Drugs Used/ Drugs of Choice
These are drugs that are commonly used by gangs, they are also accompanied by basic information on them.
Common Used Drugs
LSD/
Acid
*(Lysergic acid diethyl amide)
*Major
drugs making up the hallucinogen class
*LSD was
discovered in 1938
*Most
potent mood-changing chemicals
*Manufactured
from lysergic acid, which is found in ergot, a fungus that
grows on rye and other grains
*Sold on
the street in tablets, capsules, and, occasionally, liquid form
*It is
odorless, colorless, and has a slightly bitter taste and is
usually
taken by mouth
*The user
feels the first effects of the drug 30 to 90 minutes after taking
it
*The
physical effects include dilated pupils, higher body temperature,
increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of
appetite,
sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors
*Users
refer to their experience with LSD as a "trip" and to
acute adverse
reactions as a "bad trip." These experiences are long -
typically they begin
to clear after about 12 hours
*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
*Many LSD
users experience flashbacks, recurrence of certain aspects of a
person's experience, without the user having taken the drug again
*Most users
of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not
considered an addictive drug since it does not produce compulsive
drug-seeking behavior, as do cocaine, amphetamine, heroin,
alcohol, and
nicotine
*Almost 51
percent of seniors said it would have been fairly easy or very
easy for them to get LSD if they had wanted it.
Nicotine (Cigarettes and
Other Nicotine Products)
*Cigarette
smoking has been the most popular method of taking nicotine since
the beginning of the 20th century
*Cigarettes
and other forms of tobacco, such as cigars, pipe tobacco, and
chewing tobacco, are addictive
*Nicotine
is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction
*Smoking
was a major cause of stroke and the third leading cause of death
in
the United States
*About 62
million Americans ages 12 and older (29 percent) are current
cigarette smokers, making nicotine one of the most heavily used
addictive
drugs in the United States
*Pregnant
women who smoke cigarettes run an increased risk of having
stillborn or premature infants or infants with low birth weight
*Children
of women who smoked while pregnant have an increased risk for
developing conduct disorders
*Adolescent
smokeless tobacco users are more likely than nonusers to become
cigarette smokers
*Behavioral
research is beginning to explain how social influences, such as
observing adults or other peers smoking, affect whether
adolescents begin to
smoke cigarettes
*Prevalence
rates for smoking among young people remain high, in spite of the
demonstrated health risk associated with smoking. Since 1975,
cigarettes have
consistently been the substance the greatest number of high
school students
use daily.
*From 1991
to 1996, the number of students who reported having smoked in the
past month increased steadily among 8th-, 10th-, and
12th-graders. In 1997,
these rates decreased slightly among 8th- and 10th-graders, to
19.4 percent
and 29.8 percent respectively, but increased from 34.0 percent to
36.5
percent among 12th-graders.
Cocaine
(abuse and addiction)
*cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly
affects the brain
*1985
estimate of 5.7 million users
*In 1997,
an estimated 1.5 million Americans age 12 and older were chronic
cocaine users
*Labeled
the drug of the 1980s and '90s, because of its extensive
popularity
and use during this period
*One of the
oldest known drugs
*Been an
abused substance for more than 100 years
*Cocaine is
generally sold on the street as a fine, white, crystalline
powder, known as "coke," "C,"
"snow," "flake," or "blow."
*Adults 18
to 25 years old have a higher rate of current cocaine use than
those in any other age group
*Men have a
higher rate of current cocaine use than do women
*1.4
percent for African Americans, 0.8 percent for Hispanics, and 0.6
percent for Caucasians
*The
principal routes of cocaine administration are oral, intranasal,
intravenous, and inhalation
*Slang
terms: "chewing," "snorting,"
"mainlining," "injecting," and
"smoking"
(including freebase and crack cocaine)
*Snorting
is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nostrils,
where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal
tissues
*Injecting
releases the drug directly into the bloodstream, and heightens
the
intensity of its effects
*Smoking
involves the inhalation of cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs,
where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection
*There is
no safe way to use cocaine
*Any route
of administration can lead to absorption of toxic amounts of
cocaine, leading to acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular
emergencies that
could result in sudden death
*Repeated
cocaine use by any route of administration can produce addiction
and other adverse health consequences
*When a
pleasurable event is occurring, it is accompanied by a large
increase
in the amounts of dopamine released in the nucleus accumbens by
neurons
originating in the VTA
*In the
normal communication process, dopamine is released by a neuron
into
the synapse (the small gap between two neurons), where it binds
with
specialized proteins (called dopamine receptors) on the
neighboring neuron,
thereby sending a signal to that neuron
* Long-term
effects of cocaine:
Addiction
Irritability and mood disturbances
Restlessness
Paranoia
Auditory hallucinations
*
Short-term effects of cocaine:
Increased energy
Decreased appetite
Mental alertness
Increased heart rate and blood pressure
Constricted blood vessels
Increased temperature
Dilated pupils
Ecstasy
(MDMA)
*On the
streets ecstasy is called "Adam," "ecstasy,"
or "XTC"
*
Psychoactive (mind-altering) drug with hallucinogenic and
amphetamine-like
properties
* Similar
to two other synthetic drugs, MDA and met amphetamine, which are
known to cause brain damage
*
Psychological difficulties, including confusion, depression,
sleep
problems, drug craving, severe anxiety, and paranoia during and
sometimes
weeks after taking MDMA (even psychotic episodes have been
reported).
*Physical
symptoms such as muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching,
nausea, blurred vision, rapid eye movement, faintness, and chills
or
sweating.
*Increases
in heart rate and blood pressure, a special risk for people with
circulatory or heart disease.
* MDMA use
to long-term damage to those parts of the brain critical to
thought and memory
* The drug
causes damage to the neurons that use the chemical serotonin to
communicate with other neurons
* People
who take MDMA may be risking permanent brain damage
* Evidence
that people who develop a rash that looks like acne after MDMA
use
may be risking severe side effects, including liver damage, if
they continue
using
* MDA
destroys serotonin-producing neurons, which play a direct role in
regulating aggression, mood, sexual activity, sleep, and
sensitivity to pain
* It is
probably this action on the serotonin system that gives MDA its
purported properties of heightened sexual experience,
tranquility, and
conviviality
* Symptoms
of this disease begin with lack of coordination and tremors, and
can eventually result in a form of paralysis
* MDMA is
used most often by young adults and adolescents at clubs, raves
(large, all-night dance parties), and rock concerts
* Its abuse
is increasingly reported in the 20 metropolitan areas included in
the CEWG
* In
Boston, a 1996-97 survey of public schools in Boston found that
about 14
percent of male and 7 percent of female 12th graders had used
MDMA during
their lifetime