The longest, strangest trip: Some psychedelic drug users are stuck with unwelcome highs

took two small hits off a cannabis vape pen, a common ritual with his morning coffee. It’s a lasting condition defined by a range of symptoms straight out of the “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” Psychiatrists, researchers and more than a dozen people with HPPD said in interviews that the mysterious and beguiling condition may be more common than currently known. “Informed consent would mean full awareness of the risks, and I don’t think that’s happening right now,” said Sara Ouimette, a licensed psychotherapist in Oakland who has treated more than 20 people with the condition. “We’re only going to see more cases, unfortunately, as people are doing psychedelics like the Wild West.” ‘The brain-mind interface’ A former Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor and one of the world’s leading authorities on HPPD, Dr. Steven Locke, described the condition as “really at the brain-mind interface.” Like the brain itself, much about the disorder remains a mystery. “Those people have a fair amount of regret because they feel that they’ve broken their brains.” ‘Everything’s melting, everything’s morphing’ Adonai Vargas was 14 years old when he first developed HPPD.