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\nAs the FDA paves the way for clinical LSD trials, scientists are exploring its medical benefits. Is acid the new Xanax? Plus, from Angelina to The Beatles, a gallery of celebrity trippers.<\/p>\n
Bob Wold doesn’t seem like your typical acid tripper. A happily married 56-year-old contractor with four kids who lives the suburbs of Chicago, he had never considered taking psychedelic drugs until about 10 years ago. At the time, he was suffering from cluster headaches\u2014known as \u201csuicide\u201d headaches because they\u2019re so painful\u2014for 12 hours a day, and he was spending more than $20,000 a year on medication. Then he read a post on a support-group Web site from someone who said they\u2019d found a miracle cure for their own cluster headaches: LSD.<\/p>\n
Wold decided to try it. “Compared to brain surgery,\u201d he says, \u201ctaking a couple hits of LSD looked a lot more attractive.\u201d But ever since a bust of the country\u2019s biggest LSD lab nine years ago, the drug has become much harder to find. So Wold got his hands on the closest equivalent he could think of: psilocybin \u201cmagic\u201d mushrooms (though he has since switched to LSD, which he says works better). The psychedelics arrived in a brown box at his doorstep from a long-distance dealer. He took one dose: about 1.5 grams. “In 15 minutes I could feel the difference,\u201d he says. \u201cMy head was clearer than it had probably been in the past 20 years. Other medications felt like they were just covering it up.\u201d But on acid, \u201cAll the pressure was gone.”<\/p>\n