General Information

Street drugs is another term for drugs sold illegally - often, these drugs are sold in the street.

The popularity of different drugs changes with the times. Twenty-five years ago, psychedelics were some of the more commonly used street drugs; in the 1980s, LSD was far less common than cocaine or cocaine derivatives such as crack. However, marijuana remains the most common street drug.

Cocaine

Cocaine was once referred to as the champagne of drugs, in part because it was an expensive drug preferred by the well-to-do. Unfortunately, today it is one of the most widely used illegal drugs in this country. Cocaine is eagerly sought by drug users because it sharply increases alertness and creates a sense of euphoria. These effects are the basis of the profound psychological dependence associated with the drug.

Cocaine dilates your pupils and accelerates your heart and respiratory rates. It also causes a slight rise in body temperature. These effects are mostly short-term. They reach their peak about 15 to 20 minutes after you inhale the drug (snort it) through your nose in the form of a powder, and they dissipate in approximately an hour. Unwanted effects of chronic use of cocaine are a persistent restlessness, anxiety, and sleeplessness.

Another problem associated with inhaling cocaine is a mildly stuffy or running nose; long-term use can cause ulcers on the mucous membrane of your nose and even cause a hole (perforation) in your nasal septum. In addition, people who chronically abuse cocaine may develop paranoid hallucinations, called cocaine psychosis, that may involve the sense of touch, sight, taste, or smell.

Smoking (free-basing) cocaine creates a faster and more intense high. In this form the drug can cause confusion, slurred speech, and anxiety. Crack cocaine is smoked and has essentially the same effect as free-base cocaine; both forms are smoked and are highly addictive.

Crack is aptly named because it produces an intense high in a matter of seconds. Within a few minutes a profound low follows that usually leaves the chronic abuser despondent and desperate for more.

Short-term physical effects of crack are increased heart rate and increased blood pressure. Smoking this form of cocaine (as well as using the free-base) poses additional health problems because it increases the risk of emphysema and the risk of a heart attack due to the intensity of the high. In some instances, people who were using the free-base have set themselves on fire because this requires the use of flammable solvents that can explode. Injecting cocaine by means of shared needles increases the risk of exposure to AIDS and other communicable diseases that are passed by sharing non-sterile needles or solutions that are contaminated.

Hallucinogens

Hallucinogenic drugs were widely used in the 1960s and early 1970s. The popularity of such drugs diminished during the next 20 years. Some observers report that there may be a renewed interest today in the use of hallucinogens, especially lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Hallucinogens were popular because they produced vivid changes in sensation, depth perception, passage of time, and body image. Some experimenters reported experiencing a mixing of the senses - under the influence of LSD, one could seemingly "hear" colors or "see" sounds.

LSD also can cause powerful negative experiences, referred to as "bad trips", in which there is an overwhelming sense of fear, perhaps of being abandoned, going insane, or dying. In some instances, abusers have had no comprehension of their limitations and have died because they tried to fly out windows or walk on water.

An effect of hallucinogenic drugs is the production of sustained altered mental states that last for 8 hours or more. Flashbacks also may occur days or weeks after the conclusion of the initial trip, in which previous effects are re-experienced even though no more of the drug has been ingested.

LSD and other psychedelics, such as mescaline, increase heart rate and blood pressure, dilate pupils, and cause loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and tremors. Death from overdose is also possible.

It is not yet known whether all of the symptoms dissipate after LSD is no longer ingested. Heavy long-term use of hallucinogens, however, is known to cause impaired memory, abbreviated attention span, and a difficulty with abstract thinking.

Phencyclidine

(PCP) This powerful hallucinogen, referred to as "angel dust", was used by veterinarians to sedate large animals. From this use came other street names for the drug, such as "hog" and "horse tranquilizer". But the drug so disturbed and bewildered the animals before it put them to sleep that its use was abandoned.

Taken in very small doses by humans, however, the drug causes a loss of inhibition and includes a state of general euphoria. Other physical symptoms are increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, flushing of the skin, and an increase in body temperature. It also may cause some unsteadiness and muscle numbness. But what makes the drugs so dangerous is its unpredictability.

Almost any increase in dosage may result in destructive, violent behavior. When users have turned violent or acted in bizarre ways, they have been known to lose all control. Other symptoms are muscle rigidity, loss of concentration, vision disturbances, speech impairment, convulsions and delirium, fear of isolation, and paranoia. PCP also can lead to heart and lung failure or a stroke. It has been known to induce a toxic psychosis that resembles schizophrenia.

Inhalants

Some people inhale a prescription drug called amyl nitrite. This drug is a vasodilator that relaxes smooth muscle in small blood vessels, causing them to expand and so lower the blood pressure. It is usually prescribed for the treatment of angina pectoris. But people inhale amyl nitrite, or "poppers" as they are sometimes called, because it produces an intense and immediate high and seems to intensify orgasm during sex. The effects are short-lived, lasting only minutes.

Amyl nitrite is not physically addictive, but it is not free of side effects. Users suffer headaches, dizziness, accelerated heart rate, nasal irritation, and cough. The headaches seem to be the one side effect that can persist long after use.

People inhale various other substances that can give them a high, many of which do not require a prescription. One category of volatile inhalants, sold as room deodorizers, contain butyl and isobutyl nitrite. Butyl nitrite is also thought to intensify a sexual experience. Other inhalants that some young people use are solvents such as Freon (trichlorofluoromethane), halegenated hydrocarbons (for example, trichloroethylene), esters (for example, ethyl, amyl and butyl acetates), and aromatic hydrocarbons (for example, benzene). The physical risks from inhaling these solvents range from cardiac arrhythmia from Freon and trichloroethylene to liver and kidney impairment from aromatic hydrocarbons and ethyl acetate.

Opiates

Heroin, methadone, morphine, and opium all are considered opiates because they all are derived from opium. Generally, opiates are prescribed to relieve severe pain. Given in low doses over short time periods, they are not addictive. Side effects include respiratory and circulatory system depression (in high dosages), dizziness, nausea, sweating, uncoordinated muscle movement, general weakness, and euphoria. Heavy use also will depress sex drive.

When the drug is injected sing a shared needle, users sometimes develop diseases or disorders such as AIDS, hepatitis, blood poisoning, congested lungs, and pneumonia. When the drug is taken with other sedatives, death can result.

Drugs and Pregnancy

Many drugs pass through the placenta and reach the fetus or enter breast milk. During the first trimester of pregnancy, the fetus may be the most sensitive to drugs in the mother's body. Therefore, inform your physician if you have been taking any drugs just before becoming pregnant. Some drugs are known to cause problems with pregnancy and the reproductive system. Marijuana, for example, causes irregular menstrual cycles in women and can cause a temporary loss of fertility in both men and women. Women who have smoked marijuana during their pregnancy have given birth to low-birth-weight and premature babies.

Among other drugs to avoid, especially during pregnancy, are tranquilizers and amphetamines, which may cause congenital malformations, and barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine, which can cause addiction in babies.