Tips for Teens:
The Truth About Club Drugs
Slang - Ecstasy: E, X, XTC. GHB: Liquid Ecstasy, Liquid X,
Grievous Bodily Harm, Georgia Home Boy. Ketamine: K, Special K, Ket, Vitamin K, Kit Kat.
Rohypnol: Roofies, R-2.
Get the Facts...
Club Drugs affect your brain. The term "club drugs" refers
to a wide variety often used at all-night dance parties ("raves"), nightclubs,
and concerts. Club drugs can damage the neurons in your brain, impairing your senses,
memory, judgment, and coordination.
Club drugs affect your body. Different club drugs have different
effects on your body. Some common effects include loss of muscle and motor control,
blurred vision, and seizures. Club drugs like ecstasy are stimulants that increases your
heart rate and blood pressure and can lead to heart or kidney failure. Other club drugs,
like GHB, are depressants that can cause drowsiness, unconsciousness, or breathing
problems.
Club drugs affect your self-control. Club drugs like GHB and Rohypnol
are used in "date rape" and other assaults because they are sedatives that can
make you unconscious and immobilize you. Rohypnol can cause a kind of amnesia - users may
not remember what they said or did while under the effects of the drug, making it easier
for others to take advantage of them.
Club drugs are not always what they seem. Because club drugs are
illegal and often produced in makeshift laboratories, it is impossible to know exactly
what chemicals were used to produce them and where they came from. How strong or dangerous
any illegal drug is varies each time.
Club drugs can kill you.
Before You Risk It ...
Know the law. It is illegal to buy or sell club drugs. It is also a
federal crime to use any controlled substance to aid in a sexual assault.
Get the facts. Despite what you may have heard, club drugs can be
addictive.
Stay informed. The club drug scene is constantly changing. New drugs
and new variations of drugs appear all of the time.
Know the risks. Mixing club drugs together or with alcohol is
extremely dangerous. The effects of one drug can magnify the effects of another. In fact,
mixing substances can be lethal.
Look around you. The vast majority of teens are not using club drugs.
While ecstasy is considered to be the most frequently used club drug, less than 2 percent
of 8th - 12th graders use it on a regular basis. In fact, 94 percent of teens have never
even tried ecstasy. (1)
Know the Signs ...
How can you tell if a friend is using club drugs? Sometimes it's tough
to tell. But there are signs you can look for. If your friend has one or more of the
following warning signs, he or she may be using club drugs:
- Problems remembering things they recently said or did
- Loss of coordination, dizziness, fainting
- Depression
- Confusion
- Sleep problems
- Chills or sweating
- Slurred speech
What can you do to help someone who is using club drugs? Be a real
friend. Save a life. Encourage your friend to stop or seek professional help. For
information and referrals, call the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug
Information at 800-729-6686.
Q&A ...
Q. If you were in a club and somebody slipped a club drug into your drink, wouldn't
you realize it immediately?
A. Probably not. Most club drugs are odorless and tasteless. Some are made into a powder
form that makes it easier to slip into a drink and dissolve without a person's knowledge.
That is why some of these drugs have been called "date rape" drugs - because
there have been increasing reports of club drugs being used in sexual assaults.
Q. Are there any long-term effects of taking ecstasy?
A. Yes. Studies on both humans and animals have proven that regular use of ecstasy
produces long-lasting, perhaps permanent damage to the brain's ability to think and store
memories.
Q. If you took a club drug at a rave, wouldn't you just dance off all of its
effects?
A. Not necessarily. The stimulant effects of drugs like ecstasy that allow the user to
dance for long periods of time, combined with the hot, crowded conditions usually found at
raves, can lead to extreme dehydration and even heart or kidney failure. In addition, some
of ecstasy's effects, like confusion, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and sleep problems,
have been reported to occur even weeks after the drug is taken.
Info ...
To learn more about club drugs, or obtain referrals to programs in your community,
contact:
SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
800-729-6686
TDD 800-487-4889
linea gratis en espanol 877-767-8432
Web site: http://www.health.org
Curious about the TV ads of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign? Check out the
Web site at http://www.freevibe.com or visit the
Office of National Drug Control Policy Web site at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
The bottom line: If you know someone who uses club drugs, urge him or
her to get help. If you're using them - stop! The longer you ignore the real facts, the
more chances you take with your life.
It's never too late. Talk to your parents, a doctor, a counselor, a teacher, or another
adult you trust.
Do it today!
Footnotes
1. Monitoring the Future Study. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 1999.
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