Officers encountered a naked, screaming man when they responded to a disturbance call at a San Fernando Valley apartment that authorities later determined was being used to manufacture a powerful hallucinogenic drug often referred to as "Businessman's LSD."

Five Los Angeles Police Department officers, responding to the early morning report Monday, said they felt ill after they arrived at the fume-filled apartment in the 14000 block of Sherman Way in Van Nuys. Officers found a naked man, screaming and acting in a "bizarre" manner, according to the LAPD.


"They immediately started feeling light-headed and started getting headaches," said LAPD Detective Ernie Eskridge. "They exited the location because it appeared it was a narcotics lab."

The officers were treated and released, Eskridge said. The individual found at the residence also was hospitalized in good condition, police said.

Jars containing what appeared to be a brown liquid, plastic bags with mimosa root bark and other items used to manufacture the drug DMT were found in the apartment, according to police. Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), extracted from the mimosa root bark, is a psychedelic compound that can produce brief, but vivid and powerful, hallucinations.

DMT -- known as the "Businessman's LSD" because of the short duration of the drug's mind-altering effects -- is smoked, ingested orally or injected, causing users to lose awareness of their surroundings, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Its active chemical is found in South American plants and the drug was featured in the 2010 movie, "DMT: The Spirit Molecule."

"You don't hear it that often," said Detective Keith Honore. "We see it about once a year.

"It's a drug that's produced from the root of the mimosa plant. That's legal to purchase, you can actually buy (the root) on the internet, but to actually reduce it and make it into drug is against the law."

Workers in protective hazardous materials suits carried items out of the apartment. The process of extraction can be dangerous because of the solvents involved, according to authorities.

"It's a pretty good size operation for a DMT lab," Honore said. "They're usually very small, and they make enough for themselves. It looks like he was making enough to sell on the street."

The drug, popular on college campuses, sells for about [REDACTED] per gram, according to investigators.

Sherman Way, closed during the investigation, was reopened at about 5 a.m. Evacuated residents were allowed back into their apartments early Monday.

The 37-year-old man was arrested and booked on suspicion of felony manufacture of narcotics. Bond was set at $75,000.

"It's a drug that's produced from the root of the mimosa plant. That's legal to purchase, you can actually buy (the root) on the internet, but to actually reduce it and make it into drug is against the law."

Ugh.

Interesting that the cop mentioned that most extractors only do so for themselves, as we've long been encouraging here. So apparently that's part of the reputation of DMT among LEO. Not sure how that helps us, but still interesting.

I think it's a little concerning, actually. It means that somehow, the police are able to find people quietly doing home personal extractions and bust them.

Generally, the attitude on The Nexus is that there's little risk of extracting so long as there's no trail of buyers traipsing to and from your door, hence the prohibition on dealing talk, but if these people weren't dealing and still managed to get busted, something may be up. Watched precursors, maybe?

It says that the officers were responding to a disturbance call. My guess is that this naked guy's screaming was disturbing his neighbors, and the police found his setup in plain sight when they arrived at the apartment.

Other than:


Detective Keith Honore, do your homework; don't tell the public its legal if there is legal risk or illegality.

"Drug induced psychosis"


No, no nnonononono. A welcome to unforeseen, unimaginable planes of existence.

Ketamine or belladona, drug induced psychosis would be accurate. Wouldnt see me touch either of those with someone elses 10 foot pole.

By almost every standard definition of the term, a classically psychedelic experience is also a psychotic one.

Please read the paper I linked in the above post. The body of work that could be said to represent modern understandings of psychosis and psychedelic experiences does not treat them as one-in-the-same. Dr. Tanya Luhrmann has written extensively on this and her paper (linked above) presents valuable explanations as to why equating the two should be a non-starter.

I again refer you to the constellation of four symptoms that defines psychosis in a medical context. If you meet those criteria (or 3/4), you are psychotic.