Resources

Ever hear the phrase, “Too much of a good thing can hurt you?” Nowhere is this saying more true than with prescription medicine. Under the supervision of medical professionals, prescription medication helps countless people cope with or overcome serious physical and mental health disorders. But people who abuse medicines or take them for recreational purposes can end up making themselves sicker than they ever dreamed.

Medicines that help people can actually hurt them when the instructions are not followed. Some people take a larger amount than they are [prescribed] or more often…

There are three commonly abused types of prescription medicine: stimulants, depressants, opioids.

What are stimulants?

Also known as amphetamines, stimulants are used to treat physical and psychological disorders, including narcolepsy and attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD).

Stimulants are usually colorful pills or tablets. Examples include Dexedrine, Preludin, and Ritalin.

Stimulants raise users’ overall alertness. They may become excited and talkative. As their heart rate, breathing and blood pressure rise, their behavior may become aggressive, paranoid, or even violent.

Physically, stimulant use has many unpleasant side effects. Users may have more acne, dry mouths, or their skin may feel itchy all the time. Stimulant abuse also can lead to headaches, blurry vision, and diarrhea. Abusers may develop speech problems or experience memory loss. Over the long-term, stimulant abuse can lead to brain bleeding, seizures, and fatal heart attacks.

What are depressants?

Depressants slow down a user’s brain and body functions. They are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. They also may be used to relieve pain.

Barbiturates and Benzodiazepines are the two types of depressants most commonly prescribed. Brand names for barbiturates include Seconal, Tuinal, and Nembutal, while common benzodiazepines are Valium, Tranxene, or Xanax.

Depressant users may feel sleepy as their breathing and brain activity slows down. They may have confused thought processes, slurred speech, and a loss of coordination that could lead to harmful accidents. Depressant abusers have problems remembering things and their moods may swing quickly back and forth between happy and sad.

Depressant abuse wreaks havoc with a person’s brain and body. The brain may race out of control once the effects of the drug wear off. This can cause seizures and other harmful complications.

What are opioids?

Opioids put the user in a dreamlike state, masking pain. Most opioids that are prescribed for pain come in pill or tablet form. Some examples are Oxycontin, Percocet, Demerol, and Vicodin.

The powerful sedative effects of opioids help people cope with the pain of serious injuries or deadly illnesses such as terminal cancer. But tolerance to opioids develops as quickly as it does to depressants. Users feel less and less relief with every dose, making doctors very cautious about how these drugs are used by their patients.

Addiction? Withdrawal? Overdose?

While the three types of prescription medicine all help people in different ways, they have some very deadly risks in common.

Opioids and depressants are both highly addictive drugs. Users quickly build a tolerance to these drugs, meaning they have to take larger amounts to feel the same effects. At the same time, users’ bodies become dependent on the drug, meaning they have to take it all the time to feel normal. If they try to stop, they will feel any number of negative effects, like vomiting, diarrhea, sleeplessness, anxiety, or severe pain in their muscle and bones. This is called withdrawal. Tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal are the three signs of addiction. Users usually do not develop a physical dependence to stimulants. However, they may begin to use them unnecessarily and in greater quantities – a psychological addiction, in other words.

Overdose is a real danger with any prescription medication. Taking too much of any of these drugs can kill a person. A stimulant overdose can cause comas, seizures, or heart attacks. Depressant and opioid overdoses can slow down a person’s body functions to the point that they just stop working altogether.

By Prescription Only

There’s a reason that depressants, stimulants, and opioids have phrases on their labels like “Use only as recommended.” Research shows that these drugs can help sick people if they are taken the right way, but only the right way…

In the Know. Prescription Drug Abuse Help Turns to Harm. Metairie: In the Know, 2010. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

The Nicotine Trap

You’ve probably heard that smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco are bad for you. Have you ever wondered why so many people use tobacco anyway? The simple, one-word answer is addiction. The addiction to nicotine is as hard to break as the addiction to heroin.

All tobacco has nicotine. In fact, the level of nicotine in spit tobacco is about three times as high as in cigarettes. When a smoker inhales tobacco smoke, nicotine reaches the brain in a few seconds. Spit tobacco is absorbed into the blood stream through the gums. No matter how it enters the body, nicotine affects the way brain cells, or neurons, communicate with each other. Nicotine excites many neurons to release excess “messengers” or neurotransmitters. After a few uses, the brain becomes used to higher levels of those neurotransmitters.

Goodbye Nicotine? Hello Withdrawal

Without nicotine, the addicted brain suffers withdrawal. Withdrawal makes users depressed, frustrated, angry, or irritable. They may have trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, headache, fatigue, and increased appetite. Withdrawal leads the user to start using tobacco again for relief.

Short-term Effects of Tobacco Use

Tobacco use causes bad breath, smelly hair and clothes, and it puts yellow and brown stains on the teeth. Elevated heart rate occurs after brief use. Using tobacco also increases the risk of other drug abuse.

Smokers quickly lose athletic ability because smoking decrease lung capacity from the first drag. Young smokers’ lungs stop growing, and their lung function is limited for life. Smokers have chronic coughs and increased incidence of bronchitis and severe asthma.

