Carcinogens in LSD?

[washingtonbound]

Hi all, I've been reading up on lsd synthesis and I read that in order to make lsd from ergoline, some of the solvents that are used are possibly carcinogens. Could someone with more detailed knowledge on this elaborate on this idea. I think its interesting because there have been times when I've been on lsd that I get headaches and discomfort in the sinus area similar to when smoking cigarettes. I don't know much about this stuff but I thought maybe this is accurate?

 

[perpetualdawn]

The solvents used during synthesis aren't present in the final product so you don't have to worry about that at all. When you get pure LSD on a piece of blotter paper, the only thing you're ingesting is the blotter, and LSD itself, which is not a carcinogen. Also, while it's true that cigarettes contain carcinogens, the fact that they give you headaches and sinus discomfort isn't directly related to that. So don't worry, be happy!

 

[washingtonbound]

Thanks, I am just never sure of things. I used to have a ketamine habit and I came to understand that it is actually derived from a petrochemical. This grossed me out a bit although I know I don’t have the chem knowledge to know exactly what I’m saying.

 

[psy997]

If synthesis of Ketamine is done properly there's nothing petrol related in it. Organic chemistry is a relatively small field in this way, it's easy to say this has this in it, and become scared. There's not that many building blocks.

 

[Feuer im Süden]

Cancerogenic Solvents are all organic Solvents like Dichlormethane, Toluol, .... and they all evaporate easily under low pressure. So this is ideal for a Chemist, as they just put their soup in an apparatus called rotary evaporator and this makes all of the solvent to fly away into a freezing trap and only the solid parts remain in the container of the reaction. Therefore all of those solvents can be easily removed and then the remaining crystal is solved into something like alcohol and then applied to the blotters

 

[Tranced]

Many things are carcinogenic.

 

[Hodor]

Thanks, I am just never sure of things. I used to have a ketamine habit and I came to understand that it is actually derived from a petrochemical. This grossed me out a bit although I know I don’t have the chem knowledge to know exactly what I’m saying.

Lots of things are derived from a petrochemical - heck, vaseline *is* a petrochemical, yet we've been safely using it on our skin for almost 150 years.

If a synthesis is done right, then the product will effectively be free of cancerogenic solvents and byproducts.

Out of all the drugs out there, LSD is probably the least problematic in that regard because the doses are so small - a single hit of LSD is usually less than 100 micrograms, whereas today's ecstasy pills typically contain between 100 and 200 miligrams (that's 100,000 micrograms!) of MDMA.

Also, whether a substance is "natural", "synthetic" or "semi-synthetic" says very little about toxicity. Aflatoxin B, for example, is both perfectly natural (being produced by a mold species found all over the world) and is one of the most cancerogenic and hepatoxic (i.e. liver-damaging) substances known to man.

 

[perpetualdawn]

Another example of a natural toxin, botox, aka botulinum toxin, 400 nanograms IM could be lethal in an adult (botulism poisoning). Whoever first decided to inject it in their face to make themself look younger was a brave and creative person.

 

[Hodor]

Another example of a natural toxin, botox, aka botulinum toxin, 400 nanograms IM could be lethal in an adult (botulism poisoning). Whoever first decided to inject it in their face to make themself look younger was a brave and creative person.

Botulinum toxin already had a significant history of use in human beings before they were using it for wrinkle-smoothing. Beginning in the late seventies, it was used to temporarily paralyze specific facial muscles (particularly around the eyes) to treat conditions such as strabismus (cross-eyedness) or blepharospasm (eye twitching); in the 80's, they started using it for cosmetic purposes to restore a more symmetrical appearance to people who had suffered unilateral nerve damage. As these treatments often had the side-effect of making the patient look younger, it didn't take doctors long to figure out its mainstream potential, although it didn't attain FDA approval for this purpose until 2002.

But yes, the lethality of biological toxins like botulinum toxin or tetanospasmin basically dwarfs anything man has come up with so far.

 

[perpetualdawn]

Thats really interesting ^ I guess the jump to using it therapeautically would have just been on the basis of observing it's paralytic effects as a toxin. For a long time medicine/herbology has noticed that toxic things are sometimes curative at the right dose.

 

[Morninggloryseed]

Considering its all carbon (people, pets,
petroleum) you may have an elemental problem.

Thanks, I am just never sure of things. I used to have a ketamine habit and I came to understand that it is actually derived from a petrochemical. This grossed me out a bit although I know I don’t have the chem knowledge to know exactly what I’m saying.