Well, one way is to learn organic chemistry and synthesize the substances yourself (or know people who do this).

Another way is to pick or grow psychedelic mushrooms. Before picking wild psychedelic mushrooms, I strongly suggest you learn a lot about how to identify them (ideally not just from books, though good books are important, but from experienced mushroom hunters). Picking wild mushrooms can be very dangerous. As the saying goes, there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.

Yet another way is to go to a country where these substances are legal, decriminalized, or tolerated. Until recently, the Netherlands effectively allowed the sale of psychedelic mushrooms. Erowid's Law Vault may help you find other countries with less idiotic drug laws than the US.[1]

Finally, you can submit a sample of your substance to, or get testing kits from companies such as: [2][3]

[1] - https://erowid.org/psychoactives/law/law.shtml

[2] - http://www.dancesafe.org/

[3] - http://www.ecstasydata.org/about.php

I'll add this to your comment since it's much better than the one I'd written; Dancesafe sells DIY kits for certain chemicals as well -- http://dancesafe.org/products/testing-kits

It's pretty simple with LSD. You should buy it in blotter form. A piece of blotter can only contain so much of active material (fractions of a milligram). It's too small a dose for almost any psychoactive substances to have any effect on you. LSD and DOB are rare exceptions to this rule. So if you have something on a blotter, it's either LSD or DOB.

Now, DOB is very bitter, and LSD has no taste. If you put a piece of blotter in your mouth, and it tastes bitter, just spit it out -- that's probably DOB. Otherwise, it's LSD, and it's pure.

This is terrible advice, that must not be heeded.

The times when you could be reasonably sure you are getting LSD if you are getting the drug on blotter, are long gone. There are many drugs that can be/are being distributed on blotter paper. Some of these have a very steep dose-response curve, and can be very dangerous in relatively minuscule amounts.

While it's perfectly safe (if a bit reckless) to consume, say, upwards of three hits of LSD on blotter, doing the same with blotters containing 25I-NBOMe or Bromo-Dragonfly could land you in hospital or even the mortuary.

Taking psychedelic drugs originating on the black market has, unfortunately, become an intricate game, and you really need to learn the rules before you can play it at least somewhat safely. There is no easy answer, other than doing your research, preferably lots of it.

The first part of your message is a rather dangerous misconception. Many, many drugs can and have been dispensed on blotter paper, often as LSD mimics. For dozens of examples, see DEA Microgram bulletins passim (http://www.justice.gov/dea/pr/micrograms.shtml).

The point about bitterness is absolutely correct though, and certainly any purported LSD blotter that tastes bitter should be suspect.

Interestingly, at least one non-psychedelic has been found distributed on blotter paper: alprazolam (See http://www.justice.gov/dea/pr/micrograms/2008/mg0508.pdf), for which I'd tentatively expect the bitterness rule also to work.

It's worth noting that you can buy LSD test kits on Amazon (with Prime shipping, even!): http://www.amazon.com/NIK-Drug-Test-Kit-LSD/dp/B002ATUECS/

Those only test for the presence of any tryptamine, not LSD specifically. So even if it tests positive you could still be getting DOM/DOB/DOI. Which is bad, since those can kill you or else have serious negative effects if you take too much.

DOM, DOB and DOI are not tryptamines, but rather psychedelic amphetamines. This is an important distinction, as it means that the most common test kit (Ehrlich reagent), will not confuse them for LSD, contrary to what you said.

It is however true that there are substances which both fit on a blotter, and are indole psychedelics - e.g. 5-MeO-AMT, or other (other than LSD, that is) ergolines, such as LSB, ALD-52 (though these are extremely rare and (likely) share the safety profile of LSD). The Ehrlich test is not capable of distinguishing between different indoles, so you may get a case of mistaken identity in this scenario.

Oops, didn't realize the DOx family were psychedelic amphetamines. Thanks for correcting this.

I'm having trouble finding in-depth information about what a Modified Ehrlich's Reagent LSD test actually tests for. Would you mind telling me where you learned they test for any tryptamine, and any more information you might have on the matter?

Edit: This PDF: http://www.bvda.com/EN/download/np_instructions_2002.pdf says the test indicates the presence of ergot alkaloids, not tryptamines.

I believe Ehrlich's tests for indoles, a family which includes tryptamines, but also lots of other things. Colour tests are never conclusive; increasingly persuasive results are usually obtained by combining several different colour tests, for example this post discussing LSD testing: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1101068&....

Actually, the point about bitterness is wrong.

Both the blotter paper and the inks on it could have a taste. Also, the sensation of taste (or lack thereof) could be influenced psychosomatically, by conscious or subconscious expectations.

Indeed, but where the downside is getting an unwanted dose of something like DOB it's advisable to err on the side of caution.

My point is that the taste or lack thereof proves absolutely nothing. So you can't err on the side of caution using the taste test.

Anyway, by the time you taste it, it's too late.

AIUI, the point is that a sane dose of LSD doesn't taste bitter, so if one rejects any bitter blotter then one would be erring on the side of caution - possibly rejecting perfectly good LSD due to a bitter ink or paper, but avoiding the great majority non-LSD psychedelics.

It's certainly preferable to identify a substance before tasting it, but it's not too late - spitting the paper out and rinsing the mouth out is likely at least to reduce the absorbed dose.

A perhaps more pressing problem is the risk of anxiety due to an innocently-bitter piece of blotter - I imagine a borderline-bad trip could be made much worse by a persistent fear that it would last >24h.

Of course, real caution would mean not eating anything cooked up by criminals in an illicit lab...

DOB blotter is sometimes a little thicker/larger since dosage is about 10x heavier than the equivalent of LSD. Bad mistake to make by the way since DOB is less tested, lasts considerably longer and takes around 2 hours to kick in.

I didn't know that LSD wasn't ever supposed to taste. Figured the bitterness was just from the ink on the blotter. Took three tabs, felt it a little (comparable to 100ug), figured it was just weak acid and so redosed five more tabs about two hours in. Even on heroic acid trips the longest I'd been away was eight hours. On DOB I stayed out for a solid 24.

Yeah, DOB (and any other DOx, I suppose?) seems pretty bad. Very bad trips are apparently both much more probable and much more unpleasant on DOB than on acid. I don't think I know anyone who tried DOB and would recommend it.

I spent a summer taking DOB once. I would certainly recommend it, in the right environment and once you know what you're taking.

However, this particular DOB was distributed in pill form, so people believed that it was ecstasy, so I saw a lot of bad things happen to people from it.

Its a really interesting psychedelic (in my opinion) but definitely needs to be handled with care. You need at least 48 hours after taking any appreciable dose to return to "normality" so if you are taking it, make sure that you have at least two days free.

Growing Psilocybe mushrooms is really easy: http://www.shroomery.org/11432/Lets-Grow-Mushrooms-Pf-tek-vi...

Well, luckily, psilocybin is easy enough to grow on your own in the form of mushrooms, though quite illegal. The information is out there if you look for it.

Indeed-- this is fairly trivial to do, though as noted, illegal.

Silk road.

Please don't publicise this - Gawker already did enough damage. If some of the more interesting things become popular enough then governments will begin to attack them. In fact, there has already been at least one conviction regarding what you mentioned. Authorities have a terrible fear of things they do not control and are quite willing to become very violent to expand their influence. The less they know, the better.

Agreed. Be careful who you mention it to. Its a beautiful place for responsible individuals but a death sentence for many. You do not want to go there with a habit.