Spit tobacco [causes] chewers [to] drool. The gums pull away from their teeth, and they don’t grow back. Gum loss leads to more tooth decay. Chewers often have sores, white and red patches, and lumps in the mouth. Many of these sores are pre-cancerous.

Long-term Effects of Tobacco Use

• Prematurely wrinkled skin
• Permanent gum and tooth loss
• Chronic bronchitis
• Weakened immune system
• Abnormal sperm cells and impotence
• Miscarriage or premature, undersized babies
• Menstrual disorders and early menopause
• High blood pressure
• Heart attacks and congestive heart failure
• Blocked blood vessels and strokes
• Cancer of the upper lung, respiratory tract, mouth, and throat
• Cancer of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix
• Emphysema (collapsed lung structures)
• Chronic obstructive lung disease

Secondhand Smoke

The smoke that comes off the end of a cigarette is even dirtier than the smoke the smoker inhales. The toxic chemicals in secondhand smoke cause bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, coughs, and ear infections in children or co-workers of smokers. Nonsmoking spouses of smokers are 40% more likely to develop lung cancer and heart disease than others.

A Deadly Crop

Tobacco has killed tens of millions of users over many centuries. In fact, millions die every year. What makes tobacco use so widespread?

Tobacco contains the most addictive substance known to science, nicotine. About one-third of all people who try nicotine even once become addicted to it! Nicotine is found in all tobacco, including cigarettes, cigars, and spit tobacco or snuff. It is processed from the leaves [of] the white-flowered plant Nicotiana tabacum.

All tobacco is harmful to users, but the smoke from cigarettes and cigars hurts everyone in the environment, not just the smokers. The smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemicals in addition to nicotine. At least 43 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer, and 400 others are known toxins. Some of the chemicals are also known toxins. Some of the chemicals also are used as nail polish remover, toilet cleaner, battery acid, gas chamber poison, and for preserving dead bodies.

In the Know. Tobacco License to Kill. New Orleans: In the Know, 2006. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder, however some heroin looks like black tar and is produced in Mexico.

Effects

Short-term effects include a surge of euphoria followed by alternately wakeful and drowsy states and cloudy mental functioning. Associated with fatal overdose and – particularly in users who inject the drug – infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Long-term users may develop collapsed veins, liver disease, and lung complications.

Common Street Names

Smack, H, Skag, Junk, Horse, Brown Sugar, Dope

Health Hazards

Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins, and particularly in users who inject the drug, infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria (“rush”) accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes “on the nod,” an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system. Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use over a period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulitis, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the heroin’s depressing effects on respiration.

Heroin abuse during pregnancy and its many associated environmental factors (e.g., lack of prenatal care) have been associated with adverse consequences including low birth weight, an important risk factor for later development delay.

In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not readily dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of groups of cells in vital organs.

Tolerance, Addiction, and Withdrawal

With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the user requires more heroin to achieve the same intensity of effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped.

Withdrawal, which in regular users may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), kicking movements (“kicking the habit”), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last dose and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal, although heroin withdrawal is considered less dangerous than alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal.

Treatment

There is a broad range of treatment options for heroin addiction, including medication as well as behavioral therapies. Science has taught us that when medication treatment is integrated with other supportive services, patients often are able to stop heroin (or other opiate) use and return to more stable and productive lives.

Methadone, a synthetic opiate medication that blocks the effects of heroin for about 24 hours, has a proven record of success when prescribed at a high enough dosage level for people addicted to heroin. Other approved medications are naloxone, which is used to treat cases of overdose, and naltrexone, both of which block the effects of morphine, heroin, and other opiates.

Signs and Symptoms of Heroin Use

• Euphoria
• Drowsiness
• Impaired mental functioning
• Slowed down respiration
• Constricted pupils
• Nausea

Signs of a Heroin Overdose

• Shallow breathing
• Pinpoint pupils
• Clammy Skin
• Convulsions
• Coma

Street Drugs. Heroin Resource Guide. Plymouth: Street Drugs, 2007. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

“Cheese” Heroin

This information is available in flyer form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this flyer and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

What are inhalants?

The name “inhalants” covers a group of [more than] 2,000 common household products. They include cleaners or strippers, paint thinners, gasoline, glues, markers, paints, aerosol sprays, medical gases, and other specialized chemicals. Some of these chemicals are flammable or explosive. All of them are harmful or deadly if used in the wrong ways.

Inhalants in the Body

When someone inhales a chemical, the linings of the mouth, nose, throat and lungs quickly soak it up and pass it to the blood. The toxins race to the brain, and begin to affect behavior and sensations. The toxins circulate throughout the body’s organs, doing permanent damage everywhere they go.

