LSD INSIGHT OR INSANITY

[Music] i'm sal mineo and these are teenagers all teenagers are different they come in all different shapes and sizes and range age from teeny bobbers [Music] to 19 year olds but just like in the old days teenagers have always shared one thing in common they've always found a unique way to as individuals and this of course would be called a group self-expression today just like always clothes have been the groovy way of really expressing yourself and teenagers can always be counted on to do something very original and uh very self-expressive there's some girls who express themselves in the more simple look others do so in highly feminized slacks and for hemlines well this may be the long and short of it but how much shorter can a skirt get hair has always been very important yes even with boys it's been very short and even longer than the beatles but girls have always had a lot more ways to express themselves to their hair why they could change its color completely and they can even simplify the entire thing and just go out to a store and buy some hair in any color they like they can curl it they can wave it and they can even iron it so it comes out nice and straight split ends and all certain hairstyles may make it necessary to take a good look to see which is the girl and which is the boy but that's not true for all boys especially for those who are trying so desperately to prove their manhood [Music] however the more personal the more individual way to prove your manhood was to play chicken and at one time a chickie run was considered the best way to prove manhood dead or alive for girls the matter of being chicken and proving yourself as a woman is still frequently based on accepting this kind of bear from a so-called friend [Music] it's even adults admitted growing up isn't easy especially if you try to keep up with the dares and fads of some of your more advanced friends two of the more advanced fads have to do with drugs so why do you want to be down when you can be up please just try it once okay now there's a brilliant argument for you by with the help of a good kind friend you can be turned on make the scene blow grass smoke reefers or pot joints or mary janes those are just a few of the cool groovy names for marijuana and if grass doesn't make it for your baby and especially if you need to be in well you can always drop a camp of acid now that's the real stuff very very cool very very groovy [Music] now everybody who takes it admits that there's always the risk of a bad trip a bummer a freak out even a flip out but why be lame baby give yourself a real kick yes a kick in the head [Music] is lsd merely another fan another dare another kick is it insight or insanity [Music] what do america's leading scientists doctors and psychiatrists working with people taking lsd say as we see it from a typical psychiatric ward lsd is certainly much more than a mere fad right now we have over a dozen people hospitalized because of acute symptoms resulting directly from their taking lsd bizarre fatal accidents and suicides have also occurred in lsd's users because of this we say that lsd is not just a fad people are seriously disturbed some even dead what is lsd how does it work when did it all begin it all began in a laboratory very much like this one in 1938 dr albert hoffman in switzerland was looking for new drugs in the treatment of migraine headaches he had been studying substances that came from the mold that grow on rye plants now it turned out that these substances were of no use in the treatment of migraine headaches but subsequent investigation showed that they are very fascinating indeed in the changes that they produce in our mental state it was found that these substances could produce a change in mental state closely resembling some forms of insanity in particular schizophrenia however more interest has centered on the very peculiar symptoms that the drug produces in the subject who is otherwise normal normal people react to lsd by seeing strange patterns of wildly moving [Music] colors [Music] time may appear to stand completely still faces may appear and then melt away [Music] and at other times the subject may recall with terrifying detail incidents that are long long forgotten [Music] at the same time there is often a loss of the normal cause and effect relationships of things going on in the environment and this leads to distortion of judgment one ounce of lsd makes 300 000 doses an amount of lsd the size of an aspirin tablet can make three thousand doses the normal dose is a hundred micrograms an experienced chemist has no difficulty in making it at home however we have found that this amateur stuff contains many other substances dangerous and often deadly the strength of this amateur stuff is always uncertain it may contain none or ten or 100 or 300 or maybe 3 000 micrograms we have produced convulsions and death in animals with large doses of lsd nevertheless in spite of the risks the word was out lsd was it one pill and all unhappiness would vanish the real meaning of existence would become quickly clear such nonsense parents deprived of lsd did not understand soon there was a great public outcry lysergic acid diethylamide was tossed out into the street amidst enraging controversy because of this the only legitimate company manufacturing pure lsd stopped many scientists felt that good scientific work was impossible and such a frantic mess this is unfortunate because there are many basic questions about lsd which remain unanswered what are the long-term effects in the brain of lsd does it cause permanent damage some doctors are afraid that it does cause permanent damage but at this time the facts remain unknown many wild and very unscientific claims have been made about lsd i've spoken to a large number of young people asking them why do