LSD: Encyclopedia II - LSD - LSD in the United States

LSD - LSD in the United States

Prior to 1967, LSD was available legally in the United States as an experimental psychiatric drug. LSD 'apostle' Al Hubbard actively promoted the drug between the 1950s and the 1970s and introduced thousands of people to it.

LSD has been manufactured illegally since the 1960s. A limited number of chemists, probably fewer than a dozen, are believed to have manufactured nearly all of the illicit LSD available in the United States. The best known of these is undoubtedly Augustus Owsley Stanley III, usually known simply as Owsley. The former chemistry student set up a private LSD lab in the mid-Sixties in San Francisco and supplied the LSD consumed at the famous Acid Test parties held by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, and other major events such as the Gathering of the Tribes in San Francisco in January 1967. He also had close social connections to leading San Francisco bands the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and The Holding Company, regularly supplied them with his LSD and also worked as their live sound engineer and made many tapes of these groups in concert. Owsley's LSD activities — immortalized by Steely Dan in their song "Kid Charlemagne" — ended with his arrest at the end of 1967, but some other manufacturers probably operated continuously for 30 years or more.

American LSD usage declined in the 1970s and 1980s — this is often attributed to a large anti-drug program targeted at young people in the U.S. LSD then experienced a mild resurgence in popularity in the 1990s. Although there were many distribution channels during this decade, the U.S. DEA identified continued tours by the psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead and the then-burgeoning rave scene as primary venues for LSD trafficking and consumption. American LSD usage fell sharply circa 2000. The decline is attributed to the arrest of two chemists, William Leonard Pickard, a Harvard-educated organic chemist, and Clyde Apperson who, the DEA claims, were responsible for the vast majority of LSD sold illegally in the United States and a significant amount of the LSD sold in Europe and worked closely with organized traffickers. The DEA reports that black market LSD availability dropped by 95% after the two were arrested in 2000. The arrests were a result of the largest LSD manufacturing raid in DEA history. [19]

In November of 2003, Pickard and Apperson were sentenced to two life sentences and two 30-year sentences, respectively, after being convicted in Federal Court of running a large scale LSD manufacturing operation out of several clandestine laboratories, including a former missile silo near Wamego, Kansas.

LSD manufacturers and traffickers can be categorized into two groups: A few large scale producers, such as the aforementioned Pickard and Apperson, and an equally limited number of small, clandestine chemists, consisting of independent producers who, operating on a comparatively limited scale, can be found throughout the country. As a group, independent producers are of less concern to the Drug Enforcement Agency than the larger groups, as their product reaches only local markets. Overall, LSD production in the United States is extremely limited, with very few individuals or groups capabable of production.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "LSD in the United States", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki