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Comment by gamepsys | Hacker News Reader

That's pretty neat packaging, but it is unclear if the text about LSD would be visible from the outside. I imagine it would have to be completely invisible to be considered any sort of stealth. It's neat that the 5x20 design implies that it was rectangular, probably designed to mirror the size and shape of film. Each package shipped with 1,000,000 micrograms.

Finally, it's pretty incredible that something like this survived. Most people follow a "dispose of the evidence" protocol when it comes illicit drug packaging.

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I think it was inside based on this excerpt: “Opening Ghost’s package, purchasers would discover a handy information sheet that today gives us a sense of how some underground purveyors understood and promoted their wares.”

> Each package shipped with 1,000,000 micrograms

Woah there buddy. 100 droplets at 1,000 μg each = 100,000 μg.

I was a little surprised to learn that they didn't just dilute it a bit more and soak the entire sheet.

If you soak the entire sheet, I don't think you can be certain how much active product a single blotter absorbed

But with the make-100-droplets technique, how can you be sure that each droplet contains the same amount? You're still relying on diffusion of solutes to achieve some degree of uniformity across several fixed volumes.

Diffusion in liquid is relatively consistent. When paper is soaked and allowed to dry, it can produce uneven concentrations as regions evaporate at different rates, and solutes move along with the flow of solvent. A good example of this is water color painting: if you mix paint into water and then apply it to the paper, the resulting patterns may be less uniform than when applied.

I see, thanks. I guess drying is essentially crystal regrowth, and the thing about growing crystals is that the material concentrates around the nucleation sites and spoils the nice even distribution that you get from being in solution.

Seems like one can expect a hit to be a more precise dose than a half-hit, presuming it's still done that way.

Those numbers remind me of https://notsoprofound.com/the-unforeseen-lsd-overdose-of-197...

And on that note, as a non-user, surprising that the standard tab is 1,000 μg and one is expected to just know that you should divide it into quarters just to get a mere "above average dose". Or into tenths or twentieths of a tab to get an average or below average dose, respectively. It seems to invite a white-knuckle ride.

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