http://www.theoaktreereview.com/owsley_stanley.html The parts that stick out to me considering we all think LSD manufacture requires expert chemistry knowledge You were one of the major acid chemists of the Sixties, but apart from supplying the LSD, in what other way did you help stage The Acid Tests? — I am not, and never was, a "chemist". I am no more scientifically qualified in chemistry than someone who can bake a great wedding cake is. I was soundman for a band, Grateful Dead, who were the house band at the Acid Tests. I called you a chemist because that is what you are referred to in most literature. Also, I assumed anyone making acid had to be a chemist, considering the fact that every time manufacturing is mentioned they always go on about how hard it is to produce it. — Difficulty has more to do with reading abillity and ability to precisely follow directions, so far as I can see. You need no knowledge of chemistry whatsoever, you just need to understand some basic principles as simple in concept as: water boils at 100C and freezes at 0C. Otherwise all published syntheses of organic and inorganic compounds can be reproduced successfully by pretty nearly anyone with at least average intelligence. I had only one semester of inorganic chem 11 years earlier. It took me just three weeks in a library to learn all the principles I needed to do what I had to do, including how to change standard glassware to make it work better. Simple really. Problems always have to do with availability of materials, not esoteric knowledge.
It certainly doesn't seem like an easy chemical to synth compared to many drugs but the automatic assumption of It's difficulty to synth is proabaly in part to add to the LSD mystique. Maybe originally it served as to like discourage people from synthesizing other chems like DOB or something. I don't know about the process but The availabilty of other potent lysergamides in recent years makes me thinks It's not impossibly difficult.
I think now a days you might need the education just to look on paper like you need the equipment and precursors. Back in the 60's there was no DEA, it was allot easier for anyone to get those sort of things.
I think it's a lot harder now, given the way they watch materials and chemicals. It's not hard to read down a list of synthesis and find one that you could follow, if you had the stuff - what's hard is having the stuff, and working safely and properly in clandestine situations and with improvised or substituted chemicals and tools.
