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Alcohol
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Short Term Effects
Even at low doses, alcohol significantly impairs the judgment and coordination required to drive a car or operate machinery safely. Low to moderate doses of alcohol can also increase the incidence of a variety of aggressive acts, including domestic violence and child abuse.
Effects of moderate alcohol intake include dizziness and talkativeness. The immediate effects of a larger amount of alcohol include slurred speech, disturbed sleep, nausea, and vomiting. "Hangovers" are another effect after large amounts of alcohol are consumed — symptoms including headache, nausea, thirst, dizziness, and fatigue.
Long Term Effects
Prolonged, heavy use of alcohol can lead to addiction (alcoholism). Sudden cessation of long term, extensive alcohol intake is likely to produce withdrawal symptoms, including severe anxiety, tremors, hallucinations, and convulsions.
Long-term effects of consuming large quantities of alcohol can lead to: permanent damage to vital organs
several different types of cancer
gastrointestinal irritations, such as nausea, diarrhea, and ulcers
malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies
sexual dysfunctions
high blood pressure
lowered resistance to disease
Slang
Booze, Sauce, Brews, Brewskis, Hooch, Hard Stuff, Juice
· How can you tell if a friend has a drinking problem?
Sometimes it's tough to tell. But there are signs you can look for. If your friend has one or more of the following warning signs, he or she may have a problem with alcohol:
Getting drunk on a regular basis
Lying about how much alcohol he or she is using
Believing that alcohol is necessary to have fun
Having frequent hangovers
Feeling run-down, depressed, or even suicidal
Having "blackouts"--forgetting what he or she did while drinking
Marijuana
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Effects of Marijuana on the Brain
Researchers have found that THC changes the way in which sensory information gets into and is acted on by the hippocampus. This is a component of the brain's limbic system that is crucial for learning, memory, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivations. Investigations have shown that THC suppresses neurons in the information processing system of the hippocampus. In addition, researchers have discovered that learned behaviors, which depend on the hippocampus, also deteriorate.
Effects of Marijuana on the Lungs
Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers have. These individuals may have daily cough and phlegm, symptoms of chronic bronchitis, and more frequent chest colds. Continuing to smoke marijuana can lead to abnormal functioning of lung tissue injured or destroyed by marijuana smoke.
Regardless of the THC content, the amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide absorbed are three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers. This may be due to marijuana users inhaling more deeply and holding the smoke in the lungs.
Other Short Term Effects
Dry mouth and/or throat, problems with memory and learning, distorted perception (sights, sounds, time, touch), trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of motor coordination, increased heart rate, and anxiety. These effects are even greater when other drugs are mixed with marijuana.
Persons high on marijuana show the same lack of coordination on standard drunk driver tests as do people who have had too much to drink.
Long Term Effects
Marijuana smoke contains some of the same cancer-causing compounds as tobacco, sometimes in higher concentrations. Someone who smokes 1 to 3 joints can produce the same lung damage and potential cancer risk as smoking five times as many cigarettes.
Street Name / Slang Terms
Aunt Mary, Bobby, Boom, Chronic, Dope ganja, Gangster, Grass, Hash, Herb, Kif, Mary Jane, Pot, Reefer, Sinsemilla, Skunk, Weed
Cocaine
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Short Term Side Effects
Short term effects of cocaine include: dilated pupils, increased heart rate, restlessness, anxiety, increased temperature, insomnia, loss of appetite, and increased blood pressure.
The duration of cocaine's immediate euphoric effects - which include energy, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity - depend on how it is used. The faster the absorption, the more intense the "high." However, the faster the absorption, the shorter the high lasts.
The high from snorting may last 15-30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5-10 minutes. Cocaine's effects are short lived, and once the drug leaves the brain, the user experiences a "coke crash" that includes depression, irritability, and fatigue.
Long Term Effects
There is great risk whether cocaine is ingested by inhalation (snorting), injection, or smoking. It appears that compulsive cocaine use may develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather than snorted. Smoking allows extremely high doses of cocaine to reach the brain very quickly and brings an intense and immediate high. The injecting drug user is at risk for transmitting or acquiring HIV infection/AIDS if needles or other injection equipment are shared.
Users who smoke or inject cocaine may be at even greater risk than those who snort it. Smoking crack cocaine can produce a particularly aggressive paranoid behavior in users. Cocaine smokers suffer from acute respiratory problems including coughing, shortness of breath, and severe chest pains with lung trauma and bleeding. In addition, it appears that compulsive cocaine use may develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather than snorted.
