Many urban legends and misconceptions about drugs have been created and circulated among young people and the general public, with varying degrees of veracity. These are commonly repeated by organizations which oppose all classified drug use, often causing the true effects and dangers of drugs to be misunderstood and less scrutinized. The most common subjects of such false beliefs are LSD, cannabis, and PCP. These misconceptions include misinformation about adulterants or other black market issues, as well as alleged effects of the pure substances.
Alcohol
Urban legends about alcohol.
Absinthe is a hallucinogen
Absinthe has often been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen, which gave birth to the term "absinthism". The chemical compound thujone, which is present in the spirit in trace amounts, was blamed for its alleged harmful effects. By 1915, absinthe had been banned in the United States and in much of Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary, yet it has not been demonstrated to be any more dangerous than ordinary spirits. Recent studies have shown that absinthe's psychoactive properties (apart from those attributable to alcohol) have been exaggerated.
Recreationally intoxicated elephants from fermented marula fruit
South African legends, recorded as early as the 1830s by naturalist Adulphe Delegorgue, describe elephants seeking out the fermented fruit of the marula tree, and showing signs of intoxication, including increased aggression, after doing so. This behavior was controversially depicted in the 1974 documentary Animals Are Beautiful People: the crew of the film reportedly staged the scene, either by soaking the fruit in alcohol before allowing animals to eat it, or by simply injecting the animals with a veterinary anesthetic to elicit symptoms of intoxication. Studies have concluded that it is very unlikely that an elephant could eat enough of the fruit in a day to become drunk; the study instead attributed their aggression to the value of the trees as a food source. Yet it may be possible that another intoxicant is at play – elephants are also known to eat the bark of the tree, which often contains toxic beetle pupae.
Tobacco
Menthol cigarettes contain fiberglass A common rumor states that menthol cigarettes or their filters contain fiberglass. In reality, modern cigarette filters are made of a fibrous form of cellulose acetate, which can resemble fiberglass when pulled apart. In the past, some cigarettes did contain asbestos in their filters. Another version of this myth states that chewing tobacco contains fiberglass, which allegedly creates small cuts in the mouth, enhancing nicotine absorption.
Some cigarette brands are owned by the KKK Another urban legend states that some cigarette brands (most often Marlboro, Camel, and Kool), or menthol cigarettes in general, are owned by, manufactured by, or otherwise have connections to the Ku Klux Klan, or are intended to harm black people specifically. There is no credible evidence for any connection between cigarettes and the KKK.
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) Some of the strangest urban legends told are those about lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a potent psychedelic drug that gained popularity in several countries in the 1960s and 1970s, and experienced a resurgence in the mid-2010s to present. The drug's relation to the 1960s counterculture was likely part of the reason for such legends.
Babysitter places baby in the oven while high on LSD
This is an unverifiable drug-scare story dating to the 1960s of a hippie babysitter girl putting a baby in the oven and a turkey in the bassinet. It has been debunked by Snopes.com. This myth is parodied in The Simpsons episode "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson", in which the children go on a school field trip to a "scared straight" wax museum at the local police station. One exhibit contains a wax dummy of a hippie woman eating a sandwich with a baby in it. Chief Wiggum says "That's right, she's got the munchies for a California Cheeseburger!" In May 2009, partial ostension of this legend may have occurred when an Ohio man high on PCP allegedly tried to put his 28-day-old son into a conventional oven, only to be stopped in time by the child's mother. Also, in March 2010, a Kentucky man put his five-week-old baby in an oven (without turning it on, and without any injury) while drunk and high on marijuana (which he had smoked earlier that night) that he alleged made him feel strange and suspected was laced with a different drug that made him hallucinate; he was also tired from working. In 2005, China Arnold murdered her near month-old baby with a microwave oven, but she claimed that she was under the influence of alcohol, not LSD. There are a limited number of cases reported in which babies were put into microwaves, though these cases were not known to involve any drugs, and were instead often cases of deliberate infanticide. However, there have been no known cases of microwaving (or baking) babies involving LSD specifically, or any other psychedelic drug, including cannabis. However, there have been many reported cases of psychotic violence under the influence of PCP. PCP, a dissociative anesthetic, is unrelated to LSD, a psychedelic drug.
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