When LSD first hit the counterculture in the 1960, it was ingested via sugar cube or colored tablet. It wasn’t until a decade later that tiny perforated paper squares known as “blotter” became the preferred way to deliver the powerful psychedelic. In this fascinating excerpt from Erik Davis’ book Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, the journalist theorizes about why blotter proved the ideal carrier for LSD—part communion wafer, part pop-culture collectible, and part stamp granting passage to new realms. Mind-bending in its own right.
One of the most celebrated blotters of the era featured Mickey Mouse in his Fantasia guise as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. These sharply designed four-colour sheets came perfed into 100 units, each featuring their own budding rodent wizard. This was charming enough, but if you bought a gram, you’d get a red lacquered box that was also affixed with an image of Mickey, now surrounded by 17 gold stars. Inside lay a bundle of 40 sheets wrapped in a container of gold foil affixed with another image of the mouse, this time accompanied by the word ‘Sandoz’ – alerting the discerning buyer that the batch was most likely made from LSD synthesised by the original Swiss sorcerers.
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