What are club drugs?
Club drugs have been growing in popularity along with the rave scene since the beginning of the 1990’s. They incorporate a variety of different stimulating and dissociative drugs which include MDMA (Ecstasy), GHB, Rohypnol, Ketamine, Methamphetamine, PCP, and a wide variety of research chemicals that are often sold off as ecstasy pills. Hallucinogens such as LSD are commonplace at the club/rave scene as well. Users often take it to enhance their experience at all night parties but when combined with alcohol often have very dangerous side effects. Participants at this club/rave scene often have no idea what they are actually receiving and a lot of times find that other chemicals, some that can be very harmful, are mixed in with the drug making it that much more dangerous.
GHB is commonly referred to as “liquid ecstasy”, “easy lay”, and a large number of other street names. Some of its effects are intoxication, affection, muscle relaxation, difficulty concentrating, loss of gag reflex, loss of inhibitions, and at higher doses loss of muscle control, loss of consciousness, being conscious but not able to move, amnesia, and possibility of death especially when combined with alcohol or other drugs. This is a common date rape drug since it is a liquid and can be added to a beverage at a bar or club.
Rohypnol is most commonly know as the date rape drug because of their ability to be added to the beverage of unsuspecting people and cause severe impairment of cognitive and motor skills combined with the affect of amnesia where the victim does not remember what had happened to them. It is readily available in pharmaceutical operators located in Mexico making it hard to control here in the U.S. especially in areas close to the Mexican border.
Ketamine is an anesthetic that is used on both humans and animals in medicals settings originating in 1970. Around 90 percent of ketamine legally sold is intended for veterinary use but a lot of it ends of on the street particularly at club/raves. The drug can be injected or snorted and is know as “special k” or simply “k”. This drug can severely impair motor function and can make the user feel disconnected from what is going on around them. At higher doses it can cause hallucinations and can knock someone unconscious for a period of time. IV injection are very potent and can be potentially fatal so the preferred method is either snorting or through IM injection.
PCP (phencyclidine) was developed in the 1950s as an intravenous anesthetic. Its use in humans was discontinued in 1965, because patients often became agitated, delusional, and irrational while recovering from its anesthetic effects. PCP is now manufactured in illegal laboratories and is known as angel dust, rocket fuel, and dust. It is either sold in liquid form where people may dip their cigarettes into it and is sometimes known as a “dippy” or soak on mint leaves or marijuana which is sometimes referred to as “wet”. Potency is often unpredictable and many users underestimate its effects causing users to act delusional, detached, confused, and sometimes violent. Long periods of abuse can lead to memory loss, trouble with speech and thinking, as well as depression.
There are increasing numbers of fake ecstasy pills that contain recently manufactured research chemicals that can often be found on the internet that can produce effects similar to ecstasy and LSD. There are several hundred that are available around the world legally and since there are so many they are often not scheduled under the DEA. There are about a dozen that are most commonly used but have no street names just their chemical name such as 2c-I and 5meo-AMT. Most people have no idea which one they can be taking and since they are so new most there is not much data on long term side effects.
To learn more about MDMA (ecstasy), methamphetamine, and LSD click the drug on the side panel to the left
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