Last Updated: February 13, 2023

I don’t need to test my LSD, right? Wrong.

With the flood of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) entering the unregulated illicit market, all substances are at risk of being adulterated or misrepresented. Becoming more and more prevalent in the drug market is 25i-NBOMe, a psychedelic hallucinogen that is being misrepresented and sold as LSD. “N-Bomb,” as it is oftentimes referred to, is a clear liquid with a bitter taste that can easily be placed onto blotter and sold as “acid.”

Fortunately, DanceSafe’s Erhlich’s reagent can tell you whether you have a substance that contains an indole alkaloid, the main hallucinogenic property found in psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. 25i-NBOMe will not react with the Ehrlich’s reagent, as it is not an indole. 

To test your LSD, place a tiny corner of blotter, or a drop from a vial, onto a ceramic test plate. Then place one drop of the Erhlich’s reagent onto the piece of blotter or drop of liquid. Within two minutes, the sample should begin to turn purple. (Sometimes the reaction can take up to five minutes.) If there is no reaction, there is no presence of the indole alkaloid, which means the substance is not LSD.

Keep in mind that sometimes the dye from blotter paper can seep out into the liquid around it, making it more difficult to see the reaction. If you have purple, red, or blue blotter paper, reading the result may be challenging. Gel tabs can be tested with Ehrlich’s reagent, but will likely require longer to react and will have more dye interference as the reagent breaks the gel down.

There are other NBOMe compounds too, none of which react with Ehrlich’s. Some NBOMe substances will turn yellow, green or orange on the Marquis reagent, and 25i-NBOMe will turn brown/green. But if your substance does not react on Ehrlich’s, it is a sure sign that it is not LSD. This test should be used to identify whether your tab or liquid definitely is not LSD, not to confirm that it is. However, there are very few other compounds that can fit onto blotter paper at active doses – the NBOMe and DOx families are the two primary blotter adulterants, and both of them have a distinct metallic bitter taste. (“If it’s bitter, it’s a spitter!”)

As the highly adulterated illicit market continues to proliferate, it is more important now than ever to test before you ingest. Purchase your Erhlich’s reagent here.