LSD is the most common hallucinogen and one of the most potent mood changing psychedelic chemicals. It is manufactured from lysergic acid, found in a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. LSD, commonly referred to as "acid," is sold on the street in tablets, capsules and occasionally in liquid form. It is odorless and colorless, with a slightly bitter taste. Users refer to positive LSD experiences as a "trip" and to acute adverse reactions as a "bad trip." Users may experience panic, confusion, suspicions, anxiety and loss of control. Flashbacks also occur after they stop taking the drug.
By the early 1950s, the CIA, fearful of LSD falling into Soviet hands, had cornered the market on the drug, which in minute doses could produce overwhelming sensations ranging from kaleidoscopic acuity to temporary insanity. The agency also started to fund research, covertly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to academics in prestigious institutions around the country who tried the drug themselves and reported the results to Sidney Gottlieb.
Gottlieb and his associates in MK ULTRA also took LSD "trips," although the concept of tripping would not enter the American lexicon for another decade. They laced coffee with LSD and served it to each other without warning, then observed each other's reactions. Later Gottlieb expanded the field tests to subjects outside the agency — drug addicts, prostitutes, prisoners, mental patients — people who were unlikely to complain and even less likely to be believed if they did. Among the dosed were hookers and their clients in a CIA-sponsored brothel in San Francisco, later the epicenter of the LSD explosion.
