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I need a list of recreational drugs
Nerissa
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
No, not so I can take them...
I'm working on creating a drug awareness unit for my teenager, who is being homeschooled this year. Basically, I'd like to have her do some research on the drugs / types of drugs that she might encounter in a social situation so that she can go into those situations fully informed about the effects, possible side effects, etc. of each, and so that she can (I hope) make informed decisions on each substance.
Unfortunately, I have no real idea of what's out there, and what she might run into. I mean, alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana are pretty obviously timeless in their inclusion on the list, but I'm pretty clueless about what else should be there.
I do NOT want value judgements here. I don't want to know what is good / bad / stupid / fun / whatever. I don't plan on preaching to her that she shouldn't do X, Y, or Z. I do want her to be aware of what she's likely to run into so that we can discuss them in a rational way. I do, however, plan on including legality and consequences in the discussion.
Also, some information on how likely a teenager is to run into a particular substance might be useful... like, is it expensive, is it hard to find, is it more common in certain areas or at certain types of events, etc.
I'm working on creating a drug awareness unit for my teenager, who is being homeschooled this year. Basically, I'd like to have her do some research on the drugs / types of drugs that she might encounter in a social situation so that she can go into those situations fully informed about the effects, possible side effects, etc. of each, and so that she can (I hope) make informed decisions on each substance.
Unfortunately, I have no real idea of what's out there, and what she might run into. I mean, alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana are pretty obviously timeless in their inclusion on the list, but I'm pretty clueless about what else should be there.
I do NOT want value judgements here. I don't want to know what is good / bad / stupid / fun / whatever. I don't plan on preaching to her that she shouldn't do X, Y, or Z. I do want her to be aware of what she's likely to run into so that we can discuss them in a rational way. I do, however, plan on including legality and consequences in the discussion.
Also, some information on how likely a teenager is to run into a particular substance might be useful... like, is it expensive, is it hard to find, is it more common in certain areas or at certain types of events, etc.
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With plenty of info, both of the scientific and anecodal varieties.
I mean, you can get pretty vague in that regard, in that the cheapest drug you're going to find is pot, and it all goes uphill from there.
As far as where you would find all of these drugs, the answer is everywhere.
Club/rave -- ecstasy.
Hippy/naturalist -- shrooms.
College -- vicodin-type painkillers, ambien, other prescription stuff (man that reflects badly on college students).
Professors -- LSD (I may be joking here... maybe)
Low-income rural areas -- meth.
It's not exactly recreational, but a lot of college/late high school kids self- medicate, for lack of a better term, with Adderal and Ritalin they acquire from kids who DO have a prescription. I knew people during finals week who were grinding up and snorting the stuff to stay awake. (Okay, sometimes they'd take it to stay awake for non-studying reasons as well, it's basically mild speed.)
As a "good kid" under a ton of pressure to get awesome grades that was the first drug I really had access to/saw reason to try.
Totally depends on the crowd and the local availability. Good luck finding LSD anywhere.
One thing that comes across from the OP - an 'after-school special' mentality about drugs. They are everywhere and used by everybody. You can't tell who's on them, doctors, police, forum posters...
There really aren't pushers hanging around schools trying to get people hooked with free samples. She is most likely to have trusted friends or friends-of-friends try to get her to try whatever stuff is on hand, be it pot, booze or some pills from grandma's house.
Instead of focusing on the "this drug does x and y" stuff, I'd suggest giving her harm reduction information. How and when can you abuse drugs? "If you drink, how many hours until you can drive?" type stuff. Also, and this is more important, tools for setting boundaries with people so that she can recognize when she's being pushed to go along with something she may not want to do. And the assertiveness skills to get out of that situation if ever presented with it.
Coke is actually pretty huge around where I went college, and Heroin has been making a resurgence with upper-middle class suburban white kids. I'm not really sure why, it's something about the allure and danger of doing it. I-290 in the northwest Chicago suburbs has been dubbed "Heroin Highway" by some of the local PDs because kids (and runners/dealers) drive into the west side of the city to pick up dope (where it's easily accessible) and bring it back into the suburbs (where it's a scarce commodity)
so while you may think she already knows these things are dangerous because it's common knowledge, it depends on the culture she's involved in. the kids using heroin in the suburbs out here are wealthy and really should know better, but somewhere along the line they decided it's cooler to shoot up than smoke weed and steal their parents' liquor like normal people do growing up
That is certainly a part of what I had in mind, along with methods of ingestion (she once argued with me that eating pot wasn't taking it, because you smoke pot... due to the circumstances of that conversation, and other factors, I'm reasonably sure she hasn't tried it yet, but I do know she could probably get access to it at any time), and various other things.