Know the Signs
How can you tell if someone is using cocaine? Sometimes it's tough to tell. But there are signs you can look for. Here are some warning signs, someone may be using cocaine or other illicit drugs:
red, bloodshot eyes
runny nose or frequent sniffing
change in eating or sleeping patterns
change in groups of friends
change in behavior / school grades
frequently needing money
losing interest in school, family, or activities once enjoyed
acting withdrawn, depressed, tired, or careless about personal appearance
Street Names / Slang Terms
Cocaine Powder
badrock, bazooka, beam, berni, bernice, big C, blast, blizzard, blow, blunt, bouncing powder, bump, C, cabello, caine, candy, caviar, charlie, chicken scratch, coca, cocktail, coconut, coke, cola, damablanca, dust, flake, flex, florida snow, foo foo, Freeze, g-rock, goofball, happy dust, happy powder, happy trails, heaven, king, lady, lady caine, late night, line, mama coca, marching dust/powder, mojo, monster, mujer, nieve, nose, nose candy, p-dogs, Peruvian, powder, press, prime time, rush, shot, sleighride, sniff, snort, snow, snowbirds, soda, speedball, sporting, stardust, sugar, sweet stuff, toke, trails, white lady, white powder, yeyo, zip
Smokeable Cocaine
ball, base, beat, bisquits, bones, boost, boulders, brick, bump, cakes, casper, chalk, cookies, crack, crumbs, cubes, fatbags, freebase, gravel, hardball, hell, kibbles n' bits, kryptonite, love, moonrocks, nuggets, onion, pebbles, piedras, piece, ready rock, roca, rock(s), rock star, Scotty, scrabble, smoke house, stones, teeth, tornado
Herbal Ecstacy
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What is it?
Herbal ecstasy is a term used to describe a combination of herbs that are legal, inexpensive, and marketed as a "natural high." Herbal ecstasy can be purchased over the counter in drug stores, music stores, and shops around the country.
What does it look like?
Pills sold in colorful packaging. The packaging on these products, including brand names Herbal Ecstasy, Cloud 9, and Ultimate Xphoria, promises "increased energy, inner visions, sexual sensations, and cosmic consciousness."
Short Term Effects
Ephedrine (the key ingredient) stimulates the cardiovascular and central nervous system. It may cause harmful reactions in people with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions. People with vulnerabilities to ephedrine can suffer from heart attacks, strokes, and seizures when taking the drug.
Long Term Effects
The Food and Drug Administration has received reports of adverse reactions, including liver failure, elevated blood pressure, strokes, and deaths. The FDA is currently deciding whether a safe level of ephedrine in food supplements exists, or whether sales of some ephedrine-based substances should be stopped altogether. Meanwhile many states have banned the sale of herbal ecstasy following the reports of deaths of users.
Street Names
Cloud 9, Rave Energy, Ultimate Xphoria, X
Ecstacy
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Short Term Effects
Immediate side effects include increased heart rate and blood pressure, dehydration, overheating, teeth-grinding, and jaw clenching. Short-term effects include psychological difficulties, including confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, severe anxiety, and paranoia — during and sometimes weeks after taking MDMA, physical symptoms such as muscle tension, nausea, blurred vision, rapid eye movement, faintness, and chills or sweating.
Long Term Effects
Ecstasy causes long-lasting, possibly permanent, damage to nerve endings in the brain that are critical for thought and memory. It impairs the function and long term production of serotonin, a brain chemical playing a role in regulating mood memory, sleep, and appetite.
Street Terms
Adam, Bean, E, M, MDMA, Roll, X, XTC. When a person is experiencing the effects of ecstasy, they are referred to as "rolling."
Meth
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· Like other amphetamines, meth induces a temporary state of alertness, increased energy, suppressed appetite, and feelings of well-being. Continued use may result in sever anxiety, sleeplessness, and a paranoid psychosis. Chronic abuse overtakes the body, resulting in malnutrition and increased susceptibility to disease. Users can become physically and psychologically dependent on meth. Overdose leading to death can occur.
· With low to moderate doses, users may experience enhanced talkativeness, dizziness, headaches, palpitations, and tremors.
It's a common belief that meth gives people super-human strength. This of course is false, but meth inhibits pain and increases metabolism, allowing the user to push muscles to points of failure that would otherwise be harder or impossible to reach.
Other side effects include
twitching, jitteriness, repetitive behavior (known as tweaking), and jaw clenching or teeth grinding. It has been noted that meth addicts lose their teeth abnormally fast due to a combination of side effects, although heavy users also tend to neglect personal hygiene, such as brushing teeth.
Methods of Use
Meth can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, or injected.
