on acid

[Sisy-luo]

When someone is saying "Are you on acid?", what exactly does he mean? Crazy, I guess? Thanks!

[pyoung]

Dear Sisy-Luo

'Are you on acid?' literally means, "Have you taken (the hallucinogen) LSD?"

Usually this question means, "Your idea/attitude/suggestion/behavior seems irrational to me."

Another common way of expressing the same thing is, 'What have you been smoking?' which is a reference to smoking marijuana.

Petra

[jellispoon]

Acid is literally the drug LSD

So by asking the question "are you on acid?" you could be asking it literally, but much more commonly it would mean "why are you acting like this? because I dont understand"

Another way of saying the same thing generally, "what are you on?" meaning "what drug are you on?" but is still used when they cant understand the other person's behaviour

[BobK]

Lysergic acid diethylamide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

More generally, 'on <drug-name>' is quite a common form of hyperbole:

...on acid (LSD)
...on speed (methamphetamine)
...on steroids (to mean very big and strong)
...

b