NOVANEWS
MADE IN 1967
A PIECE OF HISTORY
An interesting historical artifact from the 1960s.
A training film to educate sailors about LSD.
Of course the military knew all about the LSD because it had been using to perform tests on soldiers for years before the genie was let out of the bottle to the public.
Interesting note. The two biggest popularizers of LSD in the Bay Area (ground zero for the spread to the rest of the country) had military connections:
1. (Ex) Army officer-turned “traveling hippy” Steward Brand
2. The Menlo Park Veteran’s Hospital
WHAT IS LSD?
LSD is one of the most potent, mood-changing chemicals. It is manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in the ergot fungus that grows on rye and other grains.
It is produced in crystal form in illegal laboratories, mainly in the United States. These crystals are converted to a liquid for distribution. It is odorless, colorless, and has a slightly bitter taste.
Known as “acid” and by many other names, LSD is sold on the street in small tablets (“microdots”), capsules or gelatin squares (“window panes”). It is sometimes added to absorbent paper, which is then divided into small squares decorated with designs or cartoon characters (“loony toons”). Occasionally it is sold in liquid form. But no matter what form it comes in, LSD leads the user to the same place—a serious disconnection from reality.
LSD users call an LSD experience a “trip,” typically lasting twelve hours or so. When things go wrong, which often happens, it is called a “bad trip,” another name for a living hell.
REFERENCES
- European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction 2007 Annual Report
- United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, report on LSD, 1998
- U.S. Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center report, May 2003
- U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
- “Research Report Series—Hallucinogens and Dissociative Drugs,” U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse
- U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy report on Hallucinogens,
- Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD—The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond, Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, Grave Press, (revised edition), March 1986