This isn't a stand-alone one-time thing, just a part of the overall conversation on making good decisions and being prepared. However, it is the one topic that I haven't got the background to know wtf I'm talking about, and I'm basically looking for a starting point. I want her to have enough information to say "yeah, I might try <this> under certain circumstances, but I'd never do <that>, and what circumstances might be ok.
As a parallel, we're really open about sex in our house. She knows that I firmly believe that at 14, she's really too young, she agrees that she's not ready for the emotional side of it, and she also knows where the condoms are in case she decides that it's something she might want to do (with the understanding that if she takes the last one, she lets me know so that I can buy more).
I think ODing on pot is generally called "eating a bag of doritos and falling asleep."
I saw this once. It was pretty amusing.
I suppose if you're diabetic, you could have some serious problems with a box of twinkies...
seriously, thanks for mentioning that, ceres... I'll certainly work that in too
And speaking of which, I have GOT to get both of us registered for a basic first aid / CPR course as well. I've forgotten most of what I learned in the one I took in college (and I think the rules for CPR have changed since then on # of breaths / compressions anyway) and being out in the boonies, it would take probably a half hour for an ambulance to even get here if something were to happen to one of us.
This.
This is how you teach a teenager about drugs.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
LOL
Yes, you would die of smoke inhalation and lack of oxygen way, way, way before you could manage to get a lethal dose of THC in your system. (smoke pounds in seconds)
More like good luck not finding it anywhere.
The only think I would say that would be really important to talk to her about would be prescription drugs. In my experience, people think, oh it is prescription, so it gets prescribed to people, so it must be safe for me to take. I've been around a lot of people that take pills and that is always the attitude.
Wrong.
Unless things have drastically changed since my days, drugs are not at all difficult to get ahold of. Contrary to what PirateJon says, LSD is pretty fantastically easy to get ahold of, and a lot of the raver crowd likes to use it with Ecstasy.
Speaking of which, you might want to go over drug interactions with her as well. And not just illegal drugs; Tylenol and alcohol have some pretty awful interactions, as do alcohol and energy drinks. I would even go over the effects of caffeine and how it plays out with other drugs, too (even though we don't typically think of it as a drug, it totally is).
Drug interactions are already on my mind, not only with other recreational drugs, but with prescription drugs, OTC stuff, and herbal / alternative treatments. (personal experience with alcohol + OTC decongestant / antihistamine -- I will NEVER do that again). Hadn't thought about including caffeine in that, but now that you mention it, that's going to be pretty important for interactions. Hell, it's even included in a few OTC pain pills now specifically FOR its interaction with the active ingredients.
Didn't know about Tylenol & alcohol... I thought Tylenol was pretty non-reactive, but maybe alcohol is just unusual in that respect.
It was totally accidental, but landed me in the hospital.
What quantities are we talking here... I did this on Friday and then again yesterday
Acetaminophen is metabolized in the liver, as is alcohol. The combination of the two has been known to cause acute liver failure. It has warnings on the bottle, as does anything else with Acetaminophen, including NyQuil/DayQuil.
If you're going to have a reaction, it would've happened already. Dosage will vary on your tolerance, I presume.
For me, it was one wine cooler and one pill -- knocked me out cold for a couple of hours and I woke up to people asking if anyone knew why I was asleep on their couch, but I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.
Fortunately, I didn't end up in the hospital, but it scared the crap out of me... even worse was the knowledge that I *knew* it was stupid when I did it, but I did it anyway, hoping all the while that someone would see what I was doing and stop me. Except of the ~10 people in the room at the time, nobody saw / realized what I was doing.
Alcohol and opiates is another combination that's very popular and ridiculously hard on your body.
And I really cannot express how much you want her to avoid methamphetamines (which is also ridiculously fucking popular these days; like, after pot, certainly the most-used illegal drug). She'd be better off doing heroin.