What goes up, must come down - and the crash from meth can be particularly hard. After a run, the user will remain in an extended deep sleep - a recovery response by the body, trying to recover from the extended abuse it has undergone.
Street Name / Slang Terms
222, agua, albino poo, alffy, all tweakend long, anny, anything going on, bache knock, bache rock, bag chasers, baggers, Barney Dope, batak, Bato, bato, batu kilat, batu or batunas, batuwhore, beegokes, bianca, bikerdope, Billy, bitch, biznack, blanco, Blizzard, Blue acid, blue funk, bomb, booger, boorit-cebuano, boo-yah, Brian Ed, buff stick, bugger sugar, buggs, bumps, buzzard dust, caca, candy, cankinstien, CC, chach, cha-cha-cha, chalk, chalk dust, chank, cheebah, cheese, chicken flippin, chikin or chicken, chingadera, chittle, chizel, chiznad, choad, clavo, coco, coffee, cookies, CR, crack whore, crankster gansters, cri, Griddle, cringe, crissy, critty, crizzy, crothch dope, crow, crunk, crypto, crystal meth, Crystalight, cube, Debbie, devil dust, devil's dandruff, Devil's drug, dingles, dirt, dirty, dizzy-D, D-Monic Or D, do da, doody, doo¬my-lau, dope, Drano, Dummy Dust, dyno, epimethrine, Epod, eraser dust, Ethyl-M, Evil Yellow, Fatch, fedrin, fil-layed, fizz wizz, gackle-a fackle-a, gak, gas, gear or get geared up, gemini, glass, go, go fast, go-ey, go-go, go-go juice, Gonzales, goop, got anything, grit, gumption, gyp, Haiwaiian Salt, Hank, high speed chicken feed, highthen, hillbilly crack, hippy crack, homework, hoo, Horse Mumpy, Hydro, hypes, ice, ice cream, Icee, ish, izice, jab, dab, jasmine, Jenny Crank Program, jetfuel, jib, jib Nugget, jinga, juddha, juice, dunk, kibble, killer, KooLAID, Kryptonite, laundry detergent, lemon drop, life, lily, Linda, lost weekend, love, low, Lucille, M Man, magic, meth, meth monsters, methaine, meth-and-friend, meth-and-friends-of-mine, methanfelony, methatrim, methmood, method, nazi dope, ne, newday, No Doze, nose candy, on a good one, Patsie, Peaking, Peanut butter, peel dope, phazers, phets, philopon, pieta, pink, poison, poop, poop'd out, poor man's coccaine, pootananny, powder, powder monkeys, powder point, project propellant, puddle, pump, Q'd, quick, quill, rachet 1aw, rails, rails, rank, redneck
heroin, Richie Rich, rip, rock, rocket fuel, rocky mountain high, rosebud, Rudy's, rumdumb, running pizo, sack, Sam's Sniff, Sarahs, Satan Dust, scante, scap, schlep rock, Scooby snax, scud, scwadge, shab, sha-bang, shabs, shabu, shamers, shards, shards, shit, shiznack, shiznac, sciznac or shiznastica, shiznit, shiznitty, shizzo, shnizzie snort, shwack, skeech, sketch, ski, skitz, sky rocks, sli9gers, smiley smile, Smurf Dope, smzl, snaps, sniff, snow, space food, spaceman, spagack, sparacked, sparked, sparkle, speed racer, spin, spinack, Spindarella, spinney boo, spinning, spishak, spook, sprack, sprizzlefracked, sprung, Spun Ducky Woo, squawk, stallar, sto-pid, styels, sugar, suger, sweetness, swerve, syabu, ta'doww, talkie, Tasmanian Devil, tenner, the new prozac, the white house, tical, Tina or Teena, tish (shit backwards), tobats, toots, torqued, trippin trip, tubbytoast, tutu, twack, twacked out, tweak, tweedle doo, tweek, tweezwasabi, twiz, twizacked, ugly dust, vanilla pheromones, wake, way, we-we-we, whacked, white bitch, white ink, white junk, white lady, white pony (ridin' the white pony), white, who-ha, wigg, xaing, yaaba, YAMA, yammer bammer, yank, yankee, yay, yead out, yellow barn, zingin, zip, zoiks, zoom
Ice
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- Long Term Effects
Long-term effects can include: extreme paranoia, memory loss, damaged blood vessels, skin abscesses, hallucinations, rotten teeth, coma, stroke, and death.
Meth's effects reach beyond users. Proximity to its manufacturing chemicals can make children ill, and in-utero exposure can lead to a condition called worm heart, which requires surviving infants to have surgery. The drug also causes environmental problems derived from its distinctive, homegrown manufacturing process.
