Many of you may have seen this before but for those that haven't it's an interesting read.
It was written by a man who was part of the Greatful Dead Family who, during the 60's & 70's, toured with the band spreading LSD all over America.
Some interesting facts about laying LSD, its purity & its importance to mankind.
Its a long read but you're interested in LSD i'm sure you'll enjoy it.......
Crystal to Blotter [LSD]
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The information in this thread was generously provided by Chinacat72, a member of Mycotopia forum, in 2005.
"I will discuss LSD crystal and what happens with it. This info is from my experiences a long time ago.I can safely offer it because I have retired from this line of work and stay far away from it.
First I will briefly discuss the people or family as there called so you can get an appreciation for what they do and have done. The family is motivated to spread LSD because we believe that LSD is a key givin to us from above. LSD was givin to man from god to help him see the error of his ways. Why do you think it was discovered during the most horrible time in history. It is the antidote for the atomic bomb. It`s doesn`t matter if you beleive this or not ,because what i`m trying to express is how deeply important the family feels about the sacred value of LSD. Those who are at the upper level`s of the family will gladly sacrifice there lifes and freedom to do this work.
OK now down to the crystal. I have little knowlege about LSD manufacture so i`m going to talk about the final product the crystal. On tour crystal came in brown glass bottles with 1-10 grams in them. The bottles were sealed and contained CO2 and crystal. You can`t just buy crystal from family. First you have to be taught how to lay it ,which i`ll cover in a little bit. Also you have to do a thumbprint(eat it) there are no exeptions to this rule.The reason is to make sure your Karma is clean enough to handle this sacred work.
TYPES OF CRYSTAL
Needlepoint -very pure(95% ) white powerdery crystal,was available in small amount`s. The best of the best
White Fluff -Very pure(95% ) white light flakes of crystal. Still around and the most sought after. very pure
Silver -Good and clean(85-90% )-light greyish crystal. Was an unbelievable amount of this around in the late eighty`s and early nineties. Very good stuff. My first thumbprint was this kind. If you ate acid in the 80-90`s you probably sampled some silver.
Amber -Decent(70%?) This crystal varied from a light amber color to an almost dark brown color.Was always available.One batch called quadricept amber was the color of light honey and was very good.Lot`s a people worked with this crystal but I always would use silver instead since it was better and the same price.
Lavender -(60-70%?) light purple to almost black colored crystal. Like amber it varied batch to batch.
TJ (tornado juice) - purity unknown. I seen this shit in about four different colors and it always scared me. No experiance with it.
Champagne -(50-60% ) black crystal, nasty stuff IMHO. I worked with it once and swore to never touch it again.
OK so you got some crystal and need to get it on blotter. It`s a pretty amazing feeling holding a jar in your hands that has 10 grams of crystal in it. That`s 100,000 doses in the palm of your hand. For dealing with laying we`ll say we got 1 gram. Acid is always layed 1 gram=10 tenpacks. A tenpack is tensheets. 1gram=10,000doses. If your laying needlpoint your doses will be 95mcg, because your crystal is 95% pure. If your laying amber your shit will be 70mcg, because it`s 70% pure. got it
Now you get a glass pyrex pan to dip your tenpacks in. Your crystal is dissovled into 110ml. of everclear per gram.The purer crystals dissolve instantly with a little stirring. The not so pure take a little shaking. Champange is damn near impossible to get to dissolve evenly.
Paper-for white blotter standard watercolor paper#14 or equivalent is used. It`s critical you get the right paper. If you don`t it won`t absorb right and you`ll fuck it all up.Print`s are made up ahead of time and perferated.
OK so you got your crystal dissolved and your paper cut and ready. There are 2 schools when it comes to putting it on the paper. First dump the solution in the pan and dip each tenpack into it then lift it up and let any excess solution run off into the pan. Second method is to put the tenpack into the pan and squirt the solution on it with a baby syringe(the ones they give little kids medicine with). I Have done both and prefer dipping them just because its quicker .Then the tenpacks are layed out to dry which doesn`t take long since alcohol evaporates quickly. If you did it right there will be very little residue left in the bottom of the pan.This redidue is extremely potent and is either soaked up with a piece of paper(called mop up) or made into potent liquid(called wash). Whatever you choose this is saved for your personal use. While your doing all this you get very,very high. As soon as you open the jar of crystal it intoxicates the air. Most people were rubber gloves when doing this some don`t. Just don`t have any plans afterwards.
