What is its federal classification?
Alcohol is a legal purchased product for adults.
Tobacco
What are the street names/slang terms for it?
Chew, Dip, Fags, Smoke
What is it?
Tobacco is an agricultural crop.
What does it look like?
Brown cut up leaves.
How is it used?
Tobacco is usually smoked. Sometimes tobacco leaves are "dipped" or "chewed" so the nicotine is absorbed via the gums.
What are its short-term effects?
When a person smokes a cigarette, the body responds immediately to the chemical nicotine in the smoke. Nicotine causes a short-term increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and the flow of blood from the heart. It also causes the arteries to narrow. Carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen the blood can carry. This, combined with the effects produced by nicotine, creates an imbalance in the demand for oxygen by the cells and the amount of oxygen the blood is able to supply.
What are its long-term effects?
It is now well documented that smoking can cause chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke, as well as cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and bladder. In addition, smoking is known to contribute to cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys. Researchers have identified more than 40 chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have deadly consequences, including lung, larynx, esophageal, and oral cancer.The harmful effects of smoking do not end with the smoker. Women who use tobacco during pregnancy are more likely to have adverse birth outcomes, including babies with low birth weight, which is linked with an increased risk of infant death and with a variety of infant health disorders. The health of non-smokers is adversely affected by environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Each year, exposure to ETS causes an estimated 3,000 non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer and causes up to 300,000 children to suffer from lower respiratory-tract infections. Evidence also indicates that exposure to ETS increases the risk of coronary heart disease.
What is its federal classification?
Tobacco is a legal product for adults.
Steroids (Anabolic)
What are the street names/slang terms for it?
Juice, Rhoids
What is it?
Anabolic steroids are a group of powerful compounds closely related to the male sex hormone testosterone. Current legitimate medical uses include treatment of certain kinds of anemia, severe burns, and some types of breast cancer. Body builders, long-distance runners, cyclists and various other athletes who claim that steroids give them a competitive advantage and/or improve their physical appearance use these drugs illegally.
What does it look like?
Steroids come in tablets or liquid form.
How is it used?
Anabolic steroids are taken orally or injected, and athletes and other abusers take them typically in cycles of weeks or months, rather than continuously, in patterns called cycling. Cycling involves taking multiple doses of steroids over a specific period of time, stopping for a period, and starting again. In addition, users frequently combine several different types of steroids to maximize their effectiveness while minimizing negative effects, a process known as stacking.
What are its short-term effects?
Reports indicate that use of anabolic steroids produces increases in lean muscle mass, strength, and ability to train longer and harder. Many health hazards of short-term effects are reversible. The major effects of anabolic steroid use include liver tumors, jaundice, fluid retention, and high blood pressure. Additional side effects include the following: for men shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts; for women growth of facial hair, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, deepened voice; for adolescents growth halted prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes. Researchers report that users may suffer from paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment stemming from feelings of invincibility.
What are its long-term effects?
Long-term, high-dose effects of steroid use are largely unknown.
What is its federal classification?
Anabolic steroids are classified as Schedule III.
Heroin
What are the street names/slang terms for it?
Big H, Blacktar, Brown sugar, Dope, Horse, Junk, Mud, Skag, Smack
What is it?
Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained from the opium poppy. It is a "downer" that affects the brain's pleasure systems and interferes with the brain's ability to perceive pain.
What does it look like?
White to dark brown powder or tar-like substance.
How is it used?
Heroin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on user preference and the purity of the drug. Heroin can be injected into a vein ("mainlining"), injected into a muscle, smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as "chasing the dragon," snorted as powder via the nose.
What are its short-term effects?
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. Other effects included slowed and slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, and constipation.
What are its long-term effects?
Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin's depressing effects on respiration. In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not really 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 small patches of cells in vital organs. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or 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 abusers 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 does and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health can be fatal.
What is its federal classification?
Heroin is a Schedule I drug.
Paracetamol
Description
A non-narcotic analgesic used as a pain reliever or to reduce high temperature. Similar to Aspirin, but does not irritate the stomach. Sometimes administered in compound with Aspirin. Taken orally, as capsules, liquid or tablets.
Side effects
High dosage can cause liver damage. Low dosages rarely produce side effects.
Warnings
To be used with caution for patients who suffer from liver damage or who have alcoholic tendencies.
