LSD/AL-LAD "losing potency" - is it a myth?

[Ismene]

I recently took some LSD blotter that I've had for 5 years and needed exactly the same dose to have a good trip as I did 5 years ago. I didn't take too much effort storing it - simply wrapped in tinfoil, in a glass jar filled with tissue paper to push as much air out as possible at room temp.

Similarly I've had al-lad stored for 12 months in the same way and that's lost no potency whatsoever.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that all the bullshit about LSD and al-lad "losing potency" is a load of cobblers. My informed opinion is that LSD and AL-LAD will last not just years, or decades, but multiple lifetimes.

If I'm around in 30 years I'll get back to you with information on whether my AL-LAD blotter is still hitting the spot.

 

[perpetualdawn]

I've had LSD loose some potency from being stored under some pretty horrible conditions: high humidity, no container other than some tinfoil, temperature fluctuations. It's hard to gague how much potency it lost, but it wasn't that much less powerful after months of being stored like this.

I'd agree that the common wisdom exaggerates the fragility of lsd. I wonder if it comes from people buying sheets of acid, dropping all the time and developing tolerance, but misattributing to weaker effects to degraded acid, rather than gaining tolerance?

 

[Jackeh]

It depends on the conditions before storage I'd say. Like, if you let sweat come into contact with the blotter, and then put it in storage the acid and other chemicals in your sweat might attack it. As long as you don't let it get into any bad conditions before storing it in whatever way you want it shouldn't degrade. All that tissue and the glass is probably acting as a great insulator in there too, preventing any heat degradation (I think, don't quote me on this).

 

[Jesusgreen]

I assume it's similarly stable to other tryptamines - i.e. store it horribly and it's going to degrade pretty fast, store it in mediocre conditions and it'll degrade slowly, store it in decent conditions and it won't noticeably degrade at all, store it in perfect conditions and you won't see it degrade even a tiny bit in a lifetime.

 

[Kapitan]

I agree. I've stored acid for years, and it's been fine.

It is worth pointing out that the epimerization processes that are at least partially responsible for its degradation are chemical equilibria, and might at some point reach equilibrium. That is to say that there might be a "minimum" potency for any given sample of acid, assuming that there are no other available degradation pathways (like w/ chlorine). That's all just speculation, though.

 

[oar9fi]

Maybe this idea comes from the fact that handling it degrades it. If it's in the form of tiny crystals attached to the paper fibers I imagine keeping it somewhere like in a wallet also leads to little bits coming off the blotter. Never looked at blotter under a microscope though.

 

[EntheoDjinn]

Well, three weeks ago my partner and I took a drop each of acid that I'd kept frozen solid (-22 deg C) for over 12 years. There was only a very slight drop in perceived potency. We had a mild trip with nice visuals very much in line with each occasion on which we delved into the bottle. It's been thawed a couple of times each year for special occasions, but kept as cold as possible (e.g. in thermos flask with ice during transportation). Recent three-drop doses have, as the saying goes, had me as trolleyed as when I first obtained it. As the above posters say, look after it and it will deliver pleasant surprises for years to come.

 

[SONN]

I'd just watch out for chlorinated water and sunlight mainly, pretty positive both of them have caused me to lose precious micrograms of LSD

edit: pulled this from wikipedia

LSD also has enamine-type reactivity because of the electron-donating effects of the indole ring. Because of this, chlorine destroys LSD molecules on contact; even though chlorinated tap water contains only a slight amount of chlorine, the small quantity of compound typical to an LSD solution will likely be eliminated when dissolved in tap water.[6] The double bond between the 8-position and the aromatic ring, being conjugated with the indole ring, is susceptible to nucleophilic attacks by water or alcohol, especially in the presence of light. LSD often converts to "lumi-LSD", which is inactive in human beings.[6]

A controlled study was undertaken to determine the stability of LSD in pooled urine samples.[73] The concentrations of LSD in urine samples were followed over time at various temperatures, in different types of storage containers, at various exposures to different wavelengths of light, and at varying pH values. These studies demonstrated no significant loss in LSD concentration at 25°C for up to four weeks. After four weeks of incubation, a 30% loss in LSD concentration at 37°C and up to a 40% at 45°C were observed. Urine fortified with LSD and stored in amber glass or nontransparent polyethylene containers showed no change in concentration under any light conditions. Stability of LSD in transparent containers under light was dependent on the distance between the light source and the samples, the wavelength of light, exposure time, and the intensity of light. After prolonged exposure to heat in alkaline pH conditions, 10 to 15% of the parent LSD epimerized to iso-LSD. Under acidic conditions, less than 5% of the LSD was converted to iso-LSD. It was also demonstrated that trace amounts of metal ions in buffer or urine could catalyze the decomposition of LSD and that this process can be avoided by the addition of EDTA.