If you have more LSD than you can take at once, 1) I’m jealous; and 2) you’ll need to put it in storage. If you don’t, your precious acid could lose its potency. Since we can’t have that, I’ll be teaching you how to store LSD like a skilled psychonaut. I know you’re seeing a turtle with a top hat right now, but try your best to focus.
How Long LSD Lasts
As a 1998 study deduces, heat, humidity and UV light all cause LSD to deteriorate. Of course, the rate at which that happens depends on how it’s stored and what form your acid is in. Here’s how long several types of LSD will retain their psychedelic vigor if kept haphazardly at room temperature:
- Blotter Papers (or Tabs): Four to six weeks
- Microdots (LSD Pills): Four to six weeks
- Sugar Cubes (Yes, Literal Sugar Cubes Dosed With LSD): Six to eight weeks because sugar naturally resists small changes in humidity
- Liquid LSD: About a week.
If you store your LSD properly, however, you can expect it to stay potent for much longer — for example:
- Blotter Papers: Two to three years
- Microdots: Two to three years
- Sugar Cubes: One to three years
- Liquid LSD: One to two years
Remember, these are only rough estimates. Even after three years of proper storage, your LSD should still be potent enough to send your mind elsewhere — just not as potent as it once was. After, say, five years, you’ll likely have to double or triple your dose to experience a full trip.
Meanwhile, acid that’s been through hell — let’s say you left it on an Arizona sidewalk in the middle of summer — can degrade enough over the course of a single day to have no effect on your brain whatsoever. It won’t make you sick or anything like that; it just won’t get you high (or at least as high as it once would have).
How to Store LSD
How you go about storing your LSD depends on its form. Here are some best practices:
Blotter Papers: Wrap your tabs in tinfoil to protect them from UV light and moisture, place them in an airtight container and put it in the fridge for short-term storage (a few weeks or months) or the freezer for long-term storage (a few years). If you go the freezer route, let the tabs come to room temperature before opening the container and tripping — that way, you won’t crack the airtight seal too early, exposing them to precipitation.
Microdots: Microdots are pretty old-school, so you might not ever run into them, but if you do, you can safely store them like you would blotter papers.
Sugar Cubes: Because sugar cubes resist moisture, you might not need to place them in an airtight container (although, you may as well). Regardless, you should still wrap them in tinfoil and stick them in the fridge or freezer.
Liquid LSD: Because LSD in liquid form tends to evaporate quicker than the above versions of acid, you may be better served distributing it onto blotters, then storing them as described earlier. However, you can always place your glass container of liquid acid in a second airtight container (just make sure the glass won’t break) and put that in the fridge or freezer.
How to Take Old Acid
The number-one rule when taking old acid is not assuming that it’s lost potency. Especially if you’ve stored it properly, a single dose of old LSD can still launch you into space, so you don’t want to make the mistake of taking too much because you figured it wouldn’t be strong enough. Take one dose, wait an hour and half, then take more if you need to.
How to Hide LSD
While the fridge and freezer are undeniably the best places to store LSD, if you live with drug-opposed parents or acid-hungry roommates, you may need to stash it somewhere more secretive. Here are some hiding spots r/LSD recommends (always wrap your acid in tinfoil no matter where it’s stored):
- In a small hole under your box spring
- In an unscrewed Texas Instruments calculator
- Under your couch cushions
- In a pack of gum
- In a power outlet
- In a book
- In a video game or movie case
- In your phone case
- In your mouth
Of course, your acid won’t last as long in these spots, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Okay, you can now return your attention to the turtle with a top hat.
Ian Lecklitner
Ian Lecklitner is a staff writer at MEL Magazine. He mostly writes about everyone's favorite things: Sex, drugs and food.
