Tom is at risk of having the worst moment of his life spread over the news, but the police are able to keep the media at bay because he's a minor. Hovering not far away is a television news crew, which has received a tip-off about the disturbance. He winds up several streets from home, lying naked in the middle of the road, surrounded by people looking down at him, including two female police officers and paramedics. What happens over the next hour or so – Tom breaking a window of a neighbour's house, neighbours chasing him, making him even more paranoid and fearful – is a blur. He rushes back inside his house, tracking blood through different rooms, before smashing a back fence then running onto the street again, tearing off his clothes. Tom may be bleeding, but he's still got the speed of a cross-country athlete and seemingly superhuman strength, despite his reed-thin frame. The force of his weight smashes the furniture to pieces but he miraculously avoids serious injury. A round, wooden table in the front yard breaks his fall not far from the edge of the swimming pool. The family cats are howling, too, apparently as disturbed by his behaviour as the onlookers.įrom the balcony, Tom scampers up onto the tiled roof, but loses his footing. Well-known as an early morning runner, and well-liked as a trusted babysitter to several families in this quiet, affluent neighbourhood in Sydney's north where he's spent most of his life, Tom is clearly not himself. In the darkness, they can faintly see a figure pacing back and forth. At first, they don't associate the deep voice with Tom: it sounds almost Satanic. Neighbours hear this bizarre phrase ringing out from the balcony. Henry Kwan, 17, fell to his death at his home in Killara after taking a synthetic hallucinogen that was sold to him as LSD. "Who's doing this to you?" he asks, raising his voice. By now losing his sense of reality, Tom tries talking to himself in a bid to sort out the strange thoughts invading his mind. Trying to counteract the restlessness he's feeling, he walks onto the second-floor balcony off his bedroom and paces up and down. Tom is alone again, and the drug's effects continue to intensify. ![]() Embarrassed, he bids his son good night – he's off to meet Tom's mum Jasmine* at a fund-raising dinner across town – and closes the door. So odd is his behaviour that his father imagines he's walked in on his son masturbating. Sitting at his desk, Tom is so shocked when his dad opens his bedroom door that he can barely speak and doesn't make eye contact. ![]() He doesn't hear his dad Karl* unexpectedly arrive home and climb the stairs. The trip starts well, reaching an idyllic plateau, but the come-up keeps climbing – and with it, his anxiety. ![]() Research from Imperial College London, showing how, with eyes-closed, much more of the brain contributes to the visual experience under LSD (above) than under placebo (top). Satisfied, Tom eats four tiny pieces of LSD-soaked blotting paper known as "tabs". He watches as the sample reacts to the chemicals, turning dark purple, indicating its purity. He cuts a tiny sliver from one of the tabs and drops it into a glass tube containing a small amount of liquid. Tom takes precautions: he uses a drug-testing kit he bought from a "hippie store" near his house to make sure the drug is LSD rather than a more risky synthetic alternative. ![]() This is the fifth time he's taken the hallucinogen, the first four with no unpleasant side effects, so he's trying a double dose to see whether the sensations become more intense. Within moments, the 17-year-old's heart rate goes up, butterflies flutter in his stomach and waves of colour dance across his field of vision, regardless of whether he closes or opens his eyes. It's 8pm on a Friday night this year, he's home alone in the sanctuary of his bedroom and he tells himself that this is his reward for finishing his exams (except for business studies, which he doesn't care about). Tom* closes his eyes, settles back on his bed, breathes in the aromatherapy oil he's burning and listens to psychedelic trance while waiting for the onset of the trip from the LSD he's just swallowed.
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