you take lsd they've given me a variety of answers the most frequent of the following i took it the first time because i was curious under lsd god's not a far away idea he's something that that's right inside you that you're experiencing now i took lsd for a kick man lsd is like a vitamin for the brain i mean to expand your mind lsd stimulates creativity in the brain in other words it uh expands your your thought processes so that you can take in more we gave a series of 50 tests to people before and after lsd we found that at the end of six months following their lsd taking that they were no more creative when we measured them than they were before they took the lsd however they're feeling their inner feeling of subjective creativity was there this means perhaps that they may have an impression of creativity but not creativity itself creativity is ninety percent perspiration and only ten percent inspiration and lsd doesn't enhance one's desire to perspire lsd is a is a really groovy way to find out more about the things around you oh it helps me understand the whole world better lsd helps you to understand your own mind it releases your mind to you lsd is a way about finding out about yourself your own problems what about the question of self-insight and self-awareness is it enhanced under lsd well in over a dozen years of my own research speaking with hundreds of young people and old i found that their feeling that they had an increased awareness following lsd is not often borne out by their subsequent behavior they do not seem to have changed their lifestyle for the better indeed unfortunately sometimes it is for the worse on rare occasions they may obtain valid insights so often though all too often they do not while there are many things that we don't know about lsd there are a few that we do know and perhaps the most important one that we do know is that it is absolutely unpredictable who will have a bad experience from lsd or when they will have it some people have a bad experience the first time they take the drug others take it 30 60 or even 100 times before their bad trip and the bad trip instant insanity often a never never land of no return oh [Music] get away from [Music] this girl is obviously acutely disturbed she will be in the hospital for a few weeks or a few months the chances are that she will get well again at least well enough to leave the war whether she will ever be the same again have the same personality the same ambitions the same abilities to work to love to get along with other people that we won't know for a long time some others who take lsd will have even more tragic free counts and there's no way to tell which ones these will be many lose all contact with reality for instance some forget what height means and in a turned on or euphoric state step or attempt to fly from cliffs and high windows with real life permanent non-psychedelic results other trippers attempt to merge their beams with large vast automobiles there is much conflicting opinion as to why lsd should prove so popular with so many teenagers psychiatrists do have some ideas one is that teenage is a time of life that's full of conflict it's a time when people are struggling with who they are what they want to become a time when they're dealing with their own sexual and angry feelings it's a time for rebellion a time for experimentation a time for dares a time for fads it's unfortunate however that lsd has proven to be such an in-fad unfortunate not because lsd is wicked or sinful of itself but because it is such an extremely dangerous drug a drug whose effects are so unpredictable a drug which so often causes severe long-lasting damage well so much for the brain and psychological results now what about the effects on your body when taking lsd [Music] the study of lsd 25 continues in laboratories and hospital investigators to cause breakage in human chromosomes in studies carried out on peripheral blood of persons who have taken this drug what does this mean well we at least have to begin to become concerned about possible damage to unborn children and this is a very real concern of the scientists involved and of the federal agency the fda the food and drug administration for many years has been involved in testing drugs that could cause genetic damage genetic damage such as we now are beginning to see with lsd let me illustrate on the board the various factors the various things that we think about when we say genetic damage first we have a irreversible effect that is when we do have genetic damage once it is set in motion how to stop it it's just like driving a car without brakes point number two we have a time factor that is it may take as long as 10 15 or even 20 years before we see the harmful effects after exposure to a chemical that causes genetic damage number three and perhaps one of the most important points is the age factor the younger the person is the more harmful the effects are now what do we mean when we say genetic damage what kind of conditions can we identify uh and you and me as a consequence of genetic damage number one we see teratogenicity this is a rather big word it only means that we have abnormal fetuses we have children that are born without legs or arms the kind of thing we've seen after thalidomid exposure number two it can be carcinogenic that is it can induce cancer and number three and perhaps one of the most important things is the fact that after genetic damage we may have a mutagenic event by this we mean a effect not only for our present generation but something that has carried over into succeeding generations lsd as far as we now know may be put in the category of the type of compound or chemical that causes these types of damage if we think of radiation and of course we all know the harmful effects of radiation exposure we can find that we get