HALLUCINOGENS
Facts About The Drug
What It Is
Names: Cannabis (THC, marijuana), LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide, blotter, tile, windowpane, acid), peyote (mescaline), MDA (methylenedioxyamphetamine), MDMA (XTC, ecstasy, Adam), PCP (phencyclidine), PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine death drug), STP (DOM), TMA (trimethoxyamphetamine), psilocybin (magic mushroom, shroom), fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria), atropine alkaloids, DMT (dimethyltryptamine) harmaline, ketamine.
Type: Hallucinogens, psychotomiimetic, psychedelic.
Forms: Natural plant derivations, partial and total synthetics as powders, solutions, pills, vapors.
Usage: Sniffed (snorted), injected into bloodstream (mainlining), muscle or under skin (skin popping), smoked, swallowed, applied to membrane surfaces, cooked into foods, chewed.
Legal StatusIllegal except for licensed research, medical applications and ritual use of peyote by the Native American Church.
Other Forms: Ketamine is injected as anesthetic. Atropinic alkaloids control spasms, gastrointestinal problems, salivary and lung secretions, parkinsonism; dilate pupils for eye exam; prevent motion sickness.
What It Feels Like
Unpredictable alterations of mood, thought and perceptions of time, space, and self. Produces vivid distortions of all senses ranging from extreme excitement and joy to absolute terror, in the same session and varying from session to session. Sensory experiences combine so that what is heard is also seen. Initial episodes are often negative, a "bad trip." Depending upon drug, episodes last from minutes to days, effects from hours to weeks.
What It Does
To Your Mind: Disrupts and/or dissociates mental processes.
To Your Body: Disrupts systems variously from altered heart rate to convulsions.
Special Characteristics: All drugs in this category produce unpredictable effects. Risk is increased by deliberate mislabeling.
How It Can Hurt You
Many illegally manufactured hallucinogens are sold on the street as substitute drugs, creating unpredictable risks for buyers. Effects are individual to each user. Psychic and physical reations are not predictable. Depression can be mild or severe. Psychosis can last for months. Flashbacks can recur anytime.
Death can result from convulsions, poisonous dose levels, bizarre accidents and murder, suicide, driving under the influence, fatal effects of substitution or alterated manufacture of drugs, lethal effects of combinations of drugs.
Unborn children of mothers who take hallucinogens may be aborted, born with abnormalities, or experience delayed development.
When To Get Help
- Do you think about how and when you're going to use hallucinogens again?
- Is your work or school performance affected?
- Are you having problems with family and friends?
- Are you spending more on drugs than you can afford?
- Do you also use other drugs?
One "yes" and your common sense tells you it''s time to get smart about drugs and the rest of your life.
Fact: All hallucinogens produce unpredictable, negative effects.
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