Spirits (was RE: [extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.)

[spike]

________________________________________
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Samantha Atkins
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 12:26 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: Spirits (was RE: [extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.)


On Nov 29, 2005, at 7:39 PM, spike wrote:

The danger I had in mind is accidental overdose...


Please refrain from writing on this subject until you get some basic
education in this area.


- samantha


I tried that, but found the results most puzzling.  There
is much contradictory information.  Janis Joplin did not
die of LSD overdose, it was heroin.  Jim Morrison's death
certificate claims he perished of heart failure.  (Well,
the old geezer *was* pushing 28.)  Jimi Hendrix drowned
in barf after devouring nine sleeping pills.  So I
was misinformed that all these were LSD corpses.

In any case, Amara is right, I should stay with
the medical research.  There is clearly plenty of
conflicting info, so much of it must be wrong.  A
credible looking site described animal studies 
which showed 12 milligrams slew 50% of the test 
animals that received that dose.    

A suicide site claims LSD overdose isn't the way to 
take oneself out of this world, for it would take a 
few hundred normal doses to do the deed, an amount 
one simply would not have on hand.  (Unless one is 
far too rich to be contemplating suicide.)

So after this googlefest, I had a notion.  Before the
internet I would have had not the foggiest notion on
how to cook up a batch of LSD or where to find out.  This
evening I googled "make LSD" and a recipe popped up in 
a fraction of a second.  Reading over the chemistry, 
it doesn't look as difficult as rebuilding an old 
motorcycle.  

So I now sadly speculate that fatal LSD overdoses 
will become much more common.  Reasoning: if it requires 
120 normal doses to reach 50% chance of perishing, 
ordinarily one would not have that much.  But if the 
masses are able to google and cook the stuff themselves, 
one could have that much.  Twelve milligrams could be 
accidentally ingested I would think.  This has all been most
educational.

spike