the country by the Ramna Division of the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). The hallucinogen was recovered in a raid during Wednesday night. Details in this regard will be provided in a press conference on Thursday at 2 PM by DB Additional Police Commissioner AKM Hafiz Akhter.
LSD is not still widely available in Bangladesh. Partly because of the drug’s manufacturing process and partly because it's very expensive. Still, youth in Bangladesh sometimes get their hands on it through friends who live abroad.
In a report published in BBC Bangla, 22-year old Dipen (not his real name) talked about he was trapped in the cycle of drugs. For Dipen, like other LSD consuming youth in Bangladesh, it started with small shots of alcohol, to Yaba (combination of methamphetamine, caffeine) and then he took LSD when one of his friends visited Dhaka from a foreign country. His friend charged him BDT 21,000 for each dose, which he took twice a week. Before LSD enters the black markets of Dhaka like yaba and phensedyl, rigid monitoring must be ensured in the country’s airports and other entry points.
What is LSD?
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) is a potent psychoactive substance commonly classified as a hallucinogen. The trip or ‘experience’ while on the drug lasts for up to 20 hours or even more. The LSD trip is highly subjective, and different people have different kinds of experience.
The effects of LSD on our brain depends on the mood, environment, setting, the people around while consumed, and lastly, but importantly – the dosage. Diabolical drug or miracle cure is simply a matter of dosage, according to experts. However, this is a powerful drug, even a micro-dose can last for a day. It is indeed so extreme when compared to other drugs, that while the rest of the drugs are taken in measurement of gram, LSD is taken to one-millionth of a gram.
How is it taken?
LSD comes in tablets or pellets and in Liquid form known as Liquid LSD. Most consumers take in their mouth from blotter papers. These are colourful papers which are cut into super tiny pieces and then put on the tongue. One very interesting fact about LSD that sets it apart from other psychedelic drugs is that it is not addictive. The crazy sometimes soothing trip is what makes people take it the next time. Also, for people regularly taking LSD, small bits of the blotter might not be effective anymore, so they need higher dosage to go on the ‘trip’ they experienced the first time.
What does it look like?
The drug is (illegally) sold as small squares of paper. The substance has no colour or smell at all, and it tastes like paper too. The effects of LSD start to kick in from 20 minutes to two hours onwards. The paper is printed in colours like rainbows or hearts.
Where did it all begin?
LSD was discovered in a research-lab by a Swiss chemist named Albert Hoffman in 1938, who is also historically the first person to go LSD tripping. He did not understand the potentiality of his discovery until 1943 when he accidentally ingested a small amount through his fingertips and had visions of “extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.” He described its effects as bewilderment, excessive excitement, and an outburst of optimism. What Hoffman described are the effects of a ‘good trip’ but things can go fatally wrong when on a ‘bad trip.’ He then went on to send his discovery to many researchers across the globe, who were fascinated by the ‘wonder-drug.’ And till date, LSD is one of the most researched drugs in the world.
What’s the LSD experience?
However, be cautious, it’s a drug after all and so it comes with side-effects. The effects of this long lasting hallucinogenic can be fatal. People start to see things either bigger or smaller in size. For instance, you are sitting in a room with a bookshelf while on the drug, you might suddenly feel that the bookshelf is walking towards you.
One might even see other people while on the drug, just like schizophrenics. In a nutshell, it gives the user a distorted view of reality and surrounding objects. Use of psychedelic substances often end up in tragedy for a number of reasons. Yes, there are good trips or as people like to call it healing trips, but remember there are bad trips as well. And sometimes, the hallucinations that one experiences while on the trip reappear as flashbacks after days, months, or even years.
What’s a bad trip? Can It trigger suicide?
Although the benefits of the drug in ‘micro-doses’ is debatable, yet there are also proven downfalls. As the hallucinations associated with the drug may keep reappearing, these experiences result in severe trauma, sometimes even death. According to a research Keeler MH, Reifler CB published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1967, the effects of LSD can ‘trigger suicide’ in individuals.
When someone takes in LSD, it is not possible to predict the kind of ‘trip’ the person might go through. And once you’re on it – there’s no coming back, it’s difficult to control the effects of tripping which might be pleasant or dangerously damaging.
What does LSD contain?
The biggest substance in LSD is ‘lysergic acid’ which is made from a fungal ergot applied to weed-like grain. The fungal infected cereal is the source of lysergic acid. This infection of cereals mostly affects rye (the same cereal from which rye bread is made).
LSD’s effects on the brain
LSD directly affects the brain’s serotonin neurotransmitter system. Scientific journal Cell Press published in one study that hallucinogens like LSD work on serotonin receptors in the brain called 5-HT2A. Serotonin is commonly regarded as a feel-good drug, but it has a number of uses on the brain. It hits several receptors on the brain and the brain in turn starts to behave differently.
Psycho-pharmacologists at the University College London believe that ‘’serotonin helps keep a handle on perception and actually stops us from hallucinating’’ which in part might help fight depression or relieve anxiety issues. Many researchers also think that LSD has an effect on the artistic and creative abilities of the brain, which might help artists compose better, and writers move out of writer’s block. Many say that the sensational Beatles hit ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ (1967) was written on LSD. But these are highly debatable issues, and research is still on.
Importance of Advocacy
The Beatles publicly denounced the drug on 26th August, 1967. Moreover, more than often, LSD results in tragedy. LSD like other drugs is better avoided at all costs. Drugs do more harm than good, and might start to dominate your mind, and then your life even before you realize it. Many young people have shared devastating after-effects and wished they never tried it in the first place. Accidents concerning LSD are increasing, anti-drug youth advocacy groups are an effective way to discourage young people from falling into drug abuse, also educating youth on psychotherapy could be a good measure against drugs like LSD.
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