PCP / ANGEL DUST
Facts About The Drug
What It Is
Names: Phencyclidine, PCP, peace pill, angel dust, crystal, hog, horse tranquilizer, tic, zoot.
Type: Dissociative anesthetic.
Forms: White, crystalline powder (may be colored as sold on the street), soluble in water of alcohol, pills or capsules.
Combinations: With LSD with marijuana, tobacco, or parsley as "supergrass," "killer weed."
Usage: Swallowed as liquid, tablet, capsule. Sniffed as powder, "snorted." Smoked as sprinkle for marijuana or parsley (joints), tobacco (sherms), mint. Injected into bloodstream.
Legal Status: Illegal, (Discontinued veterinary use.)
What It Feels Like
Unpredictable. Various sensations including dissociation from the environment, euphoria, hallucinations, relaxation, distorted time, space and body sensations, feelings of floating and weightlessness, inability to think or concentrate, anxiety, paranoia, various auditory and visual experiences, as with LSD.
What It Does
To Your Mind: Depresses and stimulates central nervous system.
To Your Body: Alters speech, coordination, dexterity, and vision. Induces dizziness and drowsiness. Increases heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, urinary output. Induces sweating and vomiting. Causes jerky eye movement that can last for months after a single dose.
Special Characteristics: PCP is often sold as a substitute for other drugs, causing panic in unsuspecting users.
How It Can Hurt You
Loss of sense of pain, psychic experiences, states of panic and fear of death lasting for several days. Bizarre, compulsive and violent behavior, involuntary eye movement, rigid muscles, loss of gag and corneal reflexes. Arching of the body, coma, alternating high and low blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, irregular breathing, severe nausea and vomiting, alternating high and low body temperature. Loss of memory and thought processes, ongoing speech problems, depression, toxic psychosis as aggressive and assaultive behavior, hallucinations.
Death from stopped breathing, convulsions, brain hemorrhage, kidney failure, drug combinations, fatal accidents. Murder, suicide, self mutilation, and drowning from swimming under the influence to enhance floating sensation.
Dependence arises as tolerance develops. Use is often in "runs" of two or three days, with disorientation and depression after withdrawal.
When To Get Help
- Do you use PCP at all?
- Do you think about how and when you''re going to use PCP again?
- Is your work or school performance affected by your drug use?
- Are you having problems with family and friends?
- Do you spend more on PCP than you can afford?
- Do you use other drugs in addition to PCP?
One "yes" and your common sense tells you it''s time to get smart about drugs and the rest of your life.
Fact:Even in low doses, PCP produces harmful psychological effects. One dose may produce physical effects that last for months.
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