^^Many of the metabolites of lsd are not active. There could be some that are I don't know. Iso-lsd is inactive for example. Hydroxylated metabolites may be less lipid soluble and thus cross the blood brain barrier slower and they could in theory be more potent at the same receptors as lsd I really don't know. This happens in the case of THC and one of its main liver metabolites 11-hydroxy-THC. It appears to be more psychoactive but with a slower onset of action. The higher activity could be explained by receptor binding activity and slower onset of action could be explain by a weakened ability to cross the blood brain barrier.
Which may also happen with LSD but I don't know of any direct evidence for it.
Forensic chemists have done lots of this research into drug metabolites. Its in their advantage to be able to detect not just LSD but anything that it breaks down into to be able to prove that someone has used the substance. This is a normal part of forensic chemistry.
The only real way to know is to compare their pharmacokinetic profiles using different forms of administration and receptor binding activity and specificity would also help. Also post mortem analysis of brain tissue helps say what was going on.
It makes a lot of sense to me. I’m willing to bet that it’s NOT LSD but it’s break down compounds that make you trip. Considering the fact that most of the LSD is gone before you even reach the peak effects, seems to indicate that it’s the break down products and not the LSD itself that are effective in making you trip.
Just because lsd disappears below an analytical methods level of detection does not mean it is not there. Remember we are diluting roughly a hundred micrograms of a substance into many many liters of human fluid and then adding all the fats and tissue into the equation makes it no small task. But it is do able and has been done. It also depends on what kind of tissue one is analyzing. Blood you can just take and take and take and it most likely will be undetectable in the blood as LSD very quickly. But the substance can still hang out in brain tissue for a while. One can't exactly slice up human brain tissue to see if LSD is in their brain when they are tripping. Theoretically you could but its of course unethical.
LSD does not break down into strychnine. But could it break down under storage conditions into a substance that has a strychnine like effect? Maybe but what is a strychnine like effect? Muscle convulsions?
Evidence against the myth that LSD is occasionally laced with strychnine.
www.erowid.org
This effect is most likely a result of impurities present in the LSD from the manufacturing process, other ergot alkaloids. Maybe one of them is breaking down and becomes more toxic or more potent. Either way I doubt pure LSD breaks down into something that can lead to such an effect as far as I know LSD's main breakdown product is iso-lsd and it doesn't do anything.
Abstract. A sensitive method is described to detect isolysergic acid diethylamide (iso-LSD) in urine. The compound was extracted from urine and converted t
www.clinchem.org
"Iso-LSD is not psychoactive (18), but like LSD, the compound is classified as a schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Because LSD is prepared from ergot alkaloids with isomeric configuration at C-8 position, both LSD and iso-LSD are present in most illicit preparations. To control the use of LSD and iso-LSD, establishing a procedure to detect and quantify these compounds in urine is prudent. In this report, we describe a method that can be used routinely to detect the iso-LSD in large numbers of urine specimens."