Short-term Effects

• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Dilated pupils
• Runny and red nose
• Nosebleeds
• Lost sense of smell
• Blisters or rash around the nose or mouth
• A cough that won’t go away
• Lost control of bowels and bladder—possibly permanent
• Lost muscle coordination
• Slurred speech
• Confusion and forgetfulness
• Sudden mood swings
• A “don’t care” feeling and attitude
• Stomachache or vomiting
• Tingling in the hands and feet
• Seizures and blackout

Long-term Effects

Inhalants destroy the outer lining of the brain cells, making it impossible for those cells to communicate. Inhalants damage intelligence, memory, problem-solving ability, and the senses of hearing, taste, smell, and sight. The heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and bones can be permanently damaged. Inhalants also cause severe muscle weakness and dramatic changes to a person’s appearance. Some inhalant abusers develop blood diseases and digestive problems. Kids have died from heart attacks and “Sudden Sniffing Death.”

Signs of Sniffing or Huffing Habits

Any of the following signs could mean someone is sniffing or huffing inhalants:

• Missing school more than usual
• Red, watery eyes
• Runny nose
• Spots and/or sores around the mouth.
• Breath or clothing that smells like chemicals
• Acting drunk, dazed, or dizzy.
• Marks like paint or ink near the nose

In the Know. Inhalants Something Deadly in the Air. New Orleans: In the Know, 2006. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

Hallucinogens Gone Wrong

A friend hands you a little strip of paper with a cartoon design on it. He says it will make you feel good. It looks harmless enough, so you put it in your mouth.

At first, you don’t feel much. Then you start to feel funny and your vision is playing tricks on you. You feel good, euphoric—you start laughing uncontrollably. But then, your trip turns bad—really, really bad.

Suddenly, you’re seeing scary things that won’t go away. Your brain can’t process the world around you—cars and street signs seem more like alien life forms than everyday objects. Then, the paranoia creeps in. You’re certain that your friends are out to get you—you’re sure of it—and you can’t get rid of this intense fear. You spend the next four hours curled up on the floor, crying and terrified. Nobody can convince you that you’re just hallucinating.

The scary part about hallucinogens is that they can send your brain reeling out of control. And, once the bad trip starts, there’s almost nothing you can do to stop it. A dose of anti-psychotic medicine from a doctor may be able to stop a bad trip, but even that can’t protect you from the flashbacks which can occur years later. A flashback can hit you any time, making you relive that bad trip all over again.

And, for some people, one bad trip can last forever, leading to a permanent state psychosis.

Facts about Hallucinogens

Hallucinogens mess with your perceptions, thoughts, and emotions. Some people see or hear things that aren’t there; others have paranoid, delusional thoughts. You can’t always predict how a hallucinogen will affect you because you never know exactly what you’re getting—or how your body will react.

What hallucinogens will do is seriously mess with the chemistry in your brain. Most hallucinogens contain chemicals that attach themselves to the serotonin receptors in your brain, causing hallucinations and mood changes. Some drugs can make you permanently crazy—even if it’s your first trip. Others can make you do dumb things, like hurting yourself or running onto a busy highway. And some hallucinogens may just kill you.

Unnatural Highs

Some people think that if a drug is natural, it’s safer than a chemical drug. They couldn’t be more wrong: There are a lot of natural hallucinogens out there that are just as dangerous as chemical drugs.

Angel’s Trumpets

“Angel Trumpets” are flowers that bloom only at night, but, when smoked or swallowed, these dangerous flowers produce a hallucinogenic high. They’re also highly toxic: Take too much, and you’re looking at paralysis, convulsions, or even death.

Mescaline

“Mescaline” is a psychoactive chemical found in several different cactus plants, including the peyote cactus. Parts of the cactus are either chewed or soaked in water to produce a liquid. When you drink this liquid, mescaline starts [affecting] your mind, inducing hallucinations.

Mushrooms

Certain types of mushrooms, aka “magic mushrooms,” contain natural chemicals called psilocin and psilocybin that closely resemble the serotonin in your brain. So when you ingest mushrooms, the chemicals attach themselves to transmitters in your brain, [affecting] your perception and emotions.

Salvia Divinorum

Salvia Divinorum is a leafy, green plant that causes people to completely lose touch with reality for a few minutes. The scary part about salvia is that no one really knows what the long-term effects of the drug may be—but it has been linked to depression, suicidal tendencies, and schizophrenia.

All of these “natural” drugs have additional side effects, like:

• Confusion, distortion of reality, loss of coordination, and dizziness
• Loss of consciousness
• Nausea, sweating, irregular heartbeat, sleeplessness, and headaches
• Major long-term memory problems
• Bad trips, flashbacks, injury, and death

LSD

You’ve probably heard of a drug called LSD, sometimes referred to as “acid,” “battery acid,” “blotter,” “windowpane,” “microdots,” or “loony toons.” Lysergic acid diethylamide, the scientific name for LSD, is odorless, colorless, and tasteless; it can be sold as a pure liquid, on small squares of blotter paper, as tablets or gelatin squares, or on sugar cubes or candy. Even in very small amounts, LSD interferes with the serotonin in your brain, causing changes in your behavior, perception, and mood.

