Editing LSD (section)

===Dosage===
{{See also|Psychedelic drug#Dosage}}
[[File:5 LSD blotters.png|thumb|A "five strip" of LSD blotters]]

LSD is an extraordinarily [[potency (pharmacology)|potent]] substance,<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="LiechtiHolze2022">{{cite book | vauthors = Liechti ME, Holze F | title = Disruptive Psychopharmacology | chapter = Dosing Psychedelics and MDMA | series = Curr Top Behav Neurosci | volume = 56 | pages = 3–21 | date = 2022 | pmid = 34734392 | doi = 10.1007/7854_2021_270 | isbn = 978-3-031-12183-8 | chapter-url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355943062}}</ref><ref name="Nichols2018a" /><ref name="Nichols2018b">{{cite book | vauthors = Nichols DE | title=Behavioral Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs | chapter=Chemistry and Structure–Activity Relationships of Psychedelics | series=Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences | publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg | publication-place=Berlin, Heidelberg | volume=36 | date=2017 | pages=1–43 | isbn=978-3-662-55878-2 | doi=10.1007/7854_2017_475 | pmid=28401524 | chapter-url=https://bibliography.maps.org/resources/download/13937 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250323072739/https://bibliography.maps.org/resources/download/13937 | archive-date=March 23, 2025 | quote=Although LSD is the most well-known psychedelic, only a very few structural modifications can be made to its structure, and nearly all of those attenuate its activity by about an order of magnitude. In addition, there is a paucity of structure–activity data for ergolines, principally due to the synthetic difficulty inherent in their chemistry. [...] Although LSD is the most potent psychedelic agent in humans, its affinity and potency at the human 5-HT2A receptor is rather unremarkable compared with much simpler molecules such as DOI. [...] Because of its structural complexity and tedious approaches to its total synthesis, only a few structural modifications of LSD have been reported. [...] Unfortunately, only a few of them have been assessed in human psychopharmacology, most being much less active than LSD itself.}}</ref> and is one of the most potent psychoactive drugs known.<ref name="Nichols2018a" /><ref name="Nichols2018b" /> This means that it produces its [[pharmacology|pharmacological]] effects at very small doses, with its dose range measured in [[microgram]]s (μg); that is, millionths of a gram.<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="Nichols2018a" /> Noticeable effects can occur with doses of LSD as low as 20{{nbsp}}μg, which is around 1/200th the mass of a grain of sand.<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="LiechtiHolze2022" /><ref name="Nichols2018a" /><ref name="EU2018" /> LSD is approximately 200{{nbsp}}times as potent as [[psilocybin]] and 5,000{{nbsp}}times as potent as [[mescaline]], meaning that it produces effects of similar magnitude at 1/200 and 1/5,000 times the respective doses.<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="LiechtiHolze2022" /><ref name="Hofmann1968">{{cite book | author = [[Albert Hofmann]] | chapter = Psychotomimetic Agents | pages = 169–235 | veditors = Burger A | title = Drugs Affecting the Central Nervous System | volume = 2 | date = 1968 | publisher = M. Dekker | location = New York | oclc = 245452885 | ol = OL13539506M | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/drugsaffectingce0000edit/page/169/mode/1up | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=o_GMwgEACAAJ | quote = Subsequent experiments on volunteers of the Sandoz research laboratories confirmed the extraordinary activity of lysergic acid diethylamide on the human psyche. These showed that the effective oral dose of LSD in human beings is 0.03—0.05 mg. [...] LSD is by far the most active and most specific psychotomimetic. It is about 5,000—10,000 times more active than mescaline or about 100–200 times more active than psilocybin.}}</ref>

The usual dose range of LSD for psychedelic effects is 20 to 200{{nbsp}}μg.<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="LiechtiHolze2022" /> The typical intermediate and "good effect" dose for a psychedelic experience is 100{{nbsp}}μg (range 75–150{{nbsp}}μg, while 20 to 50{{nbsp}}μg is a low or "minidose" and 200{{nbsp}}μg is a high or [[ego-dissolution]] dose.<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="LiechtiHolze2022" /><ref name="PassieHalpernStrichtenoth2008">{{cite journal |vauthors=Passie T, Halpern JH, Stichtenoth DO, Emrich HM, Hintzen A |date=2008 |title=The pharmacology of lysergic acid diethylamide: a review |url= |journal=CNS Neurosci Ther |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=295–314 |doi=10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00059.x |pmc=6494066 |pmid=19040555}}</ref> A dose range as wide as 10 to 400{{nbsp}}μg has been reported.<ref name="LuethiLiechti2018">{{cite journal | vauthors = Luethi D, Liechti ME | title = Monoamine Transporter and Receptor Interaction Profiles in Vitro Predict Reported Human Doses of Novel Psychoactive Stimulants and Psychedelics | journal = Int J Neuropsychopharmacol | volume = 21 | issue = 10 | pages = 926–931 | date = October 2018 | pmid = 29850881 | pmc = 6165951 | doi = 10.1093/ijnp/pyy047 }}</ref> LSD may also be used in [[psychedelic microdosing|microdosing]].<ref name="PolitoStevenson2019">{{cite journal |vauthors=Polito V, Stevenson RJ |title=A systematic study of microdosing psychedelics |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=e0211023 |date=2019-02-06 |pmid=30726251 |pmc=6364961 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0211023 |bibcode=2019PLoSO..1411023P |doi-access=free}}</ref> In this context, it may be used at subthreshold or microdoses of less than 10{{nbsp}}μg.<ref name="HolzeSinghLiechti2024" /><ref name="LiechtiHolze2022" />

The doses of LSD present in illicit LSD samples have decreased over time. In the mid-1960s, [[Owsley Stanley]], the most important [[black market]] LSD manufacturer in the [[United States]], distributed LSD at a standard concentration of 270{{nbsp}}μg,<ref name="LSD Samples Analysis">{{cite web| vauthors=Hidalgo E| year=2009| title=LSD Samples Analysis| publisher=Erowid| url=http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_article3.shtml| access-date=February 8, 2010| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213145552/http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_article3.shtml| archive-date=February 13, 2010}}</ref> while street samples of the 1970s contained 30 to 300{{nbsp}}μg. By the 1980s, the amount had reduced to between 100 and 125{{nbsp}}μg, dropping more in the 1990s to the 20 to 80{{nbsp}}μg range,<ref name="henderson-glass">{{cite book |vauthors=Henderson LA, Glass WJ |title=LSD: Still with us after all these years |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-7879-4379-0 |publisher=Jossey-Bass |location=San Francisco}}</ref> and even further in the 2000s.<ref name="LSD Samples Analysis" /><ref>{{cite web| author=Fire & Earth Erowid| date=Nov 2003| title=LSD Analysis – Do we know what's in street acid?| url=http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_article1.shtml| publisher=Erowid| access-date=February 8, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126215446/http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_article1.shtml| archive-date=January 26, 2010| url-status=live}}</ref>