- Short Term Effects
Its effects are similar to those of cocaine but much longer lasting. Ice can cause erratic, violent behavior among its users. Effects include speeding hearts, pounding blood pressure, suppressed appetite, impotence, mild to extreme itching sensation, interference with sleeping, mood swings and unpredictability, tremors, and convulsions.
Ice is a slang term for a very pure, smokeable form of methamphetamine. It is an extremely addictive stimulant. Its raw ingredients include over-the-counter cold remedies, batteries, brake cleaner, farm fertilizer, and drain opener — items easy to come by and easy to combine — by those who can stomach the stink and risk of an explosion.
- What does it look like?
Almost clear crystal chunks – like ice, or rock salt. When crushed, the drug is white and powdery.
- How is it used?
Usually smoked, snorted, or injected; sometimes swallowed or rectally absorbed.
Oxycontin
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- Short Term Effects
The most serious risk associated with opioids, including OxyContin, is respiratory depression. Common opioid side effects are constipation, nausea, sedation, dizziness, vomiting, headache, dry mouth, sweating, and weakness. OxyContin is oxycodone in a sustained release form and that is why the tablet should not be broken.
- Long Term Effects
A range of negative health consequences associated with OxyContin abuse have lifelong implications, including malnutrition, skin infections, and an increased risk of Hepatitis C and other infections.
Chronic use of OxyContin use will result in increased tolerance to the drug in which higher doses of the medication must be taken to receive the initial effect. Over time, OxyContin will be come physically addictive, causing a person to experience withdrawal symptoms when the drug is not present. Symptoms of withdrawal include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, and involuntary leg movements.
- What does it look like?
Most commonly seen in tablet form. These round pills come in 10mg, 20mg, 40mg, 80mg and 160mg dosages. (Purdue no longer manufactures the 160 mg tablet) OxyContin also comes in capsule or liquid form.
- What is it?
OxyContin (oxycodone HCI controlled-release) is the brand name for an opioid analgesic — a narcotic. Oxycodone is the narcotic ingredient found in Percoset (oxycodone and acetaminophen) and Percodan (oxycodone and aspirin). OxyContin is used to treat pain that is associated with arthritis, lower back conditions, injuries, and cancer. It is approved for the treatment of moderate to severe pain that requires treatment for more than a few days and available by prescription only.
- How is it used?
As a pain medication, OxyContin tablets are taken every 12 hours. Most pain medications must be taken every three to six hours. Oxycontin abusers remove the sustained-release coating to get a rush of euphoria similar to heroin. They chew the tabs, crush them for snorting, or boil the powder for injection.
- Street Name / Slang Terms
Killers, OC, Oxy, OxyCotton, Oxy8O (referring to the 80 mg tablet), Skittles
Ritalin
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Short Term Effects
Since Ritalin is a prescribed medication, it's often considered innocent and harmless, without the stigma associated with street drugs. In fact, illegal Ritalin use can be very dangerous, with effects similar to those produced by cocaine and amphetamines.
Common Ritalin side-effects include:
- insomnia
- irritability
- nervousness
- dizziness
- dry mouth
- skin rashes and itching
- abdominal pain
- weight loss
- blurry vision
- toxic psychosis
- loss of appetite
- nausea and vomiting
- drowsiness
- palpitations
- headaches
- stomach aches
- digestive problems
- psychotic episodes
- drug dependence syndrome
Other Ritalin side-effects include:
- anorexia
- change in blood pressure
- changes in pulse
- toxic psychosis
- palpitations
- cardiac arrhythmia
- anemia
- scalp hair loss
Street Name / Slang Terms
Kibbles & Bits, Kiddy-Cocaine, Pineapple, R-Ball, Skippy, Smart Drug, Smarties, Vitamin R, West Coast
Acid
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Blotter Acid (LSD) Cells
(shown .25 inch size)
1. Short Term Effects
The effects of LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken, the user's personality, mood, and expectations, and the surroundings in which the drug is used.
The physical effects include dilated pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. Sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs. The user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. If taken in a large enough dose, the drug produces delusions and visual hallucinations. The user's sense of time and self changes. Sensations may seem to cross over, giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic.
2. Long Term Effects
Some LSD users experience flashbacks, recurrence of certain aspects of a person's experience without the user having taken the drug again. A flashback occurs suddenly, often without warning, and may occur within a few days or more than a year after LSD use.
Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered to be an addicting drug because it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior like cocaine, amphetamines, heroin, alcohol, or nicotine.
Street Name / Slang Terms
LSD is sold under more than 80 street names including acid, blotter, cid, doses, and trips, as well as names that reflect the designs on the sheets of blotter paper. |