What are the side effects of an acid trip? Well, in the short term, you can expect things like:

• Distorted emotions and perceptions
• Nausea, sweating, and chills
• Dizziness and confusion
• Paranoia, delusions, and panic

The worst part about LSD is, once the trip starts, it can last for more than 12 hours—and you can’t stop it if you have a terrifying experience. People who use LSD regularly are facing long-term [negative] effects like:

• Flashbacks
• Drug-induced psychosis (like schizophrenia)

Long-term users may eventually end up trapped in a permanent acid trip, unable to recognize reality, think rationally, or communicate with others. Think twice before dropping acid—the effects could stick with you for the rest of your life.

PCP

Ever heard of phencyclidine? That’s the medical name for PCP, sometimes called “angel dust.” Despite its innocent-sounding name, PCP is one of the most dangerous drugs out there.

PCP comes in liquid and powder form; sometimes dealers mix it with dyes to make colored powders or tablets. Users can swallow, snort, smoke, or inject PCP—and that’s when the trouble starts.

People who use PCP experience instant euphoria—that’s because the drug causes your brain to release massive amounts of dopamine. PCP also [impacts] the parts of your brain that control pain, memory, and emotion, causing some pretty scary side effects:

• Feeling invincible, like you could do anything
• Hostile, violent behavior
• Confusion, disorientation, or feelings of alienation
• Panic, terror, and fear of impending death
• Irregular heartbeat and breathing
• Vomiting

The effects of one dose of PCP can last between 6 and 24 hours. And that’s just one dose. Use it regularly, and you’re looking at long-term effects, such as:

• Speech problems, like stuttering or the inability to speak at all
• Severe anxiety and depression
• Psychosis, paranoia, and delusions

Safe Series. Hallucinogens A Bad Trip. Reserve: Safe Series, 70084. Print. 2009

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

GHB (gamma hydroxyl-butyrate)

Chemically similar to a substance that is found in every cell of the human body. Some users claim that this means it’s safe, but they are wrong. GHB is a depressant, so it slows the brain and body. Using any depressant without a doctor’s supervision is hazardous. In the past, doctors have used GHB to treat various conditions, including childbirth problems and anxiety. Some weightlifters claim it builds muscle, but no scientific studies have proven that. GHB was outlawed in 1990 because of the ease of overdose and addiction.

Effects of GHB

In small doses, GHB produces a mild sedative effect, slowed heart and breathing rates, inability to think quickly or logically, and physical weakness. Repeated use can lead to addiction and [difficult] withdrawal. If someone takes too much at once, GHB can produce seizures, coma, or death.

GHB Names and Forms

GHB’s street names include G, liquid Ecstasy, Georgia Home Boy, Grievous Bodily Harm, Gamma G, Growth Hormone Booster, and many others

GHB is usually found in liquid, which users sip from bottle caps. The drug is clear and odorless and tastes like salt water, but when mixed with a sweet or strong-flavored drink, its taste is mostly covered up.

Rohypnol

Rohypnol is the brand name of flunitrazepam, a surgical anesthetic used legally by doctors around the world. It is about 10 times more potent than most common sleeping pills. Rohypnol is illegal in the U.S. and Canada.

Effects of Rohypnol

Rohypnol causes muscle relaxation, unconsciousness, and amnesia. [Those] who take small amounts feel hypnotized. Rohypnol can be addictive, and people in withdrawal often suffer seizures. Rohypnol is incredibly dangerous, especially if taken with other sedatives like alcohol…

Rohypnol Names and Forms

Rohypnol tablets may be called Roofies, Roach, Roofenol, Roche, Roll-and-Fall, or The Forget-Me Pill.

The pills are usually round, white, and labeled “roche,” with a circled number “1” or “2.” Sometimes the pills are ground into powder. Rohypnol dissolves quickly in liquid. It has a bitter taste when mixed in a drink, but its taste can be mostly covered.

Ketamine

Ketamine was developed in the 1960s as an anesthetic for surgeries. It is closely related to PCP. Both are called “dissociatives,” which means that they cause a splitting from reality. Ketamine is legal for use by veterinarians.

Effects of Ketamine

Ketamine causes unconsciousness, hallucinations, loss of body control, and numbing. It can also cause agitation, confusion, and difficulty communicating. Overdose can be fatal.

Ketamine Names and Forms

Some of Ketamine’s street names are Special K, Vitamin K, Ketaject, and Cat Tranquilizers

Ketamine is found in a white powder or a liquid in small pharmaceutical bottles. It has a horrible, strong, bitter flavor. It works quickly, so if you tasted it by surprise in your drink, you would have only seconds to protect yourself before losing consciousness.

In the Know. GHB, Rohypnol, and Ketamine Knockout Punch. New Orleans: In the Know, 2006. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

Meth and Your Brain

Methamphetamine, or “meth” for short, is a stimulant that can be smoked, snorted, or injected. When you ingest meth, it floods your brain with dopamine, the naturally occurring chemical that your brain produces when you’re doing something fun, like laughing or eating or working out. But once the drugs wear off, you experience increasing levels of anxiety and pain, called “crashing.”

And that’s how people get hooked.

Because meth destroys your brain’s natural ability to produce dopamine, it takes more and more meth for a user to feel high. Eventually, users don’t even get high anymore – they just use meth to avoid the pain and anxiety of withdrawal symptoms.

