> Is there a test you can take to rule out long-term negative side effects from psychedelics?

PiHKAL and TiHKAL reports start with "allergy tests" of low doses around 1/10th of a typical dose.

Erowid and other resources (Psychonaut wiki, etc.) list a starting dose of LSD to be around 25mcg, while the author here took 160mcg as a virgin- over 5x the starting dose.

It's also not clear whether they tested the drugs, which likely means they did not. The report sounds more typical of a DO(x) or NBOMe substance than LSD, which also come on blotters and are sold as LSD relatively frequently.

Wow. I didn't know there were other substances that were potent enough to be delivered via a blotter.

I’m going to start my comment off with…if you have any reservations about taking a mind altering substance, don’t do it. Just be content in enjoying your existence substance free. :)

That said, IMHO, there are many things one can do:

1. if one suffers from mental health problems, they should probably avoid any mind altering drugs (OTC, prescription or illicit) without significant guidance from a medical / mental health professional

2. speak to a mental health professional, one that is open to leveraging these types of drugs for mental health purposes

3. Assuming you passed steps 1 & 2 or are confident you don’t need to bother with them…start small and with less intensive options (i.e. if you can’t handle something like marijuana in moderate to high doses, don’t bother [without following steps 1 or 2]). And as condescending as it sounds, if you’re ready for this step, experiment in the best possible environment (and in a good headspace to deal with what is coming) with an individual(s) you trust and do so with a low dose

If you enjoyed your experience after step 3, you could consider slightly increasing the dosage or type of mind altering substances while still adhering to the advice mentioned in the previous steps.

Maybe the problem is people not respecting the complexity of putting such a mind altering substance in their body. One isn’t required to do it and should only do so when they know what they’re getting in to and have a good understanding of the (for lack of a better word) consequences.

Also, maybe individuals who have a very positive experience should be more explicit about providing a disclaimer that what worked for them isn’t guaranteed to work for others.

Edit: and to more directly respond to your comment, IMHO, using something like LSD or any mind altering drug is a bit of rolling the dice.

> What is anybody supposed to do with this response?

I think GP’s post has actionable advice in it:

> As a general advice one should be very careful when taking psychedelics with other prescribed medications or having a history of mental illness.

One simple thing a person could do (in the spirit of being careful) is researching the interactions between different drugs. For example, you could Google “psychedelics + SSRIs” if you were on SSRIs, or “psychedelics + social anxiety disorder” if you had social anxiety disorder. It doesn’t seem too difficult if one is already googling “psychedelics + Steve Jobs”

Based on my experience many people aren’t well informed about possible complications when taking LSD. There are certainly negative side effects possible but there is also decades of research on LSD. There is no test to rule out long-term negative side effects from psychedelics but there are safety precautions when starting with psychedelics which weren’t adhered to based on the trip reports from the original author.