all three types of damage the cancer the stratogenic effects and the mutagenic effects there always has been a problem of testing chemicals for chromosome damage and man we have 46 chromosomes they are small this animal a south american wooly opossum has 14 chromosomes as compared to our 46 and they are a great deal larger this should enable us to see more subtle effects than we have been able to see here before one of the more recent areas of investigation concerning lsd has been the effect of the drug on human chromosomes the chromosomes are those tiny little structures of various shapes and sizes which are responsible for the transmission of our traits from one generation to the next when we added lsd to the blood of normal individuals in test tubes we saw a large amount of chromosomal breakage and damage this made us go out to investigate whether or not similar damage was occurring in the blood cells of individuals using lsd upon examination of their blood cells identical damage was observed and this type of damage was reflected as either single breaks in the chromosomes or fragments which have been broken off of the chromosomes to rearrangements and bizarre configurations of the chromosomes not in their normal fashion these types of abnormalities are potentially dangerous to the individuals carrying them what are these dangers and what is the significance of this particular type of damage it has long been an established fact that chromosomal investigation of cells which are derived from tumors or certain types of individuals with cancer show identical chromosomal damage this is not to say that lsd is going to cause cancer in the individuals taking it the association of chromosomal damage and cancer is an established fact whether one causes the other or vice versa is as yet unknown and much more research will be necessary before we can answer this problem adequately the second area of concern is what is the effect of lsd on an unborn child what is the possible danger to a child whose mother takes lsd during her pregnancy there have been several reports recently of malformed children born to mothers who took lsd during pregnancy however there has not been enough time yet nor enough pregnancies of this type to fully answer the problem in man but data from animal studies with experimental animals under controlled conditions where we do have large litter sizes and do have the proper scientific controls have given us an answer for the past 10 years i and other scientists throughout the world have been interested in the effect of drugs on the pregnant animals and their babies in a series of experiments utilizing over 200 pregnant hamsters and 2 000 of their babies lsd and mescaline were injected into the pregnant animals a number of very serious defects we occurred in each of the experiments i would like to now show you some of the results of these experiments this is a fetus from a mother not receiving lsd a normal fetus this is a fetus from the mother receiving lsd note the abnormal face the characteristics of the skull and the brain which is extended to the outside note this control fetus from a mother not receiving lsd this is another fetus from a mother receiving lsd during her pregnancy note the brain outside of the skull again note also the hemorrhage in this brain note the two control fetuses from others not receiving lsd the middle fetus represents one from a mother receiving lsd during her pregnancy the spinal cord is exposed and the spine is deformed again we have a control fetus from a mother not receiving lsd during her pregnancy this is a fetus for mother receiving the drug during her pregnancy the liver is external not within the body cavity there is a hemorrhage in the brain also here again is a control fetus from the mother not receiving lsd here is an experimental fetus from other receiving lsd during your pregnancy note the fluid accumulation across the spinal area note also the hemorrhage within the body cavity here again is a control fetus from a mother not receiving lsd during her pregnancy here is an interesting fetus from a mother who had received lsd during her pregnancy note the many malformations present of the brain the spinal cord and the limbs obviously the results which we have just seen were those obtained on animals however these results should make us consider very seriously the potential hazards of lsd and other hallucinogenic drugs in the human we at the national institute of mental health provide much of the research money for investigations with lsd in addition we're the sole legitimate supplier of lsd to research investigators of late we've been concerned about the biological hazards of lsd specifically chromosomal damage that has been reported in various biological laboratories we've been concerned enough and we feel this is serious enough to spend a good bit of time and money and effort to find out what the significance of these findings really is i know of no drug that we've studied that has as many frightening potentials as this drug yes lsd 25 is truly a dangerous drug to fool around with it is playing russian roulette [Music] yes taking lsd is like playing russian roulette [Music] not with one but with three bullets in the chamber one bullet is for the risk to yourself another for the risk to your children and another for the risk to your children's children that's up to you it's your brain your chromosomes [Music] it's your life [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow [Music] don't be chicken and square come on baby express yourself you don't to repress yourself so i've been late it's the hippest new game it's just like russian roulette when you're making a bed i bet that you will swing just like any old thing [Music] it's like pulling the trigger with odds you never can figure that you'll get a kick a kick in my head