So I’ve done my fair share of psychedelic drugs over the years and I’ve been around lots of different people doing lots of different drugs, but I’ve never dealt with anything like this. Long story short, my best friend Chad and I are left with this guy John in my apartment who is losing his damn mind and is seemingly psychotic. He breaks some shit and eventually runs out the door. We try to get him to his house but he keeps running away. It all ends with John being tackled by the police and taken away in an ambulance, strapped to the stretcher.
So here’s the full story:
Some of my friends come over to my apartment on a Friday around 7pm, a few had just dosed LSD (reagent tested) and wanted to start their night at my place. They brought a friend named John who I’d met before but didn’t know very well. My friends had strong tabs (exact dosage unknown) and each took 1-3 but John had 6. We smoked and chilled while they were coming up; things were going well at first.
As the evening goes on, John starts to make less and less sense. By 8:30p, it’s clear that he’s having a bad and very intense trip. He’s extremely agitated, pacing, shouting nonsense, banging on the walls, having mood swings, etc. John throws my new iPhone at the wall, totally shattering it. I hide my pets because I fear that he might hurt them. We try to calm him down but nothing helps. My friends who are tripping leave because they expect my neighbors to call the cops at any minute (I’m surprised they didn’t).
So Chad and I are left to deal with John, who’s becoming increasingly psychotic. We try to get John back to his house, thinking he might calm down in a familiar environment. We eventually get him outside and he runs off. We get in my car and find him in the parking lot; he won’t get in my car, so we decide to back off and keep an eye on him. We didn’t want to leave him because we were very worried that he might hurt himself or someone else, given the way he was acting.
At this point, he’s running around the parking lot screaming nonsense. While we’re considering our remaining options, John starts trying to break into cars. We realize that we have to call the campus police and EMS now before someone else calls the city police, who would deal with him much more harshly. John was a student and I recently graduated and live on campus, so I’m glad we had this option.
Two cops arrive and we explain the situation. When the cops approach John and start talking to him, he bolts off across the street and they have to tackle him. The campus EMS arrive quickly but clearly weren’t prepared for this. We tell them that he took LSD and was having a really bad reaction. The police have to help the EMTs get John into the ambulance and strap him down because he was resisting so much (he's a strong guy).
It’s not fun having to call the cops on someone who is tripping. I’m sure it was no fun for John either. Needless to say, this whole ordeal was incredibly stressful. Plus, he never paid me for the $1000 in damage that he did to my stuff. I'm just glad that nobody got hurt.
In retrospect, I should have noticed the symptoms earlier. We didn't have any benzos to give him, but I think that might have made it all worse by lowering his inhibitions. Is there anything that we could have done before he became full-on psychotic?
So here’s the full story:
Some of my friends come over to my apartment on a Friday around 7pm, a few had just dosed LSD (reagent tested) and wanted to start their night at my place. They brought a friend named John who I’d met before but didn’t know very well. My friends had strong tabs (exact dosage unknown) and each took 1-3 but John had 6. We smoked and chilled while they were coming up; things were going well at first.
As the evening goes on, John starts to make less and less sense. By 8:30p, it’s clear that he’s having a bad and very intense trip. He’s extremely agitated, pacing, shouting nonsense, banging on the walls, having mood swings, etc. John throws my new iPhone at the wall, totally shattering it. I hide my pets because I fear that he might hurt them. We try to calm him down but nothing helps. My friends who are tripping leave because they expect my neighbors to call the cops at any minute (I’m surprised they didn’t).
So Chad and I are left to deal with John, who’s becoming increasingly psychotic. We try to get John back to his house, thinking he might calm down in a familiar environment. We eventually get him outside and he runs off. We get in my car and find him in the parking lot; he won’t get in my car, so we decide to back off and keep an eye on him. We didn’t want to leave him because we were very worried that he might hurt himself or someone else, given the way he was acting.
At this point, he’s running around the parking lot screaming nonsense. While we’re considering our remaining options, John starts trying to break into cars. We realize that we have to call the campus police and EMS now before someone else calls the city police, who would deal with him much more harshly. John was a student and I recently graduated and live on campus, so I’m glad we had this option.
Two cops arrive and we explain the situation. When the cops approach John and start talking to him, he bolts off across the street and they have to tackle him. The campus EMS arrive quickly but clearly weren’t prepared for this. We tell them that he took LSD and was having a really bad reaction. The police have to help the EMTs get John into the ambulance and strap him down because he was resisting so much (he's a strong guy).
It’s not fun having to call the cops on someone who is tripping. I’m sure it was no fun for John either. Needless to say, this whole ordeal was incredibly stressful. Plus, he never paid me for the $1000 in damage that he did to my stuff. I'm just glad that nobody got hurt.
In retrospect, I should have noticed the symptoms earlier. We didn't have any benzos to give him, but I think that might have made it all worse by lowering his inhibitions. Is there anything that we could have done before he became full-on psychotic?