… Because methamphetamine contains chemicals like battery acid and anti-freeze, meth actually eats holes in your brain tissue. Use enough meth, and eventually the parts of your brain that control your moods and your movement will be completely gone – and brain tissue doesn’t grow back. Hardcore users often resemble people with Parkinson’s disease, their bodies constantly twitching and their moods constantly changing.

Short-term Effects of Meth

Because methamphetamine is an upper, it makes people feel euphoric – like they’re unstoppable and invincible – speeding up their minds and bodies…

… Short-term users put themselves at risk for some pretty serious side effects like:

• Insomnia
• Aggression
• Anxiety
• Convulsions
• Heart attack
• Depression
• Addiction
• Overdose
• Death

The Ugly Side of Meth

If the short-term effects of using [meth] aren’t scary enough…by speeding up your metabolism, meth also speeds up the aging process. That’s why many hardcore meth users look so old and worn out. And, it doesn’t take long… An 18-year old who uses meth for an extended period of time soon starts to look like a 40- or 50-year-old.

…But there are more [long-term consequences of meth use]:

• Paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions
• Violent, aggressive behavior
• “Meth mouth”
• Acne
• Sores that never heal
• Brain damage
• Inability to control muscle movements
• Stroke
• Death

It’s easy to spot a meth user: They look old and they act erratically. The most obvious sign of a meth user is “meth mouth”- black, rotten, and cracked teeth caused by the chemicals in meth that break down tooth enamel.

Where Does Meth Come From?

Methamphetamine is made from pseudoephedrine – the active ingredient in many cough medicines. When used properly in cough medicine, pseudoephedrine makes your sore throat feel better.

Drug dealers use cough medicine to cook up meth in makeshift chemical labs, often in kitchen sinks or bathtubs. And because dealers have to add dangerous chemicals like ammonia, battery acid, anti-freeze, and kerosene when they’re making meth, the volatile, flammable fumes can blow up an entire house or apartment building in an instant. Even being around a meth lab and breathing the toxic fumes can make you seriously sick.

Safe Series. Meth (Methamphetamine) An Ugly Future. Reserve: Safe Series, 70084. Print. 2009

What is marijuana?

Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. It has a strong, sweet odor when burned.

Marijuana in the Brain

The main active chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. It also contains more than 400 other chemicals. THC binds to nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain, which controls learning and memory and integrates the senses with emotions and motivations. THC changes the way sensory information is processed by the hippocampus. All of this means there is a major break between what a pot user senses and what he does about it.

How is marijuana used?

Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (called a “joint” or a “nail”) or in a pipe or “bong.” Sometimes it is in a “blunt,” a cigar emptied of tobacco and refilled with marijuana and other drugs like crack or PCP. Marijuana may be mixed into foods or tea.

Street Names of Marijuana

There are [more than] 200 slang terms for marijuana including:

• Pot
• Herb
• Weed
• Boom
• Mary Jane
• Gangster
• Chronic
• Bud
• Sinsemilla, ganja, hashish and hash oil (stronger forms of marijuana.)

Marijuana and the Mind

Marijuana’s effects can be unpredictable. The effects that [users] are seeking include relaxation and giddiness. Pot smokers laugh at anything—funny or not. Many users becoming dizzy have difficulty walking, and red, bloodshot eyes. Terrible thirst, “cotton mouth,” and hunger, “the munchies,” are typical. Some people fall asleep when they use pot. Others experience anxiety or paranoia every time they use the drug.

Short-term effects of Using Marijuana

After only a few uses of marijuana, users have problems with memory, learning, and problem solving. They have bad grades and weak relationships. [Users] lose coordination and their senses of sight, hearing, touch, time, and depth are distorted. Performance in sports or other activities is [impacted negatively]. Marijuana also increases heart rate and causes anxiety and panic attacks.

Long-term Effects of Using Marijuana

The most common long-term effect of marijuana abuse is amotivational syndrome. [Users] lose interest in the future and stop caring about things that used to be important to them. They neglect school, chores, personal health, and relationships. It can take up to two years off pot to regain a normal motivation level.

Marijuana can cause a great deal of other damage over time, including:

• Increasing tolerance—The need for increasing amounts to feel effects.
• Permanent damage to thinking and reasoning ability.
• Chronic bronchitis, frequent chest colds, and pneumonia
• Increased risk of lung or oral cancer
• Weakened immune system
• Damage to the reproductive system and infertility in both sexes.
• Miscarriage or brain damage to fetuses.

In the Know. Marijuana Stone Cold Stupid. New Orleans: In the Know, 2006. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

Deceptive Packing

Because they’re sold as incense, products like Spice, G-Four, K2 and Mojo don’t have to list all of their ingredients. The ingredients they don’t list are not only potentially dangerous; some of them can get you in trouble with the law…

Spice, sold as an ‘herbal smoking mixture’ (while clearly marked on the package as not for human consumption), was the subject of a forensic chemical investigation. The effects of the drug—a longer-lasting, more powerful, marijuana-like high—were too powerful to be caused by the listed ingredients. Testing discovered the truth: it was laced with HU-210, the illegal laboratory created cannabinoid.

