POLICE: LSD ARREST INDICATIVE OF PROBLEM

When Glenville police arrested a Scotia teen-ager on charges of selling
marijuana Wednesday, they also charged him with having sold LSD a few weeks
earlier.

Town police say they weren't surprised to find themselves adding yet
another to this year's count of LSD incidents.

Scotia, they say, is not immune to the influx of LSD that reaches the
region with the regularity of certain popular bands and music festivals.
Where there is '60s-influenced music and tie-dyed shirts, they say, there
are other trappings of the psychedelic era. Such as acid.

"Any time concerts come in, we're left with this big surge of LSD," John
Burke, an investigator with the Albany County Sheriff's Department, said.

Thanksgiving week, the rock band Phish played in the Pepsi Arena, drawing
crowds of teens and 20-somethings to downtown Albany. Drugs, including LSD,
changed hands.

"We were buying them for a dollar apiece," Burke said. Baby-faced
undercover cops fooled the dealers with youthful attire and multiple body
piercings. They purchased samples of the latest in "dosing" - gel tabs in a
rainbow of colors.

Several concert goers spent the night in the Albany Medical Center
Emergency Room, waiting out bad trips.

Before long, supplies appear to dry up in the area and arrests again
reflect the area's predominant drugs - marijuana, followed by cocaine and,
increasingly, heroin.

According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, lysergic acid
diethylamide was originally synthesized in 1938 by a researcher named
Albert Hoffman.

Chemicals used in the substance were similar to chemicals in the brain
associated with psychosis, which the substance was used to study.

A dosage amount equal in weight to a few grains of salt can affect the mid
for 10 to 12 hours, adding to the drug's popularity.

During the 1960s and early '70s, proponents touted the drug's
"mind-expanding" effects.

Perhaps because of horror stories of bad trips, its popularity ebbed.

But in the 1990s, Bill Hebert of the Albany branch of the DEA said, the
drug has come back.

As was the case decades ago, the drug is manufactured clandestinely,
usually on the West Coast. Some 90 percent of the manufacturing is believed
to go on in San Francisco.

Drugs reach the area in many ways. Local police have traced lucrative
coast-to-coast mail order businesses and unexpectedly caught shipments on
their way down the Northway from Canada.

"There are retail quantities in virtually every state," said Diane Engels,
spokeswoman for the DEA's main office in Manhattan.

As is the case with the synthe-tic "club drugs" (ecstasy, MDMA)
particularly popular in urban areas, Engels sees a "white, middle class,
middle school and high school" perception that LSD is harmless.

"That's truly the scariest thing," she said. "There's no way of knowing how
strong it is or how potent. There are no assurances or medical requirements
or rules and regulations."

As in all drugs, Engels said, there is a risk of mental or physical
problems, or death as a result of behavior caused by the drug use.

Hebert said while the Capital Region may only see the drug occasionally, up
north it's a different case. Possibly because there are so many rural
college towns and possibly because of 20-somethings to downtown Albany.
Drugs, including LSD, changed hands.

"We were buying them for a dollar apiece," Burke said. Baby-faced
undercover cops fooled the dealers with youthful attire and multiple body
piercings. They purchased samples of the latest in "dosing" - gel tabs in a
rainbow of colors.

Several concertgoers spent the night in the Albany Medical Center Emergency
Room, waiting out bad trips.

Before long, supplies appear to dry up in the area and arrests again
reflect the area's predominant drugs - marijuana, followed by cocaine and,
increasingly, heroin.

According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, lysergic acid
diethylamide was originally synthesized in 1938 by a researcher named
Albert Hoffman.

Chemicals used in the substance were similar to chemicals in the brain
associated with psychosis, which the substance was used to study.

A dosage amount equal in weight to a few grains of salt can affect the mind
for 10 to 12 hours, adding to the drug's popularity.

During the 1960s and early '70s, proponents touted the drug's
"mind-expanding" effects.

Perhaps because of horror stories of bad trips, its popularity ebbed.

But in the 1990s, Bill Hebert of the Albany branch of the DEA said, the
drug has come back.

As was the case decades ago, the drug is manufactured clandestinely,
usually on the West Coast. Some 90 percent of the manufacturing is believed
to go on in San Francisco.

Drugs reach the area in many ways. Local police have traced lucrative
coast-to-coast mail order businesses and unexpectedly caught shipments on
their way down the Northway from Canada.

"There are retail quantities in virtually every state," said Diane Engels,
spokeswoman for the DEA's main office in Manhattan.

As is the case with the synthetic "club drugs" (ecstasy, MDMA) particularly
popular in urban areas, Engels sees a "white, middle class, middle school
and high school" perception that LSD is harmless.

"That's truly the scariest thing," she said. "There's no way of knowing how
strong it is or how potent. There are no assurances or medical requirements
or rules and regulations."

As in all drugs, Engels said, there is a risk of mental or physical
problems, or death as a result of behavior caused by the drug use.

Hebert said while the Capital Region may only see the drug occasionally, up
north it's a different case. Possibly because there are so many rural
college towns and possibly because of the proximity to Canada, the drug is
particularly popular there.

A search of LSD arrests reported in The Daily Gazette during the past year
showed a majority of users and sellers are of college age.

"It's unfortunate, but that seems to be the generation that gets into LSD -
that's the experimental drug perception," Patrick Carrese of Glenville's
Conifer Park rehabilitation center said.

It's rare to find someone involved only in LSD, he said. Inevitably, youths
have already been dabbling in alcohol and marijuana and are likely to try
other drugs as well.

"These kids are pretty much risk takers without much impulse control,"
Carrese said. "The danger is their tendency to use whatever's in front of
them," he said.

"It's not an epidemic, but maybe it's a little more accepted now - it
sounds interesting, there's that sort of mystique to it," he said.

Checked-by: Richard Lake