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Party or Club Drugs
Party Drugs
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Ecstasy
Roofies
Georgia Home Boy
Special K
Dangers
• One of the biggest dangers is that club
drugs are created in illegal laboratories,
and are often contaminated with lifethreatening additives, so the user doesn't
know what he or she is taking.
Ecstasy
• MDMA
• Other slang names: XTC, Adam, Clarity, Hug
Drug, Lover's Speed
• Usually taken as a tablet or capsule
• Creates feelings of euphoria, alertness and
energy and allows users to dance for extended
periods.
• Using ecstasy may lead to dehydration, high
blood pressure, and heart and kidney failure.
• Frequent use can cause long-lasting damage to
brain cells that may affect memory. After the high
is over, users often feel depressed and take
more drugs to extend the high.
Roofies
• Roofies (Rohypnol).®
• Other slang names: Rophies, Roche, Forget-me
Pill. Also known as the “date-rape drug.”
• Rohypnol® (flunitrazepam) is used in other
countries as a sedative and a treatment for
insomnia. It is tasteless and odorless and
dissolves easily in carbonated beverages. It
causes profound memory loss and has been
used in sexual assaults.
• Other effects include decreased blood pressure,
dizziness, confusion, and drowsiness.
GHB
• GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate).
• Other slang names: Grievous Bodily Harm, G,
Liquid Ecstasy, Georgia Home Boy
• GHB sedates the central nervous system. At
high doses it can slow breathing and heart rate
to dangerous levels.
• Overdose of GHB can occur quickly and is
characterized by drowsiness, nausea, loss of
consciousness, loss of reflexes, and impaired
breathing.
Special K
• Special K (Ketamine)
• Other slang names: K, Vitamin K, Cat Valiums
• Ketamine is an anesthetic that can be used
safely only in medical settings. However, some
young people abuse ketamine by taking
dangerously high doses, which cause dream-like
states and hallucinations.
• At high doses, ketamine can cause amnesia,
high blood pressure, depression, and potentially
fatal respiratory problems.
Other Dangers…STDs
• Young drug users, whether they are
injection users or not, are at a high risk of
contracting herpes simplex virus 2 and
syphilis. Women are significantly more
prone to develop sexually transmitted
infections that their male drug-using
counterparts.
Maryland Study
• The study found that women had
significantly higher rates compared to their
male counterparts, but did not find
significant differences between injection
drug users and non-injection drug users.
• Few of the infected study participants were
aware of their sexually transmitted
infection.
So, how do you define drug abuse?
• Substance abuse can simply be defined
as a pattern of harmful use of any
substance for mood-altering purposes.
• Most professionals in the field of drug
abuse prevention argue that any use of
illegal drugs is by definition abuse. Those
drugs got to be illegal in the first place
because they are potentially addictive or
can cause severe negative health effects.
• When the substance use begins to cause
continuing or growing problems in the
user's life, that is considered an “abuse
disorder”.
• These problems include missing work or
school, driving under the influence, legal
problems, and problems with friends or
family relationships
Chemical Dependency
• When users continue their pattern of drug use in
spite of incurring significant problems in their
lives.
• Some signs include: spending more time on
drug-seeking behavior, withdrawing from society
and activities, an increased tolerance to the
substance, unsuccessful attempts to quit,
withdrawal symptoms during abstinence or
reduced intake, and continuing use in spite of
negative consequences.
Chemical Addiction
• Addiction can best be described as a
compulsive continued use of a drug or
substance and a complete inability to stop.
• An addict is a person who is controlled by
a drug or substance.
What about Marijuana?
• Some argue that marijuana is not addictive and
has many beneficial qualities, unlike the "harder"
drugs.
• But recent research has shown that even
marijuana may have more harmful physical,
mental, and psychomotor affects than first
believed, and the National Institute on Drug
Abuse reports that marijuana users can become
psychologically dependent, and therefore
addicted.
What substances can be abused?
• Illegal drugs are not the only substances
that can be abused. Alcohol, prescription
and over-the-counter medications,
inhalants and solvents, and even coffee
and cigarettes, can all be used to harmful
excess.
Think you or someone you know
has a problem?
• Mr. Ritter has a list of questions to ask
yourself. If you answer yes to any of the
questions, there may be a problem.