Guinea Pig You

HU-210, like the other chemical agents used in these ‘smoking mixtures’ is a research chemical. Do not make the mistake of thinking that these chemicals are safe. These are mainly untested chemicals with unknown toxicity, addiction potential, long-term effects and allergic reactions. In other words, unknown danger.

People who smoke [unknown substances] are literally making themselves into science experiments. There is no way of knowing which of these experimental chemicals you’re taking: the company won’t tell you and tests have shown three different chemicals in three different samples. Each batch was different.

This is bad news not only because the smoker can’t count on getting the same mixture twice in a row—increasing the chance of a bad reaction—but also because at least one of the active chemicals shows up on drug tests. HU-210 is as illegal as any other illicit drug and it does show up on marijuana tests. Anyone who thinks they can get high and escape drug tests is in for a rude awakening.

More Than Bargained For

They sell it all over, [so] how strong could it be?

The answer is, too strong.

If you’re thinking about trying any of these herbal incenses because you think they might be safer or less potent than marijuana, think again. Marijuana users who switch to these mixtures because of probation, occupational drug testing or as a way to try to quit using marijuana describe it as being stronger, longer lasting and having more negative effects.

Users report greater:

Anxiety	Discomfort
Nausea	Confusion
Paranoia	Desire for the feeling to end

Just as Dangerous as THC

What research has been done on these herbal smoking mixtures shows that they have all the same negative consequences as smoking marijuana but, because they are more pure, the effects are amplified. Both marijuana and these synthetic chemicals negatively affect:

Short-term memory	Emotional stability
Motivation	Learning
Reasoning ability	Stamina

Smoking and Your Health

Inhaling burning plant matter means you’re sucking down carbon monoxide—that’s the stuff that makes car exhaust poisonous. Yes, you are inhaling poison. Yes, it is bad for you. It’s not ‘cool.’ It’s not ‘risk-taking.’ Carbon monoxide poisons you by stopping your blood’s ability to carry oxygen. You’re hanging yourself without a noose.

If that’s not enough, think about the other effects of smoking: lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes, impotence and narrowing of the blood vessels. And then there’s Smoker’s Face.

Every puff a smoker takes moves them closer to the set of attributes that doctors call Smoker’s Face. Lines. Wrinkles. Yellowing, sallow, crinkly skin. Yellowed teeth. Essentially, smokers are aging their faces noticeably. You can see this for yourself: guess the ages of people [who] you see smoking and people [who] do not smoke, then ask them how old they are. You’ll be surprised at the difference.

The Bottom Line

The fact is that these herbal incenses and smoking mixtures are not herbal, not safe and, in some cases, not legal. It’s not safer than marijuana, can show up on drug tests and lawmakers are working to make them illegal in the United States just like they are in the military, Austria, Chile, Germany, France, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia and South Korea.

Herbal? Nonsense

It comes in one and three-gram packs. It has catchy names. It’s ground up leaves, flowers and stems. It’s sold behind head shop counters, in convenience stores and over the Internet. Users put it in a pipe or roll it into a cigarette and inhale it—and they think it’s safe.

On the Internet, in convenience stores, gas stations and head shops, products calling themselves herbal incense are being bought and smoked by people looking for a safe, legal way to get high. What these people find is not what they are looking for.

The ingredients listed on these “incense packs” are seemingly harmless blends of common plants like lotus blossoms and mugwort. But the listed ingredients are not all that is in the mix. The dried up, crumbled plant matter is laced with synthetic laboratory chemicals purposely formulated to mimic the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The chemicals have names like JWH-018 and CP 47,497. Most of them work by tricking your brain into thinking it is exposed to THC. These are called cannabinoid receptor agonists because of the part of the brain they activate. At least one of these chemicals, HU-210, is not an agonist—it is a synthetic cannabinoid that is so similar to THC that it is actually illegal. You do not know when you’re ingesting it and it does show up on drug tests.

In the Know. Herbal Incense Fake Marijuana. Metairie: In the Know, 2010. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

Cocaine and the Brain

Can you imagine going through life physically unable to be happy? We’re not talking about having a bad day or even a bad month – we’re talking about a complete inability to feel joy. The things that used to make you smile – your best friend’s jokes, a day at the beach with your girlfriend, your hobbies, or playing sports – none of it does anything for you anymore.

In fact, the only thing that matters is this little white powder. Your friends, you family, your future…it all fades into the background. Only one thing can make you happy now.

That’s what it feels like for a cocaine addict.

Cocaine takes away your brain’s natural ability to produce dopamine, the hormone that makes you feel good when you’re having fun. And the scary thing is that the sudden dopamine-deprived crash you feel after using cocaine can be so awful that many first-time users immediately turn back to the drug, just to try to feel normal.

That’s what makes crack and cocaine incredible addicting. You see, crack and cocaine rob you of the natural high you can get yourself, and then replace that natural high with an unnatural substitute. That’s why it’s so hard for people to stop using once they’ve started.

Question: What’s in Coke?