Paracetamol is an exceedingly dangerous drug - in only mild over dosage (8 tabs - 4grms in one dose) it can cause total liver failure - I have seen several deaths due to this usually in young people who do not understand the danger. That why they restricted the sales unit to 32 tabs per packet.
Caffeine
Caffeine is one of the most comprehensively studied ingredients in the food supply. We know a lot about caffeine and it has been consumed safely for centuries. Caffeine exists in our diet from a variety of sources - primarily coffee, tea, chocolate, cola drinks, and both prescription and non-prescription drugs. While much is known about caffeine, many questions and misperceptions still exist; these facts and resources can help to set the story straight.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CAFFEINE?
Caffeine is a mild stimulant to the central nervous system. It is not addictive, though it can be habit forming. When caffeine intake is stopped abruptly, some individuals can experience headache, fatigue or drowsiness. Age and body size can make a difference in effect. A child or a smaller person may feel caffeine's effects more strongly than an adult or a heavier, taller person. A cup of strongly brewed coffee or tea has more caffeine than a weakly brewed cup.
HOW MUCH CAFFEINE IS "SAFE?"
MODERATION is the key. Most experts agree that 300 mg. of caffeine (about the amount contained in 3 cups of coffee) is a moderate intake. People who have certain health problems need to check with their doctor as they consider their caffeine intake. At this time, there is NO evidence that caffeine intake is associated with heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis or high cholesterol. Because research is ongoing, recommendations about caffeine in the presence of these conditions seem conflicting. Talk with your doctor for guidance about your consumption. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine's effects than others and may feel effects at smaller doses. Pregnancy and aging may affect one's sensitivity to caffeine. There is no evidence that caffeine in beverage form is dehydrating. Its diuretic effects are usually compensated for by the beverage's fluid content. If you ingest caffeine from sports supplements (Clif Bar Ice series) or from prescription drugs or over-the-counter sources (No-Doz, etc.) be sure to drink adequate fluid to rehydrate yourself from caffeine's mild diuretic action.
Solvents
What are solvents?
THE term solvents is used to describe a wide variety of everyday substances such as aerosols, glues, fire extinguisher fluids, nail varnish remover, paint, petrol and dozens more. They contain chemicals that can alter our state of mind for a short time. Solvents also include such volatile substances as butane gas and propane.
How are they taken?
SOLVENTS are usually breathed in or sniffed. This means that they take effect quickly because the substances go directly from the lungs into the bloodstream.
What are the effects?
THE effects of sniffing are similar to those of alcohol and may bring on light headedness, giddiness and a sense of adventure. The longer you sniff at any one time, the stronger the effects are likely to be and so you may soon feel out of control, confused or drowsy. Some people experience hallucinations - seeing or hearing imaginary things, but this is rare. The effects of sniffing don't usually last longer than half an hour.
What are the side-effects?
SIDE effects can include headaches and sickness. With repeated use of glue, the skin around the mouth and nose can become irritated; resulting in a rash and you may feel depressed. These should all disappear as you take less or stop altogether.
What are the dangers?
LIKE many substances, what you sniff may be made up of a mixture of chemicals, making it difficult to know exactly what's in them. Any interruption of breathing is the biggest risk and in some cases has resulted in death. This can be caused by sniffing too much in an enclosed space so you don't get enough air, or sniffing until you become unconscious. Using butane gas or aerosols is particularly dangerous. When sprayed directly into the mouth the throat is cooled, which can result in breathing difficulties or suffocation.
As with alcohol, accidents can happen when under the influence of solvents because you have less control over your body. Because of this, the places used for sniffing can be the main danger, for example:
- Too isolated and out of reach of medical help
- High up (eg in a tree/on a wall)
- Near water (eg canal bank)
Using butane gas and petrol is particularly dangerous and both are inflammable, increasing the risk of fire. Some solvents can cause the heart to be more sensitive to adrenaline, a substance produced by vigorous exercise such as running or fear. In a few cases this has resulted in death.
SOLVENTS aren't physically addictive. If you sniff regularly, you may feel that you can't do without it for a while after you've cut down or stopped. These cravings will lessen with time.
What is the legal position?
IT'S not illegal to take or possess solvents, but under the Intoxicating Substances Supply Act 1985, it's an offence to supply to a young person under I8 a substance which the supplier knows, or has reason to believe, will be used "to achieve intoxication".
