Dropping hit of LSD in water... is it still good?

[t_wrex]

Some years ago, I managed to accidentally drop a paper tab of acid in a glass of water. My roomates and I convinced ourselves that it was no good, as the water was from a bottle of spring water and figured that the minerals present in it would break down the LSD, so I threw it out. But to this day, I wonder if it still would have been active, particularly if I had pulled it out of the water quickly. Google told me that bottled water often contains chlorine and fluorine, and I know that at least chlorine breaks down LSD immediately. If the water were distilled, would the LSD dissolve intact? My instinct says yes...

Along the same lines, what if it was a gelatin tab instead of paper? I recently had the opportunity to try gel tabs, and I quite like them because they dissolve under the tongue, assuaging my somewhat irrational dislike of swallowing paper tabs.

 

[TripSitterNZ]

if it was distilled water the LSD would of be fine but if it contained even the slightest amount of chlorine present it would of been ruined. Gel tabs sameway. I always like proper blotter which dissolves rapidily super thin contains hella strong doses of lsd aswell. I use to spit out bigger blotter paper after chewing on them for a hour.

 

[t_wrex]

if it was distilled water the LSD would of be fine but if it contained even the slightest amount of chlorine present it would of been ruined. Gel tabs sameway. I always like proper blotter which dissolves rapidily super thin contains hella strong doses of lsd aswell. I use to spit out bigger blotter paper after chewing on them for a hour.

Yeah, next time I might try dropping a hit into a shot glass of distilled water and then drinking it. Just for science. And I've absolutely thought about spitting blotter out after chewing it for a while. I imagine an hour would be long enough for all of the LSD to absorb.

 

[Hodor]

Google told me that bottled water often contains chlorine and fluorine, and I know that at least chlorine breaks down LSD immediately. If the water were distilled, would the LSD dissolve intact? My instinct says yes...

Bottled water contains "chlorine" in the form of chloride ions, which shouldn't really affect the LSD... I don't think people would pay top dollar for bottled water if it tasted as gross as chlorinated tap water.

Keep in mind that there is a huge difference between an element in its pure elemental form, and its more stable oxidized/reduced ionic form.

Take, for example, sodium and chlorine: Table salt - aka "sodium chloride" or "NaCl" is a perfectly safe substance for humans to eat; once its in your body, it will dissolve into free ions, Na+ and Cl-, both of which are fairly inert.
On the other hand, if you were to eat sodium metal, it would immediately react with the water in your body to form Na+ ions, and in doing so release caustic hydroxide ions and flammable hydrogen gas (which may immediately self-ignite due to the heat generated by the reaction). Elemental chlorine gas, likewise, is extremely dangerous: It would immediately try to form Cl- ions, and in so doing oxidize the organic matter in your body in a violent reaction, most likely killing you due to massive chemical burns in your lungs. The end result would be harmless Na+/Cl- ions, and a very dead human.

Needless to say, neither the "sodium" nor the "chlorine" in bottled water are actual sodium metal and chlorine gas, but rather harmless sodium cations and chloride anions.

That said, chlorinated (tap) water does indeed contain small amounts of a water soluble form of chlorine ("HOCl") that acts as an oxidizer, very much like elemental chlorine (but since it is used in very small concentrations, it is relatively harmless to humans). However, since doses of LSD are so tiny, the small amounts of chlorine found in chlorinated tap water are enough to cause a significant drop in potency.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

This old gem came to us thanks to older technology.

Before the 70's chlorine was bubbled into the water in the water treatment plants, so there was indeed elemental chlorine in the water. In the 70's they replaced that technology with additives like sodium hypochlorite which does the same job, but does not gas out of the water. This is not elemental chlorine and behaves as Hodor explained.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

.The last time I checked, the human body is composed of 60% water which contains many minerals. If it didnt, we would die. Therefore you should have just drank the water. FFS, who wastes a good tab..???

 

[Bitchniggaz]

Lsd is fine in water for at least a few days.

 

[Xorkoth]

It's not like tap water immediately destroys LSD, but given a little time, it will. If you drop a tab in a bottle of water and drank it within a short time you should not expect a significant loss of potency even if it's tap water.

 

[Hodor]

Before the 70's chlorine was bubbled into the water in the water treatment plants, so there was indeed elemental chlorine in the water. In the 70's they replaced that technology with additives like sodium hypochlorite which does the same job, but does not gas out of the water. This is not elemental chlorine and behaves as Hodor explained.

Bubbling Cl2 into water was actually done to make HOCl.
Cl2 + H2O <=> HOCl + Cl- + H+
The problem is that with chlorine being a gas, tiny amounts of it are constantly escaping from the solution, continuously shifting the equilibrium to the left. Likewise, acidity (i.e. the presence of "H+" ions) will shift the equilibrium to the left, so the chlorine itself even causing immediate acidification of the water is also not beneficial.

On the other hand, sodium hypochlorite, NaOCl, is somewhat alkaline, and creates a buffered system of HOCl/OCl- that as you said won't gas out.
NaOCl + H2O <=> HOCl + OH- + Na+

Which is probably a good thing, because working with elemental chlorine isn't necessarily healthy, and our unnecessary chlorine emissions were probably pretty hard on the ozone layer.