If you’re ever hiking through the Andes Mountains in South America, you may notice a native plant with red berries and clusters of yellow flowers. But this isn’t a harmless sunflower or pretty mini cherry tree. This deadly little blossom is the coca plant.

By the time it reaches major cities, the coca plant has been processed, mixed with other dangerous substances (like rat poison and arsenic), and sold in the form of crack or cocaine.

Cocaine can be snorted, smoked, or injected. But however you use it, it’s absorbed into the body either through the mucus membranes in your nose, through your lungs, or directly into your bloodstream.

Short-term Effects at a High Cost

We know how cocaine makes you depend on the drug to feel good – but what exactly does it do to your body? Some of the short-term effects of cocaine really aren’t so pretty.

• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
• Dilated pupils
• Decreased appetite
• Convulsions
• Nausea and vomiting
• Insomnia
• Anxiety

What’s more, depending on how a person ingests cocaine, there may be other short-term side effects. Snorters lose their sense of smell and may have regular sore throats and nosebleeds. People who smoke cocaine often have breathing problems, including chronic bronchitis and a recurring cough. And if you inject cocaine, expect a lot of scarring around the needle sites and possible exposure to HIV/AIDS.

Cracking up

The Long-term Effects of Crack and Cocaine Use

Because cocaine is addictive, and because users have to take more and more to get the same high after their tolerance increases, the health problems that go along with cocaine also get worse…and worse…and worse.

The long-term effects of cocaine abuse are:

• Heart disease
• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Seizures
• Chest pain
• Breathing failure
• Death

Aside from the health problems it causes, cocaine also affects your relationships with your parents and your friends. And, because users are so hooked on cocaine, they’ll do almost anything to get more, even acting out violently, lying, stealing, and skipping work or school.

Cocaine vs. Crack

Cocaine is derived from the coca plant and sold on the streets in the form of a white powder. Users either snort the powder through their noses or mix it with water and inject it into a vein. Some of the street names for cocaine include big C, blow, coke, flake, freebase, lady, nose candy, rock, snow, snowbirds, and white dragon.

Crack is technically called “crack cocaine.” It’s made from powdered cocaine that is processed with ammonia, baking soda, and water. The mixture is boiled to produce solid chunks, called “rocks.” Because crack is smoked, users experience an immediate high – but the high lasts only for a few minutes. Crack users experience all the same side effects as cocaine users, with the added bonus of lung and breathing problems.

So what’s the big difference between cocaine and crack?

There’s not one, really. They’re both highly addictive and dangerous, and they’ll both kill you.

Safe Series. Cocaine and Crack Blinded By Blow. St. Reserve: Safe Series, 2009. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

What is alcohol?

The yeast enzyme, zymase, changes simple sugars in potatoes, cereals, or grapes into ethanol, which is found in:

• Beer and malt liquor
• Wine
• Liquor (whiskey, etc)
• “Wine cooler”-fruit-flavored drinks
• Liqueurs (like crème de menthe)

How much is “a drink” of alcohol?

A standard drink is 12 grams of pure ethanol, which equals:

• 12 ounces of beer or wine cooler
• 8 ounces of malt liquor
• 5 ounces of wine
• 1 ½ ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (whiskey, etc.)

How does alcohol work biologically?

Alcohol is a depressant. It slows the function of the brain, releases the brain chemical dopamine, increases the level of opioid, peptides, numbs pain, and makes the drinker sleepy. As a person drinks more, the central nervous system slows down dangerously. Over time, alcohol causes neuroadaptation-permanent changes in the brain.

Short-term Effects of Drinking

• Slower reactions and poor coordination
• Heavy sweating
• Blurry or double vision
• Nausea and vomiting
• Lowered reasoning ability
• Doing or saying things you otherwise would not
• Lower heart rate
• Slowed breathing
• Anxiety, restlessness
• Mental confusion, memory loss
• Coma
• Death from respiratory arrest

Advertising, Peer Pressure, and Lies

If advertisements could be believed, you might think drinking alcohol would get you tons of dates, move you into a deluxe apartment near all of your sophisticated friends, and clear up your skin. There’s nothing “sophisticated” about a hangover, or vomiting, nothing “deluxe” about a prison cell or mortuary. Those images don’t usually make it into the ads.

Alcoholism

It happens. Alcohol is addictive. One in seven drinkers becomes dependent on alcohol. The disease of alcoholism worsens over time. Alcoholics continue to drink in spite of the real problems alcohol causes in their lives. It’s a true, physical addiction, complete with painful withdrawal symptoms. And it can happen to anyone.

Long-term Health Consequences of [Drinking] Alcohol

Long-term use of alcohol can wreck a person’s health. Alcohol can and will kill anyone who drinks too much or too long, but it’s not exactly equal opportunity… Every effect of alcohol is more damaging in teenagers than it is in adults. In addition, most alcohol-related diseases progress more rapidly in women than in men. Heavy or long-term drinking causes irreversible, often fatal damage to the body including:

• Liver diseases
• Heart disease and stroke
• Brain cell death
• Cancer of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, breast, pancreas, liver, colon, and rectum
• Decreased bone density
• Damage to eyes and skin
• Malnutrition and gastric illnesses
• Sexual problems in men and women

Plus, alcohol will literally stunt your growth! It slows the rapid bone growth that occurs in normal young bodies.

