Is acid a hard drug or a soft drug? Also, does anybody know of any studies that show if acid has long-term damaging effects on the brain?
Hard drug, imo. Out of all the drugs I've done, (marijuana, MDMA, ketamine, cocaine, speed) it's by far and away the most mindblowing. It has the power to take you to places way beyond anything you could ever have imagined. Although not at all physically damaging (to your brain or your body), it does have a potential for long-term psychological effects, and should be treated with respect, and taken in a safe, calming environment (just somewhere you're really comfortable with basically).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_drugs Short answer: Absolutely a soft drug. LSD is a powerful drug, but it is no where near a hard drug. LSD is definitely a soft drug. There are no physical health risks from acid use, look at Albert Hoffman for example. He has been using it for many years and still takes moderate amounts today, and he's 101 years old! LSD is counter-addictive and extremly non-toxic, so obviously OD and abuse potential are extremly low. How many people have died from direct LSD use? Close to none. A lot more people die every year from caffeine use than acid use. And it has always been known as a soft drug because of these reasons. Being a powerful drug doesn't make it hard. Nicotine (tobacco) is a very weak (weak intoxication) drug but it is far harder than most other drugs, (definitley harder than cocaine). Cannabis is definitely more powerful than nicotine, but no where near as hard. Don't get "powerful" and "hard" mixed up.
i say soft but should be treated as hard (still done but with more respect than your average soft drug
^^^ I totally agree with Silverbackman. Do not confuse hard with powerful. Though political authorities put it in hard drugs (it was 'section I' drugs, wasn't it) category, we all know why they did this.
It depends on your definition of hard though. For instance, OD's on meth actually aren't that common, but it's still hard because of it's addictive potential. I think "hard" really means excessively dangerous... and by that standard, I would say acid could fall under that category.
well i think in terms of effects on the person, acid is a hard drug. 3 ten thousandths of a gram of it could put you in a completely different world. psychotic breaks are very possible, especially considering how stupid a decent amount of drug using type folks can be
lsd isnt a drug period to me...its a way of life...i will trip till i die its the only drug that lets me see outside the box, i take lsd and come out of the trip feeling like a better person everytime...and aside from all that hogwash, no longterm side effects on the body or mind...lsd induced psychosis only happens in people with underlining mental issues that would hagve surfaced later on in life anyways. Timothy Leary and the Millbrooke house used to go on month long binges and he always came down fine.
LSD is a drug in a sense, but pschedelics are, in my opinion, soft drugs. They have very heavy affects, but since we are not likely to take them on a daily basis for long periods of time, and since they are relativley cheap, I would consider them soft for those 2 reasons alone.
You can't just say that LSD is a hard drug. It has almost no negative effects on the body, and some (usually temporarily effects) on the mind, if used alot. It's supposidly one of the safest drugs out there, acid. The only problem that I see with it is the mind trip. It has this effect like nothing out there and makes people think in strange ways that may not be the best ways to think. I believe it is soft, but is to be used responsibly and should be respected...
coming from someone that fucked himself up on psychedelics, sadly, hard drug as much as i loved it. there is a breaking point. what seperates us from other creatures on this world is our brains, thats it. so dont fuck up your brains, or senses rather. we are evolved, no need to evolve farther.
Why should we be the height of the evolution of the hominid animal? Can we not be better? We will certainly become more intelligent as time marches on, as has happened since any sort of ape-like creature developed. LSD is a soft drug, because the distinction is made on how addictive the drug is and how easy it is to overdose to the point of death on any particular drug. The distinction between the two does not consider how intense in any manner the drug is.
perception varies i KNOW this can be truely argued both ways. Hard drug and soft drug are labels which seem to never be consistent depending on who your talking to.
i'd say its somewhere in the middle, it will blow you mind away, but its not very addictive or expensive. to me hard drugs would be like heroine or coke, expensive & addicting. like said before, it depends on you definition of a hard drug.