There might be slightly different methods used when laying, but this is how the dead family does it. After the tenpacks are dryed there distibuted and eaten up. Since the end of the Grateful Dead the massive distribution network that used to get rid of so much acid has been broken up badly. Never fear Acid is still out there"
LSD is still around though it seems that a majority of the labs are inactive at the moment. This is normal as they don`t produce all the time. Most like the silver family only produce about every 5 years. Though they usually produce enough to last that long.
When the Grateful Dead toured massive amount`s of LSD were distributed around the country. On a typical east coast tour 100-150grams could easily be sold. Thats a million to a million and a half doses. This flooded these citys and the lsd trickled down to every nook and cranny of america. By the time it was dry again another tour would roll through the region and resupply it. Plus we would meet people on tour from certain area`s of the country and keep them supplied with the help of the good ole USPS.
Sadly when the dead stopped touring this network went into shambles. People fell out of touch and with no shows ,there wasn`t the marketplace for distibution.In turn parts of the country arn`t getting saturated anymore.
LSD isn`t moved and sold like the cartel`s move coke and such. It`s handled by a brotherhood of people who truly believe there doing the work of god(or whatever name you call creation). We believe that LSD crystal has to be handled by the right people who are totally committed to the movement.
When we moved crystal there was always the feeling that we were protected by a higher power. I can`t tell you how many times i have had crystal or acid on me or my brothers and have been in situation`s where we should have gotten busted and something always protected us. So many times that coincidence is not an option. Why do i think we were protected. Because the family does it for mankind not money. We viewed LSD as the only hope for the radical change in conciousness that would save us. So in effect we viewed are work as the work of God. You know why they never busted a family lab? Because we would never betray LSD. Just as Jesus was nailed to the cross we were willing to spend the rest of our lives in jail or die to protect what we viewed as the salvation of are species. Sound`s a little dramatic doesn`t it, but i`m trying to give you an understanding of the faith in LSD that the family has.
By the way the Kansas bust was not a family lab incase anybody is wondering. The point i`m trying to make is the family believes LSD has to move through the right hands. This is why you can`t go down to the corner and get a gram of crystal. sorry to ramble.
As some of the cooks retire i rest assure you that they pass there recipes and secret`s down to those chosen to continue to fight the good fight. I don`t think it will ever be as readily available all over the country as it once was due to the break up of the distribution cycle of tour. I could be wrong and hope i am.
Alot of old family have moved on and including myself retired, feeling we served our time. The family does hear your cry`s for more acid and they don`t plan on giving up on mankind. Now's a good time for labs to be inactive. the current government administration is viewed as a bad storm that needs to pass as jerry sang "all good things in all good time" Keep the faith"
"For me and the rest of the people on tour it was just a matter of spending year after year on tour. The elder`s that are on top keep in a eye on everybody that help`s move there stuff. They also know the intentions of those people. If they know your true and a total believer in the work they start letting you hang around.
Many hour`s are spent in hotel rooms watching them work. They make sure you know every detail. Also they make sure that you know the importance of being honest and laying your product correctly. Every hit you lay has the potential to change somebody`s life and bring them into the light. It`s taught like an apprenticeship.
My first thumbprint was silver. Before my print i thought i was pretty experienced with acid. I had been puddled many times with strong liquid. I wasn`t near as experienced as i thought as i walked into the room and everybody had a huge grin on there face, and i saw what i was about to take. Thumbprint`s arn`t weighed out on a scale. It`s more of "that`s a nice little chunk ,that should do" Your talking several sheet`s or more when you do a print.
Fluff and needlpoint are damn pure and i don`t imagine bears was any purer. I have heard of batches of needlepoint being as high as 98% White fluff is gorgous crystal. We would eat this crystal like crazy. When i first met the main guy in charge of this crystal he was snorting it!!!!
After i did a fluff print i never did any other kind except needlepoint. When you eat crystal you definatly can tell the differences between them. Purity does matter at that level."
Isn't a thumbprint dangerous? You'd think a persons mind would be changed forever after doing that amount.
"A thumbprint isn`t even close to the largest doses people have done. Dangerous? LSD is physiologicaly one of the safest drugs there are. There`s not one valid death that can be attributed to physiological complications from taking LSD. I didn`t know all this when i was taking it though.
Psychologically it could be very negative if the wrong person does it. That`s why we didn`t just walk around the parking lot handing out thumbprint`s.
As far as high doses go, it totally opens you up. For about a week afterwards your first print you need some babysitting. Hell you`ve just been reborn! After awhile it`s less tramatic. As for after effects. I am middle aged and healthy. I have 3 bright healthy children. And i`m just getting my bachelor`s degree with a 3.5GPA I do feel high very often though, but i don`t mind. The man that gave me my first print still does crystal once in awhile and he`s in his mid sixties."
