LSD, PCP, and Other Hallucinogens

In the early 1940s, a researcher working for the Sandoz pharmaceutical company stumbled upon the mind-altering qualities of LSD following an accidental ingestion. Sandoz has marketed a number of ergot derivatives, which have long had a place in medical use because they are effective in aborting migraine headaches. But this new compound had surprisingly profound effects unlike those seen with the migraine drugs.

Scientists began to study the effects of the drug, looking for a potential application in medicine.

Psychiatrists studied the drug's potential use as a chemical that could enhance exploratory types of psychotherapy. At that time, treatment in psychiatry was based on the theory that psychoanalytic exploration of the unconscious would lead to the resolution of buried conflicts, which would result in the relief of symptoms. If a compound such as LSD could facilitate this process by loosening repression and bringing unconscious material to the fore, then it might be very useful.

LSD was used experimentally over the next two decades in a number of medical and military settings with some encouraging positive results, but there were also reports of serious adverse reactions such as suicides and psychosis. The eventual conclusion about LSD as a psychiatric drug was that, while interesting in its effects, it was not terribly useful and was potentially dangerous.

The rise in the popularity and street use of LSD was a phenomenon that reflected the cultural changes of the 1960s.

Dr. Timothy Leary, once an instructor at Harvard, was instrumental in popularizing the drug, and coined the term "psychedelic." Marijuana and LSD became popular symbols of the antiestablishment movement. The more the government objected to and preached against these drugs, the more popular they became. LSD lost much of its attractiveness after publicity about "bad trips" and about people doing dangerous things while under its influence, such as leaping from rooftops to their death because they thought they could fly. The use of LSD waned through the seventies and eighties, as the use of the combined hallucinogen/stimulant known as Ecstasy increased, but in the late nineties LSD made a comeback among teenagers and young adults.

Originally developed in the 1950s, PCP, or phencyclidine, is a dissociative anesthetic, which means that it causes a patient undergoing surgery to be oblivious of physical pain. Because of problems with severe behavioral reactions to PCP, it was restricted to veterinary use. But it is easily manufactured in illegal laboratories, which is the main source of street supplies.

PCP is included in the section on hallucinogens because its effects include distortions in perception and judgment, but it differs from the other hallucinogens in some respects. Laboratory animals demonstrate that PCP is highly reinforcing and therefore highly addictive. PCP causes a psychotic state that can persist for prolonged periods of time and is indistinguishable clinically from schizophrenia. It also causes agitation and aggressive behavior, sometimes to an extreme degree.