LSD SHOWING UP ON CAMPUS, COURT DOCKET SHOWS

Acid is back on campus - with some changes. The hallucinogen whose heyday
seemed to pass in the 1960s has found its place among a smaller, tighter
college crowd in the 1990s. Acid still goes by a string of names - tabs,
blotter, LSD. Its dosage strength has dropped, and its street price has
leveled.

But as four current and former University of South Alabama students have
discovered, the present-day penalties for distributing acid are stiffer
than three decades ago.

Justin Pruett Davis is scheduled to plead guilty today to charges outlined
in his indictment that include possession with intent to distribute LSD,
said his attorney William Kimbrough. The motion hearing is scheduled before
U.S. District Court Judge Charles Butler.

Richard Alexander Doggett, William Jonathan Glass and Jessica Tenay Walker
also have appeared in the U.S. District Court this month for arraignments
on related indictments - charges which could land all four minimum 10-year
prison sen tences with no parole, according to court documents.

For their court appearances, family and friends filled the courtroom as
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bert W. Milling questioned the fresh-faced four about
their studies and part-time jobs.

Davis and Miss Walker are enrolled at USA, and Doggett and Glass last were
enrolled at USA in Spring 1999, university officials said.

According to court documents, the government charged Davis with possession
with intent to distribute about 14 grams of liquid acid diethylamide (LSD)
in March, 500 LSD tablets in May and 68 grams of liquid LSD in May. Ms.
Walker, court documents say, "aided and abetted" Davis with these drug
sales and also helped him by "driving a vehicle to and from the location
where the distribution occurred, by being on the lookout for law
enforcement officials that might be in the area before and after the
distribution occurred" and not notifying the police. Doggett also faces
charges for selling acid over the telephone.

"Those are very large amounts of LSD," said Richard Glen Boire, executive
director for the Center for Cognitive Liberties and a Davis, Calif.-based
attorney who handles many of these cases. Amounts over 10 grams
automatically trigger minimum mandatory sentences of 10 years, said Monica
Pratt, director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Families
Against Mandatory Minimums.

Providing "substantial assistance" to the government can result in a
sentence reduction between 1 and three years, according to the 1998
Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics. But prison sentences for
Alabama's Southern District generally last longer than the national
average. Individuals sentenced on drug charges in Alabama's Southern
District face prison terms on average of 8.7 years compared to 6.6 years
nationwide.

LSD Is Cheaper:

Experts say LSD does not cost as much or have the reported links to
violence as other drugs. An individual dose may carry a street value of
only a couple of dollars, said Rick Doblin, president of the Sarasota,
Fla.-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and a
doctoral candidate at Harvard University.

LSD "does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior as do cocaine,
amphetamine, heroin, alcohol and nicotine," according to the National
Institute on Drug Abuse World Wide Web site.

In Doblin's research he has found that "there's no real evidence of
violence in the drug dealing culture." The strength of LSD doses also has
declined in the past 30 years, from an average of 150 micrograms to 50
micrograms, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The recent Mobile arrests coincide with a national movement to curb the
growth of "club drugs," an umbrella name for drugs such as LSD and Ecstasy
which are popular at some dance clubs and raves. LSD's capacity to gives
its users "delusions and visual hallucinations" has made it a popular drug
among "raves," all-night dance and drug parties the Institute on Drug Abuse
defines as "designed to enhance a hallucinogenic experience through music
and behavior."

More Club Drugs:

Club drugs have grown in use while other types are stabilizing or
declining, according to Sheryl Massaro, a spokeswoman for the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.

Because some club drugs are "colorless, tasteless and odorless," the
Institute on Drug Abuse reports, they can be added to drinks to "intoxicate
or sedate others." Other club drugs such as GHB and rohypnol have been
associated with date rape and sexual assault cases, the association
reports. And, depending upon an LSD user's underlying personality problems,
the association reports that, over time, the drug can cause schizophrenia
or severe depression.

Last week the association kicked-off of an educational campaign to increase
the funding for research on club drugs by 40 percent and launched a
national education strategy about these drugs.

Despite these national movements, LSD does not seem to have permeated USA's
mainstream social scene.

At USA "the most abused drug would be alcohol and the second would be
marijuana," said Dr. Robert Hanks, manager of USA's substance abuse
counseling. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the cases Hanks sees
involves drinking. He added that in a 1998 study, 6 percent of USA students
reported ever using a hallucinogenic drug. But only 2 percent of students
said they had tried a hallucinogen in the past month.

USA students also reported that LSD did not seem as prevalent socially on
campus. "I don't see it in my house," said Jeb Shell, student government
association president and Kappa Alpha fraternity member. "I have good
friends in pretty much every organization."

Assistant U.S. Attorney George May clarified that in this case, "these are
people that are charged with distributing," he said. "Back in the sixties,
someone goes to a concert and tries a hit of acid. That's not what we have
here."

But Ms. Pratt predicted that national efforts to stamp out club drugs may
mean more arrests like the ones in Mobile will follow.

"Like the deadheads in the early 90s, you'll see a whole generation of kids
going to prison for these long sentences," Ms. Pratt said. "What they think
is youthful experimentation is something that will put them in prison for
their youthful years."