I don't think I actually ever posted much about my first LSD experience, so I decided I should write it down now while I can still remember it ;)

I don't remember exactly when it was, but I expect it was the late summer of 1991, or possibly 1992. Hopefully I'll figure out the exact year someday ;)

I was curious about drugs other than marijuana, but never had any real opportunity to try them. I had heard a little bit about LSD from other teenagers, but nothing I'd consider real information. Around this time I saw a news spot on TV about a kid who took LSD at a concert, wandered into Lake Ontario and drowned. They played a small clip trying to show what being on LSD was like, depicting a kaleidoscope visual effect combined with inebriated confusion. If anything, this made me more curious than anything anyone else had told me about LSD, so I decided I wanted to try it.

(I've recently found details on the drowning death; On May 13th, 1988, 14 year old Benji Hayward drowned in Lake Ontario after attending a Pink Floyd concert at the CNE Grandstand. There were indications that he had consumed LSD and cannabis as well as alcohol -- which is curious as I know my first LSD experience was not until the early 90s, therefore it either took me a few years to try LSD, or the news story I saw was referring to an incident from years prior).

An older, more experienced teenager I knew from a BBS system had offered to introduce me to the stuff after I expressed interest in it at a party. A week or so after the party, I went over to his (parent's) apartment for a little private party.

I brought some beer, and we sat around smoking and having a beer, chatting a bit while he briefed me a wee bit on what was to come. We all took one hit (him, his girlfriend and myself), and sat around and waited for about half an hour or so. I wasn't feeling anything yet, so we took a second hit. It's possible we may have smoked some weed to help things along, but I'm not certain.

Once we started feeling "something", he decided we should go for a walk. (His girlfriend chose to stay put). I put my trust in him that he knew what he was doing, and so we headed out into downtown Toronto.

At first I felt pretty intoxicated, like my body was walking and I was just going along for the ride. Everything seemed like a lot of effort, but otherwise everything was pretty normal (it's possible this was a THC effect).

We walked by a playground, and played on the equipment for a few minutes. I was feeling pretty silly about it, so we didn't do that for long. As we left the playground, we were passing a small tree, and he stopped to look at it. Noticing a lumpy growth from a cut off limb, he reached out to touch it stating, "Whoa!!!"

My immediately thought was that his behaviour quite strange and silly, but nearly instantly I suddenly found the growth fascinating, and repeated his reaction in kind, "Whoa!"

I quickly stopped myself, thinking, "This is fucked!"

I then went on to attempt to clear my head, taking a mental "step back", with a possible head shake, and a repetition of, "This is fucked..." After doing this several times, I realized that I was at the beginning of something I had never experienced anything remotely like.

Around this time we noticed some people in the distance, and tried to act normal. My buddy decided he was hungry, so we went to Pizza Pizza and grabbed a slice. Eating this huge slice of pizza seemed to be an enormous task. The slice appeared to be as large as whole pizza... a big triangular mountain of pizza! After what seemed like a half hour or so of eating, we were finally finished and headed off to a video arcade.

Playing video games in this state was information overload for me. My buddy wasn't having any problems, and in fact played Discs of Tron better than he ever did before. I tried a driving game with hairpin steering, and just kept crashing over and over again.

Finally we left the arcade, and wandered around downtown a bit, ending up in a nice little courtyard where we walked around in a small clump of fir trees that was, "like a forest!" according to my buddy, and then upon gazing upon a vine covered wall he exclaimed, "Whoa!!! That wall looks like it's covered in insects!" -- and the vines became huge walking stick insects! Then he declared, "Whoa!!! Now they look like lizards!" -- and the wall was swarming with lizards of all sorts of colours!

This was a little much for me, and in noticing this my buddy suggested we head back to his place, and I heartily agreed. I don't remember the trip back, but we were soon in his apartment.

When we returned to his place, I seem to recall his girlfriend was watching TV... that or he put it on when we got back. TV was too confusing and strange at this time -- likely due to weird programming at around 2am, I seem to recall there being some history of the condom or some such thing showing hundred year old contraceptives. TV seems pretty strange and weird for all of us, so he turned it off.

I think they started getting a little romantic after that, so I stared at the walls, then noticed a lamp which had three shafts of wheat embossed on it which appeared to be silhouettes of three women swaying to some sort of music.

I don't recall exact order of events, but around this time I heard some sirens (being downtown and all), and I started getting uneasy. A dire warning my mother had told me as a young child about drugs came back hauntingly -- "Never do drugs! You could be lying half dead in a ditch somewhere, thinking you're having a good time!" -- was this what she had meant? How did I know I wasn't lying half dead in a ditch somewhere, and the sirens I heard was the abulance coming to get me?

I started to panic, and my buddy assured me that everything was fine. I became obsessed with the time (it was around 3am), and must have asked him what time it was about 50 times. I'd look at the clock and think, "3am? That's early..." then suddenly think, "3am??? That's late!" I became concerned that I should let my mother know I wasn't coming home that night, but wasn't in much of a state to call her.

My buddy decided maybe he should get someone else to tell me that everything was fine, so he took me down to the security desk of the building to get the security guard to tell me that I was safe and sound. I settled down a bit after this, and we went back upstairs.

I called my mother, and let her know that I was fine, but wasn't up to driving home until the morning.

A bit after that, we all chilled out for a bit and relaxed. I tried to sleep for a little bit, but that wasn't happening. After that we sat around any enjoyed the residual visual effects for a few hours until it was daylight.

My buddy and his girlfriend took some more to continue the trip (as far as I know, it wouldn't have extended their trip significantly), and I headed home once all the effects had worn off.