You mention the purity varying on alot of the crystal. How are they checking purity? Just roughly with how long it takes to dissolve in a solvent?
"I can tell by color. How crystallin it is and what color it is. You can inspect the crystal once you know what good clean crystal looks like. And then you can compare. I have a moto "if it's white it's all right". Of course the jugement on my end is not scientific . I examin it like jewelers do jewels. The only real way to get a very accurate reading on how pure it is comes from the lab. Most decent lab's have a GC/MS and can get a decent purity reading from that. Needlepoint and White fluff are the only one's that are reliably consistant. Silver varies a little. Lavender and Amber vary greatly in appearance from batch to batch. Indicating a difference in purity.
If I was buying Amber or Lavender I would want to see it first. They have a tendancy every once in awhile to skimp on the last part of manufacture. The rinse and recrysitazation at the end is crucial in determing purity. If this isn't done enough your product is less pure.Some of you may have heard Owsley say he lost 20% of his product making sure its pure. Thats because he rised it a ton of times. Thats why his shit was said to be better than Sandoz. Amber and Lavender if they don't due this good there crystal looks more dirty. Also the purer you make your crystal the less it weighs and it's sold by weight."
How long does LSD "stay good"? I mean if i was to take it, put it in a zippylock and then put it in the pages of a book (someplace with unchanging air and no light) "I find that exact method perfect. I took two sheets of needlepoint and wraped them in plastic wrap then A. foil and put them in the middle of a book on a bookshelf. There going on 3 years old and last time somebody tried them they were very potent. They get no light ,air ,and are in a cool enviroment.
As for crystal it's stored in brown glass vial's that are filled with CO2 and sealed."
You said the Family was always on tour with the Dead. Do you know offhand if any of them ever had the occasion to hang with Jerry and the guys?
"A lot of the older guys did. Hell the family started with the Dead and Bear. It's all connected from the band, crew to the fans and faithful.
As for hanging with Jerry myself , no. I got backstage several times, but that doesn't mean anything. There's backstage and then there is the bands backstage ,thats off limits. I would much rather be in the crowd. The closest I ever got to Jerry was ten feet as he walked by me and a bunch of other people. I just smiled. I had nothing to say. He had a lot of pressure with all the people who clung to him and thought he was a god.
It was really hard for him to deal with and one of the reasons he turned to smack IMHO. I had nothing to say to him ,Except mabye "Play St. Stephen!"
I was just curious what kind of sheets were going around when you were into it, was there always different sheets or was there stockpiles of certain kinds?
"Over the 8 years I was on tour I saw more prints than I possibly could remember or list. I wouldn't even know were to begin. Hundreds and hundreds of different kinds. My favorite was plain white unperferated paper. The reason for this was alot of cops don't know what a tenpack of white unperfed blotter looks like. Once on a Greyhound bus from Floridia to Baltimore our bus was stopped and a bunch of feds got on it. They searched everybodys bags. They were looking for guns or coke since we were coming from floridia. I'll never forget the feeling of watching a federal agent (FBI I believe) go through my bag and pull stuff out. I had a gram(ten- tenpacks or 10,000 doses) of white paper. He pulled it out and had no clue what it was . It looked like just a bunch of ten inch square pieces of paper to him. Had it be perferated and had a print on it he probably would have known. After that I was a true believer in white unperfed paper.
Print's are usually made in mass amounts and then sold to the different familys. So one kind of print can actually have several different kinds of crystal on them. This happened years ago with the Jesus Christ prints. The first ones were made of very pure white fluff and they were dipped to contain a little over 100mcg. People went nuts over them and the were the talk of the summer. Then the lavender family got hold of the same print and put there dirty ass crystal on them and they were about half the strength as the original white fluff batch.
People should know the truth about LSD. The internet is the perfect medium to transfer this knowlege. Just enough info can be given to paint a general picture of how things work, without giving specifics that would endanger this important work. I am in the perfect position to do so. I am long enough removed from the active scene to offer information without endangering anyone including myself. My friends that still live in the old world are very supportive.
Now it seams lifetimes ago. I was just a tool in a very large tool box. The family was around long before I came around. Luckily it was in a time when a lot of the older folks were around to help with the scene. For me LSD is a gift and tool given to man from the heavens. I truly believe it is here to point us back towards the light. These values are the same with almost all the family.
After you get a glimpse of eternity you can't help ,but want to share it with others who need it."
Sand, Scully, and Owsely were the original chemists working for the family?
"Yes, all 3 were family. Owsely was the original chemist of the Dead scene/family. He set many of the standards and ethics still held today. He also got Sand and Scully involved and doing this work for the people not money. Sand and Scully were in The "Brotherhood of Eternal Love". Back then it was basically all one big network or family. After the feds broke up the BEL in the 70's is when people split off and ran smaller labs,networks and were known by there product.
