What is it?
Hallucinogens are psychoactive (mind-altering) drugs that significantly alter our senses and perceptions. Some common ones are (LSD, psychedelic or "magic" mushrooms, and peyote. Cannabis may also cause hallucinogenic effects at high doses.
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD, “acid”) is a synthetic drug derived from a naturally occurring fungus that grows on rye grain. LSD is an odorless and colorless substance with a slightly bitter taste. LSD is often added to absorbent paper, such as blotter paper, and divided into small decorated squares, with each square representing one dose. It is also sold on the street in tablets, capsules, and occasionally in liquid form.
“Magic” mushrooms contain the hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin. The concentration of active psilocybin mushroom compounds varies not only from species to species, but also from mushroom to mushroom inside a given species. Mushrooms may be fresh or in dried form.
Peyote comes from certain species of cactus and contains the hallucinogen mescaline. Peyote ‘buttons’ are chewed to produce the effects or soaked in water to drink. The taste of the cactus is bitter, so some users will grind it into a powder and pour it in capsules to avoid having to taste it.
Despite the name, hallucinogens do not necessarily produce true hallucinations. Hallucinations are perceptions that have no basis in reality, but appear realistic to the person having them. Instead, hallucinogens significantly alter a person’s senses and perceptions and cause users to have experiences that are different from their ordinary reality, but may not involve full scale hallucinations.
Hallucinations can range from mild distortions of your senses to an intense experience where you believe a vision or other altered perception is real and you are unaware it is the effect of the drug. When a person says they are “tripping,” it often means they are experiencing the effects of hallucinogens. Sometimes hallucinogens are also called psychedelics because the conscious mind becomes aware of things that it normally is not aware of. Sometimes they’re called entheogens because hallucinogens may provoke intense emotional responses that may be akin to spiritual or religious experiences.
For thousands of years, people all around the world have been using hallucinogens for a variety of reasons. For some people, the experience is spiritual or mystical. Others say they experience feelings of empathy toward others, helping them connect more deeply with friends. But like other drugs, there are risks to using hallucinogens.
How does it work?
LSD is chemically similar to serotonin, a naturally occurring brain chemical (neurotransmitter). After LSD enters your blood stream, the active ingredients bind to receptors in your brain. As a result, functions of your brain are suppressed, stimulated or otherwise changed, which results in unusual sensory perceptions.
In low doses, hallucinogens can alter your mood and change the way you experience the world. In high doses, hallucinogens can significantly affect your perception of reality including alternating perceptions of time and space.
The effects of hallucinogens usually begin within an hour of taking the drug, and effects can last for 12 hours or more. During the first hour after ingestion, you may experience visual changes with extreme changes in mood. Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception.
What are the associated risks and health effects?
Using a hallucinogen may give you a euphoric experience or lead to effects such as confusion and seeing scary things that aren’t there. Sometimes you may experience these different effects within the same trip.
The physical effects of LSD and other hallucinogens are often minor compared to the psychological effects. Some of the basic physical effects include: numbness, muscle weakness, impaired motor skills and coordination, tremor, jaw clenching, dilated pupils, changes in appetite, increased heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure and temperature, metallic taste and nausea.
If you are not an expert in identifying mushrooms, don't go out and try to pick “magic mushrooms” in the wild. You might pick a really poisonous mushroom by accident. Using poisonous mushrooms could severely affect your liver and kidneys, or even be fatal. Make sure that you are able to identify the “magic” mushrooms you are looking for, and that you are aware of the poisonous look-alikes. Do not eat moldy or bad mushrooms, since they may contain poisons and harmful bacteria, that could make you very ill.
For a brief time in the mid-20th century, some hallucinogens such as LSD were used medicinally as part of psychotherapy. Today there is renewed interest in such therapeutic uses that draw on the long association of these drugs with the pursuit of insight.
How hallucinogen use affects you is often unpredictable. The experience depends on many things, including your level of preparation, past experiences with hallucinogens, present mood and surroundings, and mental and physical health condition.
Some people say, when using hallucinogens, they experience a feeling of detaching from their body and surroundings. While this may allow for a greater level of reflection, being unaware of what’s going on around you may also put you at risk of injuries from falls and other accidents. And purchasing any substance in an unregulated market is always risky because we can never know for sure what we are buying or using.
Psychologically and emotionally, hallucinogens can produce very positive (joyful) or very negative (scary and stressful) experiences. Sometimes the good and bad can be experienced within the same ‘trip’. Negative experiences or ‘bad trips’ are more likely to occur among novice users or those using large dosages in unfamiliar environments. Using hallucinogens without a ‘sober sitter’ or experienced user can lead to injuries resulting from physical impairment. Such injuries can be fatal.
Most hallucinogen users can integrate positive and negative experiences into their regular lives. Bad experiences are often resolved after the drug has worn off. However, you may feel depressed or anxious long after taking the drug. A very small number of LSD users experience ‘flashbacks’ (technically called hallucinogen persisting perception disorder). This is when moments of a previous drug experience are experienced over again in a different setting. Flashbacks are often unpleasant and can happen days, weeks or months after taking the drug. Flashbacks are more common among users whose trips have been interrupted by circumstances that occur while they are under the influence of the drug. For example, if they were arrested and were not able to “finish” their experience.
Using hallucinogens may trigger or worsen underlying mental problems in some people. Frequent, long-term use at high dosages may disrupt consciousness and lead to mental disorders or the development of concentration and memory problems. Because adolescence is a key time for brain development, it is possible that some hallucinogen use may affect physical, mental and emotional development.
LSD use may cause problems if used during pregnancy or breastfeeding. At high dosages, LSD may cause miscarriage of the pregnancy.
In general, LSD does not create a physical dependence, but can create psychological dependence. This means you do not need to take larger and larger amounts to achieve the same high. However, some users will experience no psychoactive effects for a few days after extensive use.
Many people choose not to use hallucinogens or to use them in moderation, because being less in control of our body and behaviour increases our risk of harms. While most people discover that using hallucinogens may help us feel more open in social situations, repeatedly using the drug to address social anxiety may affect how we engage with others and build relationships.
Acknowledgments
[2014] This fact sheet was produced by the
Centre for
Addictions Research of BC
on behalf of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information. An excerpt
has been reproduced here with permission. To read the full fact sheet and for more
helpful substance use and mental health resources, please visit
www.heretohelp.bc.ca