Microdosing: The people taking LSD with their breakfast

[blue]

used to do that decades ago- it makes you stash last longer too

There is a small community of people in the UK who "microdose" - or take small amounts of psychedelic drugs as part of their daily lives. They say it boosts creativity and can have medicinal benefits, despite a lack of scientific research.
On a table in his house in Durham, Simpa shows me a tab of LSD he has cut into about 10 pieces.
The whole thing would be enough for a trip he says, but today he's taking just a tiny dose of it.
On the days he does this, Simpa says it's just part of his morning routine.
"I take it with a cup of tea, my toast and my vitamins,"

In another part of the UK, "Dylan" - whose name we have changed - is going through a similar ritual with some magic mushrooms, weighing out a tiny dose and eating it with his cup of tea.
Some people use microdosing simply to "improve their day", others to enhance their creativity and some use it in a therapeutic manner - arguing it helps with their mental health problems.


Both LSD and magic mushrooms, the drugs most commonly used to microdose, are illegal Class A drugs carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for possession.
A small number of people we spoke to had tried it with MDMA, also a Class A drug.
Dylan says the law is not much of a deterrent for him. He argues he is "not hurting anyone or creating a trail of devastation by doing this".
He has a very ordinary, respectable job. The fact that he goes to work having taken illegal drugs is not something his colleagues know, although his friends do.

He says the microdoses make him better at his job; more able to concentrate.
"It just gives you that very kind of calm and relaxed sense of being centred," he says.
Simpa takes LSD with a cup of tea and vitamins in the morning
Simpa is one of the people using microdosing for therapeutic purposes.
At 28, he is living with quite severe mental health problems - "depression and anxiety as a result of childhood trauma, that led to borderline personality disorder and PTSD".

He says the prescription medication he has been given results in more side-effects than benefits.

"I've found that these substances, psychedelics, give me the benefits without any of those drawbacks. Me using these substances means I've been able to view my trauma so that it's just an experience, a memory like any other."
Such individual experiences are, of course, anecdotal. There is no scientific proof behind claims of the medicinal benefits of microdosing.

"Anna" used to microdose with both LSD and magic mushrooms

I would have quite an ordinary day - I just felt quite happy, calm and grounded and I would sleep better."There is, however, a further danger to microdosing - the risk of taking too much.
Psychedelics are very powerful drugs and Dylan admitted accidentally tripping at work when he took too big a microdose.
James Rucker says he knows he cannot stop people using drugs recreationally. "That's something we have to work with," he says.
He argues it is all the more reason to conduct research into the effects of these drugs.

Simpa takes LSD with a cup of tea and vitamins in the morning

[Maanaam]

used to do that decades ago

That explains some things.

[crackerjack101]

Indeed.

I've been following this and IMO it seems like a perfectly sensible thing to do if it works for you.

I've always thought that a full on trip should be obligatory for all politicians.

[thaimeme]

Seems as hallucinogens are making a comeback.

How fashionable.

[Cujo]

I've read about this elsewhere from a psychological point of view. Anti depressant wise.
Wish I'd thought of it years ago.

[Gazza]

used to do that decades ago

Me too.


.......or was it yesterday?


Damn those flashbacks.

[Neverna]

On a table in his house in Durham, Simpa shows me a tab of LSD he has cut into about 10 pieces.

I wonder if the cops will be paying him a visit soon.

Simpa Carter
28, Chairman at DCCC, Activist, Psychonaut, Survivalist, Vegan, Writer, Do no harm but take no shit
Durham, England

https://twitter.com/simpacarter

[Cujo]

On a table in his house in Durham, Simpa shows me a tab of LSD he has cut into about 10 pieces.

I wonder if the cops will be paying him a visit soon.

Simpa Carter
28, Chairman at DCCC, Activist, Psychonaut, Survivalist, Vegan, Writer, Do no harm but take no shit
Durham, England

https://twitter.com/simpacarter

I hope not.
Have you ever partaken nervana?

[Cujo]

used to do that decades ago

That explains some things.

Did you?

[thaimeme]

used to do that decades ago

That explains some things.

Did you?

For sure, you could use a few doses.
Just might open ya up a bit [or not] and kill that bug up your arse.

[Neverna]

Cujo, no, I have never taken LSD.

[hick]

There's some concern that if I took another hit of LSD...
...especially at this stage of life -
the plants would stop whispering.

[Cujo]

used to do that decades ago

That explains some things.

Did you?

For sure, you could use a few doses.
Just might open ya up a bit [or not] and kill that bug up your arse.

I've been there.
You seem to have the wrong idea about me.
I just didn't go there that many times I lost grip.

[hick]

I just didn't go there that many times I lost grip.

Nor eloquence.

[Cujo]

Cujo, no, I have never taken LSD.

You should. Everyone should at least once.

[hick]

I was at this Grateful Dead show in upstate New York.

There was Pat. Pat was our group's obligatory burn out.

We were all hanging out in the hills behind the stage, (as you do) playing bongos and trying to envision being born in the 40s when someone says, "Pat!?..what the fuck are you doing?"

Pat has got a sheet of acid and he's pulling a strip (10+ hits) off of it with his teeth. He then proceeds to start chewing into the entire section like it's an over sized stick of gum until it's gone.

He mumbles, "well, gotta' double your dose from yesterday, right?"

Eyes roll out of their sockets.

At some point beyond (since time had ceased to exist) someone else said, "Where's Pat?"

Another space cadet motioned to the tree line behind us and said he'd gone off to collect firewood.

A few feet and inches later, Pat arrives. He had split his hand in half with the hatchet starting between the middle and ring finger about 5 cms towards the heel.

He was hardly phased then or for the next 4 hour escapade of getting it stitched up in the nearest ER.

I, on the other hand....felt that the hospital entrance contained auspicious designs resembling the heaven's gate and everyone dressed in white inside was an angel dutifully making their rounds.

It was all rather.....pleasant....but I missed Dark Star.

[sabang]

A magic mushroom omelette washed down with coffee at the Magic Mushroom bungalows was my obligatory daily starter in Ko Samui, 1982- and very pleasant it was too. I can well imagine that a measured dose might be quite manageable for people in employment- particularly creative pursuits. Not so a truck driver however. LSD- dang, you'd have to be very careful with your dosage.

[Neo]

micro-dosing... fucking lightweights

[Maanaam]

How about micro-dosing alcohol all day?

[bsnub]

I was at this Grateful Dead show

You know how many stories have started with that line?

What a long strange trip its been.

[hick]

The stories I've heard that started in that way didn't have much of an ending.

I was at this Dead show and....what was I gonna' say?


<stop bogartin' the joint ya fuckwit>