I would also like to note that when all 3 were busted they were all threatend with huge sentences. They kept there mouth shut and served very little time in comparison to how much they could have served.
Pickard was family many years ago. He has been busted for manufacturing 3 times. On his second bust he ran his mouth to the feds about other drug activity within the scene resulting in several people getting prison time. After that he was shunned and nobody in the family would work for him. That is why he had to work with such shady people in Kansas. Had he been working with family he wouldn't be going to serve a lifetime prison sentence, he wouldn't have been busted at all. On his second bust instead of biting the bullet and keeping his mouth shut like Sand, Scully, and Owsely, he chose to make a deal.
Many years later now he is going to prison for life because he was betrayed in the same way. I do hope that Pickard can get out of prison before his life ends. He has a new kid that was just born and a new wife. He has done a great service to man by making LSD. I would hope that after a few years he can get released and live his remaining years with his new family. I doubt he will be so lucky though.
Many of us who have been graced by LSD owe a great debt to these 3 pioneer chemists and the ones that still remain active and unknown today."
"In the days of old tour wasn't just a time to flood the country with LSD, but also about making connections. For those of us on the road full time we needed an income when we got back to the bay area. Meeting kind people on tour was always nice, but it also provided an chance to spread the juice when we wern't traveling. When the Dead toured 4 times a year you would meet all sorts of folks from every nook and crany of the US. Some of these people were chosen to provide for there community. This is a huge link in the distribution chain. And its also in very, very bad shape.
When Jerry died there was a lot of folks who quit touring. As people moved around connections were severed. In the old days if you lost track of people you knew you would see them at the next tour. Now thats not an option because there is no tour. People have fell out of touch. People have moved on. So as the years have moved on the existing links have been stretched thinner and thinner."
I'm starting to think the Brotherhood is just one more lost religion.
"I have little faith in the LSD movement ever getting full steam again. I hope i'm wrong. It will always be around, but the not like it was. The distribution system is in shambles. It seems that a whole new generation of younger people lacking the once highly held ethics are ruining things.
On a positive note, the psychedelic movement will continue. Things change and may seem dark ,but we must continue. The psychedelic experience and man have been together for thousands of years. It survived christianity,it can survive anything. It goes underground now and then, but is there for those dedicated enough to seek it out. If you feel strongly about the benefits of psychedelics then do something positive about it.
You can't expect the old generation to carry the torch forever. A new wave of dedicated folks needs to rise up and continue this work. Can you think of a more important thing to do?
i believe there's a large number of us who would LOVE to get into it and help, how is this possible?
"It is going to be tough for any new people to get into this work. This summer has shown that poor choices were made in who would spread the love. Not saying it can't be done, but it will be tough. It usually takes a few years of hanging around. Your intentions will be tested.
Not to worry though, because there are many ways we can all help.
First is to become educated and responsible when it comes to psychedelics. Know the facts and when debating sceptics be mature and informed. Most people have very poor info about LSD. Rumors and bullshit plague its myth. The more people we have telling the truth the better.
Turn people on. You'll never make a closer friend than one you turned on. After you get to know the effects of psychedelics you can tell that certain people would benefit from them. Talk to them if they're willing. Don't be pushy, but offer them info. Then if they want offer them the chance. The more truthful info they have the better off they'll be.
I am a firm believer that psychedelics can be shown to be useful in mental health. I am in the middle of a 9 year academic voyage to get the proper credentials to help if the chance arises. If we can prove through science and medicine that LSD is benifitial then we make a great step forward. Not only will it help expell the nasty rumors around them, but give people the chance touch the healing energy that LSD can open up. Studies are under way in the US right now. There for conditions like OCD. Even though most of us don't have OCD this study is important. It establishes the safety of psychedelics. This opens the doors for further studies that cover other areas. Before the scheduling of LSD there was a lot of research being done. Alot of it was very promising.
LSD and other psychedelics were placed in the schedule one category and access to them was cut off even to legit researchers. This was a total political move that had nothing to do with the saftey or benefits of LSD. It was about trying to get control of a generation that didn't want to be under control. Theres many researchers in the world very interested in psychedelic research. These are very bright M.D.'s, PhD's and scientists. The more help on this front the better. This is were I will spend my remaining years for the movement.
Supply- There is always a need for psychedelics. If your totally dedicated and willing to risk your freedom to better this planet through providing psychedelics then all the info you need is available at your finger tips.
I can think of nothing more important for the survival of our species and those we live with then for us all to have access to the psychedelic experience."
