Psychedelic Potency Tests are Here (And They Work)

Miraculix LSD Testing Kit. The “eye” image above is Reflection One - by Morgan Mandala and Randal Roberts.

A few years back I participated in an experiment where LSD tabs were tested for potency in a university lab. Despite some tabs being advertised as “double dipped”, super high potency tabs, virtually all tested at 75 ug to 150 ug, far short of their advertised claims.

Last year I had the good fortune to join a startup, MIMOSA Therapeutics, a company that is bringing all natural, remarkably consistent psilocybin mushroom products to the market. During an early call it was mentioned that they had partnered with Miraculix out of Germany to bring to market a test kit that would reveal the potency of LSD and psilocybin mushrooms and would cost less than $15. Oh, and a MDMA test kit was also under development. I was enthusiastic, to say the least.

Six months later, I tore open a FedEx box and was thrilled to see a stack of test kits - the very first batch of kits shipped to the USA.

If these test kits worked, they would be game changers. And guess what….

They work. They work well.

Be the first to receive test kits by joining the crowd funding campaign

Before we dive down on how the tests work, the first question is where can one buy the kits? For now, sales are limited to ordering through Miraculix’s crowd funding campaign, which launched on April 19th (Bicycle Day). Three LSD kits will cost around $40 plus international shipping.

The Miraculix science team is lead by Dr. Felix Blei, who published Psychedelic Science Review’s article of the year in 2020. Once the product officially launches, they will be distributed in the United States by MIMOSA, a start-up founded by Amanda Feilding (Beckley Foundation), and whose team includes Jim Fadiman (who popularized micro-dosing psychedelics, among other achievements) and other luminaries in psychedelics. MIMOSA, a public benefit corporation, has noted its intention to launch these kits at (or below) their cost of sales to help achieve broad distribution for these harm reduction tools.

The test kits are sensitive from as low as 10 ug, to an upper range of 225 ug. In theory, one could test tabs above the upper range by cutting into quarters (which is very hard to do accurately). The tests are designed to test LSD in tabs, but we also confirmed that at least in theory, they could be used to test liquid LSD as well.

Our Field Test of the Kit

1/2 of a tab of LSD. Cutting with a razor blade is a simple way to precisely cut the tab in half.

We put the $15 test kit to work on a known sample - a tab that had been sold as having a potency of 150 ug. When tested in a lab, the tab was revealed to be 75 ug, half of what was advertised.

The home test protocol is simple.

First, cut a standard sized tab in half.

Add the tab to the provided vial, give it a shake, and wait three minutes (with another shake midway through).

Add the activated solution to the test tube and wait around twelve more minutes.

Compare the final color of the solution with a provided color card to determine potency of the tab (or use the soon to be released phone app to receive an automatic potency report). Even though you only use half a tab, the test provides the strength of a full tab.

For our test, we used a razor blade to cut the tab in half. We’ve found this technique to be far superior to trying to use a scissors to cut tabs. (When splitting tabs that will be ingested, we always use volumetric dosing).

We wore both gloves and eye protection, and followed the instructions, first adding the tab to the vial, and after waiting the specified three minutes, carefully adding the activating solution.

The liquid quickly began to turn lavender, and then slowly darkened. By the time the 12-minute timer went off, the color had settled on a medium blue. I asked two friends who did not know the tab potency to evaluate the color against the provided chart, to determine the tabs potency.

Both immediately agreed the color was between 60 and 80 ug. After viewing the vial for a bit (in direct sunlight, as recommended) they both agreed on a final determination: 75 ug per tab (even though you test half a tab, the test calibrates to provide full tab potency). Exactly what we had received from our lab evaluation earlier. (Note, the inset image does not perfectly capture the actual colors of the sample or the test card.)

We had just performed the first North American test of a home LSD potency test.

The test was a success.

Why Potency Testing Matters

For the past few years, dose exaggeration has become a common practice of sellers. Advertising “double dipped”, and other nearly non-sensible terms, sellers are routinely claiming modest potency tabs to be 200 ug, or even 400 ug. Almost all of these tabs contain a fraction of the advertised dose, sometimes less than 25 percent of the purported concentration.

The final results. Note, accurate comparison requires viewing the testing liquid in sunlight.

The problem is far more serious than users being overcharged for a dose. A whole new generation of psychonauts believe they are taking 400 ug, 800 ug or even higher doses of LSD, when their actual doses may be 150 ug or 200 ug.

The rub…. Reddit and other popular websites feature stories of people taking very high doses of LSD, while having manageable experiences. Unsuspecting readers calibrate their expected experiences to these reports, and, for example, believe they will be able to converse and interact safely in public on a very high dose of LSD.

When someone actually gets a tab that is honestly advertised, for example a 100 ug tab that actually contains 100 ug of LSD, they may be tempted to take 8 of them, and when they do they quickly realized many public reports of high dose journeys been extraordinarily misleading. (Read our description of LSD doses here). For some the experience may be traumatic, and potentially dangerous.

In short, it’s critical that people understand what they are taking. The Miraculix/MIMOSA test kits allow the average user to get accurate dosing information in their homes. I believe this will be a game changer and significant step forward for the safe use of psychedelics.

Conflict alert! As noted above, Trippingly’s founder is an advisor to and an investor in MIMOSA. Trippingly received test sample kits free of charge.