Drug Information
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Alcohol
Alcohol is often not thought of as a drug - largely because its use is common for both religious and social purposes in most parts of the world. It is a drug, however, and compulsive drinking in excess has become one of modern society's most serious problems. The beverage alcohol (scientifically known as ethyl alcohol, or ethanol) is produced by fermenting or distilling various fruits, vegetables, or grains.
Effects:
Alcohol affects people differently, depending on their size, sex, body build, and metabolism. General effects are a feeling of warmth, flushed skin, impaired judgment, decreased inhibitions, muscular incoordination, slurred speech and memory and comprehension loss. In states of extreme intoxication, vomiting is likely to occur, possibly accompanied by incontinence, poor respiration, a fall in blood pressure, and in cases of severe alcohol poisoning, coma and death.
Alcohol Addiction
When does casual consumption of alcohol turn to dependency drinking and finally to biochemically-controlled drinking? The answer is that even most alcohol addicts themselves don't know when they became addicted to alcohol. Alcohol is the most sinister of drugs, one that draws a thin, usually imperceptible line between social use and addictive use. Alcoholic addicts rely on alcohol as a key component of their personality - without a drink, they simply cannot "be themselves."
Cocaine
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. The powdered, hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crack is cocaine that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. This form of cocaine comes in a rock crystal that can be heated and its vapors smoked. The term crack refers to the crackling sound heard when it is heated.
Street Names: Coke, snow, flake, blow along with many others.
Effects:
A powerfully addictive drug, cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric and energetic. Common health effects include heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes and seizures. Large amounts can cause bizarre and violent behavior. In rare cases, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter.
Crack
The chemical hydrochloride is mainly what distinguishes cocaine from crack. Some users chemically process cocaine in order to remove the hydrochloride. This process is called freebasing and makes the drug more potent. Crack is a solid form of freebased cocaine. It is called crack because it snaps and cracks when heated and smoked.
Effects:
As with any street drug, what is sold may not be what it is claimed to be. Predicting side effects is difficult when the actual contents are not known. Life-threatening reactions have been reported whether its the first, the 100th, or any other time crack is used. You do not have to overdose on crack to die from it.
In addition, if the initial experience leads to continued use, other adverse effects include the rapid development of tolerance, addiction, and all the social problems that can come from an expensive drug habit.
How Is Crack Consumed?
The same way that freebase is used, namely, by placing the substance in a glass pipe (or hash pipe) with a fine mesh screen under it, then heating it and inhaling the vapors.
The vapors of the freebase are absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream and transported to the brain within 10-15 seconds. One inhalation will produce a degree of intoxication usually lasting 10-15 minutes.
Ecstasy
Ecstasy is a human-made drug that acts as a stimulant and a hallucinogen. It is taken orally as a capsule or tablet.
Street Names: XTC, X, Adam, Hug, Beans, Love Drug
Effects:
Short-term effects include feelings of mental stimulation, emotional warmth, enhanced sensory perception, and increased physical energy. Adverse health effects can include nausea, chills, sweating, teeth clenching, muscle cramping and blurred vision.
Ecstasy Quick Facts
- Ecstasy's psychological effects can include confusion, depression, sleep problems, anxiety, and paranoia during, and sometimes weeks after, taking the drug.
- Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University demonstrated that 4 days of exposure to the drug caused damage that persisted 6 to 7 years later.
- Ecstasy is most commonly used at all-night parties called raves.
- Brain imaging research in humans indicates that MDMA causes injury to the brain, affecting neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons.
- Physical symptoms due to ecstasy include muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, rapid eye movement, faintness, and chills or sweating.
GHB
Since about 1990, GHB has been abused in the U.S. for euphoric, sedative, and anabolic (body building) effects. As with Rohypnol and clonazepam, GHB has been associated with sexual assault in cities throughout the country.
Street Names: G, Liquid X, Liquid E, Scoop, Soap, Gook, Grievous Bodily Harm, Georgia Home Boy, Natural Sleep-500, Easy Lay or Gamma 10.
Effects:
The effects of GHB are unpredictable and very dose-dependent. Sleep paralysis, agitation, delusions and hallucinations have all been reported. Other effects include excessive salivation, decreased gag reflex and vomiting in 30 to 50 percent of users. Dizziness may occur for up to two weeks post ingestion.
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Heroin
Heroin is an illegal, highly addictive drug. It is both the most abused and the most rapidly acting of the opiates.
Street Names: Smack, H, Ska, Junk and many others.
Effects:
Soon after injection (or inhalation), heroin crosses the blood-brain barrier. In the brain, heroin is converted to morphine and binds rapidly to opioid receptors. Abusers typically report feeling a surge of pleasurable sensation, a "rush." The intensity of the rush is a function of how much drug is taken and how rapidly the drug enters the brain and binds to the natural opioid receptors. Heroin is particularly addictive because it enters the brain so rapidly. With heroin, the rush is usually accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and a heavy feeling in the extremities, which may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and severe itching.
After the initial effects, abusers usually will be drowsy for several hours. Mental function is clouded by heroin's effect on the central nervous system. Cardiac function slows. Breathing is also severely slowed, sometimes to the point of death. Heroin overdose is a particular risk on the street, where the amount and purity of the drug cannot be accurately known.
Associated with fatal overdose and - particularly in users who inject the drug - infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Long-term users may develop collapsed veins, liver disease, and lung complications.