Women who are – or could be – pregnant must not drink any alcohol! Alcohol use during pregnancy is the #1 cause of nonhereditary mental retardation and causes lifelong hyperactive behavior and learning disabilities.

Legal Consequences of Drinking Alcohol

It is no wonder that for people under 21, alcohol is illegal. Of course, it is illegal for anyone to drive under the influence of alcohol. For minors, penalties for buying, possessing, or drinking alcohol include:

Juvenile detention

• Probation
• Losing your driver’s license
• Mandatory alcohol rehabilitation

The Alcohol 4-1-1

Here [are] a few of alcohol’s deadly statistics:

• Alcohol kills [more than] 100,00 people every year
• Alcoholism affects more people than diabetes, lung cancer, breast cancer, or heart attacks, and as many people as high blood pressure
• Alcohol use in pregnancy is the most common nonhereditary cause of mental retardation
• Drunk driving accidents kill about 15,000 and injure [more than] 300,000 people every year

Alcohol use is involved in:

• Half of murders, accidental deaths, and suicides
• A third of drowning, boating, and aviation deaths
• Half of all crimes

Thirty-two percent of incarcerated teens were drunk at the time of their crime and/or arrest.

In the Know. Alcohol Straight Facts: Serious Dangers. Metairie: In the Know, 2010. Print.

This information is available in brochure form in the Council’s Prevention Resource Center, serving all 19 counties of Health & Human Services Region 3. Please contact 214.522.8600 ext. 204 for this brochure and other quality prevention, intervention and recovery promotion materials available.

What is the difference between drug addiction and drug dependency?

Does drug treatment really work?

How can I get help finding a job with a drug arrest on my record?

Why can’t people addicted to drugs quit on their own?

What exactly is detox?

What is alcoholism?

How long does alcohol stay in the body?

Is alcoholism a disease?

Is alcoholism inherited?

How long does it take for alcohol to reach the brain?

Are there medications to treat alcoholism?

How can you tell if someone has a problem with alcohol?

Can a problem drinker simply cut down?

If an alcoholic is unwilling to get help what can you do about it?

What is a safe level of drinking?

Is it safe to occasionally drink (wine) during pregnancy?

Does alcohol affect older people differently?

Does alcohol affect women differently?

Is alcohol good for your heart?

If near someone who is smoking pot, will I test positive for it?

How can I tell if my teen has been using marijuana?

Can marijuana be used as medicine?

When are youth most likely to start using drugs?

Are anabolic steroids addictive?

Is nicotine really as addictive as heroin?

How long does nicotine stay in the body?

October 17, 2010 – Highland Park and Underage Drinking

October 17, 2010 – Police Changing Strategies to Combat Underage Drinking

October 13, 2010 – Rangers Celebrate Win With Ginger Ale

May 17, 2010 – Thurgood Marshall Rec Center hosts Empowerment Expo for Oak Cliff Residents

May 10, 2010 – Cheese Heroin Quietly Continues

April 14, 2010 – High Anxiety: A Synthetic Substitute for Marijuana is Drawing Raves and Warnings

March 24, 2010 – The Real Deal on Fake Dope

Jan. 21, 2010 – Good decisions and High Fashion go Hand in Hand This Prom Season

Dec. 3, 2009 – Teens Duped into Drug and Alcohol Addiction by Alcohol Companies

October 26, 2009 – Positive Signs in Dallas Cheese Heroin Fight

August 15, 2009 – Parents Lead Crowd at Rally and March Against ‘Cheese’

July 21, 2009 – Texas Spit It Out Campaign

January 24, 2009 – 2 Deaths Renew ‘Cheese’ Heroin Alarm in Dallas Schools

Dec. 2, 2008 – National Expert on Addiction and Criminal Behavior Keynotes

May 22, 2008 – Dallas Students Conduct ‘Cheese’ Heroin Survey

March, 31, 2008 – Those Who Host Lose the Most

March 26, 2008 – ‘Cheese’ Heroin Hooking Young Users in Dallas

February 26, 2008 – North Texas Teenagers ‘Dusting’ for Cheap High

Feb 6, 2008 – Program Gives North Texas Teens Free Prom Dresses

January 26, 2008 – More Texas Students Are Getting In Trouble for Drugs

January 15, 2008 – Parents Guide to ‘Cheese’

Dec. 4, 2007 – Citizens Council/ Alcohol and Drug Council (cont)

Oct. 10 2007 – Beware Of A Clearly Marketed Form of Deadly Heroin Called ‘Cheese’

July 31, 2007 – Drug Czar Will Visit Dallas to Chat About ‘Cheese’

July 1, 2007 – Heroin Mix Killing Teenagers in Dallas

Feb. 2007 – ‘Cheese’ Using Abusing Youths

March 24, 2006 – Relief Arrives After Prom Plea

March 23, 2006 – Prom Promise Prompts Plea After Flood