Pubdate: Thu, 11 Mar 1999
Source: Norman Transcript (OK)
Copyright: 1999 The Norman Transcript
Contact:  P.O. Drawer 1058, Norman, OK 73070.
Website: http://www.normantranscript.com/
Author: Jane Glenn Cannon, Transcript Staff Writer
Note: Jane Glenn Cannon covers the police and courts.

LSD RESURGENCE KEEPS OU OFFICIALS ON ALERT

It's not the orange sunshine of the 1960s, but it is lysergic acid - more
commonly known as LSD, a hallucinogenic illegal drug - and, according to
law enforcement officers, "It's making a comeback."

A resurgence in the popularity of LSD - a crystalline compound usually
passed to its user as a microdot on a piece of blotting paper - has
officers concerned, parents worried and University of Oklahoma officials on
the alert.

District Attorney Tim Kuykendall said this morning two OU students were
charged Wednesday in Cleveland County District Court with public
intoxication stemming from what OU police believe was "a bad LSD trip."

Two more students may be charged today, he added, as an investigation into
the use of LSD by the four students continues. The students were arrested
after they attracted attention in the Walker Center lobby Tuesday by
exhibiting behavior characteristic with LSD ingestion.

One student reportedly admitted to using LSD, and all are suspected of
ingesting the drug that works on the central nervous system and can cause
hallucinations, delusions and illness, the district attorney said.

"I'm sure they (young users) don't realize the dangers of it," Kuykendall
said, "but we have seen its use make a comeback recently even in students
as young as 14 or 15."

And, he added, "it's not just a local problem but a nationwide resurgence
in the drug's popularity."

The types of LSD law officers say they are discovering nowadays are not
exactly the same types prevalent in the 1960s, often given such names as
orange sunshine or purple microdots based on the color of the dosage-dots
or the specific formulas used in the drug's manufacture.

"It's a different chemical formula being used today, and you don't get
quite the hallucinogenic effect as that produced by the LSD produced in the
1960s," Kuykendall said.

"But the downside is that it could be more dangerous (physiologically)
today based on and because of the types of impurities used in its
manufacture."

Calling it a "growing problem" here as well as elsewhere, Kuykendall said
LSD use poses unique problems to law officers.

"For one thing, it is so easily concealable. It's the size of a microdot
and can be carried in a pocket or shirt and kept completely out of sight,"
he said.

And, he added, "it is not detectable by drug dogs."

Kuykendall said the case of the OU students allegedly ingesting the drug
this week "just points up the problem. It's becoming the current drug fad.
We're just seeing it more and more often."

That's why an investigation into the students' alleged use of the substance
is ongoing, the prosecutor added. "We want to address the problem."