(LSD)'s s a synthetic chemical, not tried and tested by nature in a symbiotic relationship over thousands of years.
LSD is "semi-synthetic" and its original and primary precursor,
ergotamine tartrate, comes from a natural source:
ergot, the psychoactive fungus that grows on rye. The idea for many psychedelic drugs comes from nature – the blue print, if you will, was already written in nature's chemistry all around us; we just had to look. The
aromatic essential oils are a perfect example of this.
MDMA,
MDA,
MDE,
et al. come from natural
Safrole in
Sassafras oil found in
S. albidum roots (among other plant sources). It's what gives root beer its distinct smell and taste. And
DMMDA-2 comes from Indian Dill Seed OIl's
Dill Apiole.
Nutmeg contains,
Myristicin (precursor to
MMDA),
Elemicin (precursor to
Mescaline), and other essential oils like this.
Dill and
Parsley both have interesting allylbenzenes, too, like
Asarone (2C-x pre),
Apiole (
DMMDA pre), and
Anethole (
PMA/PMMA pre).
Meanwhile psilocybin mushrooms are genetically modified to hell by human selection to the point that their small caps and large bodies wouldn't be adequate for competitive reproduction in the wild. But anyway, all of this is a moot point because humans
are the product of nature. We're as natural as anything else on this planet, so why do people pretend that every so-called "man-made drug" is automatically some evil, bad thing because it wasn't made by Mother Nature? Sure we should protect the ecosystem, but that's precisely bc we're a part of it. And besides, nature also makes shit like Death Angel mushrooms, Black Mamba venom, White Oleander, Datura, and
countless carcinogens. Let's not forget" medicine is a noble path.
When at the doctor, do you allow anesthesia? Ever use antibiotics? Those are synthetic chems "not tried and tested by nature in a symbiotic relationship over thousands of years." This notion
seems cool, but it's a platitude + hypocritical.
No offense. For realsies, lol. It
is a commonly held old chestnut, and I
get it; I really do. Seems so noble, planet-loving, anti-consumerist, righteous, indigenous, skeptical of "synthetic" anything (not a merit), and in-tune with Gaya & so on & forth. But it's not – plant-made drugs have been genetically modified, and many psychoactive drugs are minimally changed by organic chemistry to bear a nitrogen and cross the blood brain barrier. They're tools we developed from natural sources to allow us to better explore our nature brains. It's taken all of human history to get to this point, and it's perfectly natural for us to explore and seek precisely this knowledge in this exact manner. No government should criminalize this.
It would be nice if we had legal recreational drugs with FDA oversight and a wealth more knowledge on psychedelics drugs than we do now, but it is what it is. And anyway, of the psychedelics, LSD is one of the more extensively tested, discussed, studied, and understood. Research into it and other lysergamides has helped people like Dr. David Nichols and his group when he was at Purdue developing Parkinson's treatments.
It might be perfectly safe in the final analysis,
LSD is renowned for having a robust safety profile in its category with a huge difference between active dose and its LD₅₀. How much more safety data were you looking for, and what's a drug you consider safer than LSD and why? Pls don't just speculate. Let's hear some logic.
but I'm not prepared to be the sacrificial lamb for it.
What are you talking about? You don't have to be the "sacrificial lamb" – that's awfully dramatic – that's already been handled. Let's not forget LSD was developed legally in the well respected Sandoz Laboratories, Switzerland, by Dr. Albert Hofmann. It went through testing; of course this was 80 yrs ago, but still.
And when it comes to these things, one should always defer to natures work first. Nature really does know best.
That's what organic chemistry does, and especially biochemistry – it pays close attention to nature's work. And Nature knows best? Man the "natural world" will fucking ruthlessly and carelessly tear you apart and devour you, or drown you, or freeze you, cook you alive, zap you with lightening, swallow you in an earth quake, tsunami, tornado, or squish you like a bug in a hurricane, avalanche, incinerate you in a volcanic eruption, horse kick you in the face, maul you with any number of beasts from tigers to gators, or simply poison you to an agonizing death because your ape ass was starving and accidentally ate the wrong shrooms or berries. Poison oak, poison sumac, deadly bee stings, black widow spiders, brown recluse ones, too, and all the fucking venomous snakes, scorpions, even duck-billed mahfuckin' platypuses have a venomous spiked barb in one of their hind legs, sneaky fat little fucks

Nature knows best… until you develop cancer, Parkinson's, or a slew of various maladies. Staying alive in the long-term can be a real challenge with vicious antagonists to end your life if you're not really cautious, on the look-out, and a bit lucky. Life is vexing. Let's not suck Mother Nature's dick too hard. I respect her, but all she gets is a handjob outta me, at best. I mean, look at a guy like Steve Irwin went out. Fuck that. No sting rays for me, thanks.