I knew I was going to the party, so I didn't take my evening dose, figuring it'd be out of my system. Wrong. I passed out after a couple glasses of wine and they couldn't wake me up. So, off to the ER I went. After passing out, the next thing I remember is waking up in the ER at about 3 am. I had no idea what they did there because I didn't think to ask, I just knew that I was extremely sleepy and they told me I had to go home first. I don't even remember who brought me back to campus, and I think I woke up sometime the next afternoon.
The moral of the story, kids, is that it doesn't JUST matter what you took four hours ago.
Thanks for sharing that story... I may use it if you don't mind.
-Kids in school are prescribed speed for ADHD. There are always kids selling or even giving it away.
-Ecstasy is relatively popular with drug users. Pills sold as ecstasy are almost never MDMA and instead cocktails of drugs that are easier and cheaper to get, and much more harmful.
-Heroin really is on the rise in the burbs.
-Two things apply to most kids: little money, and less sense. Keep the cough syrup locked up, and make sure she knows that people who drink random Robitussin trying to get high are getting things other than DXM, which
can seriously injure you.
-Energy drinks are popular, available, and widely abused by kids to get 'hyper'
Erowid is definitely a good resource. Also, if you need horror stories, look into MPTP. A grad student figured out an easy way to synthesize a drug that was similar to morphine (MPPP), but didn't realize that if the conditions weren't exactly right, a new chemical was produced that caused permanent Parkinson's symptoms.
http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Drug-Action-Nontechnical-Psychoactive/dp/0716731134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260247156&sr=1-1
I got this book from a girlfriend when I was doing drugs. I used to look up what I was doing. My sister took it when she was in high school and said she did the same thing. It's a very easy to read book that seems to make the technical matters not so technical. It mixes both technical studies with references to the street. It's a really good book about drugs, both recreational and prescribed. Hell, caffeine is even in it. I don't know what else to say. I'm sure it's outdated now though, as it's over ten years old.
Dancesafe is an organization that started in Oakland in the late 1990s to do "harm reduction" at raves. When I volunteered for them we tested ecstasy pills for adulterants right there at the rave. They don't do that anymore. But we also handed out earplugs, condoms, flyers on drugs; and we'd sometimes walk around, look for people ODing, or sick, or just having a bad experience.
Anyway, my point in bringing this up is that the info on that site is a little less Chicken Little than your typical DARE/DEA website.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Meth is pretty much the worst thing you can put in your body that won't kill you right away.
http://www.talktofrank.com/home_html.aspx
I used to frequent a UK based forum around the time that Talk to Frank was started, and I seem to recall it was filled with misinformation and government propaganda,though maybe it has changed in the years since. I'm not sure if they've updated it to include a page informing UK youngsters about how stupid smoking 'soap' is and why it's nothing like real pot, but I would hope so (these kids are smoking melted down garbage bags and animal feces thinking it's some form of Hash).
Erowid, which has already been mentioned, is most likely the best resource for this sort of thing. It stopped me from making some very stupid choices back in highschool.
I saw far too many young women at my college orientation who thought that the safety warnings were a joke, because, "That could never happen to me."
Teach her how to remain safe if she makes the decision to use drugs.
Also, make sure you mention nitrous and whippets. Not all that prevalant anymore (I think) but that stuff is way more dangerous than people give it credit for. It wears off fast, but if you sit around fill balloons for a night, you are absolute toast the next day. Especially because it is normally something that is done in addition to other drugs. Like your smoking pot and huffing balloons while holding the smoke in. Messes your whole world up big time. Plus, lots of people here in detroit would get tanks filled, and it was never completely clean like you would get in a doctor's office, so now you're just inhaling some gas that could have anything in it.
Really try to educate on how if it's a natural drug (grows from the earth) it is still not a great idea, but you can never really trust manufactured drugs. Someone can say it's E, but it could be a pill full of something else entirely. Thinking about all the drugs I did as a young man, I am supremely lucky I was never given something that really blew my world up.
Definitely... we've already discussed on a couple of occasions how alcohol in particular can mess up your judgment and make some pretty stupid things seem like a really good idea. I don't recall if I've mentioned yet rules like "even (maybe especially) if you're just drinking soda, NEVER leave your drink unattended at a party / etc." but I certainly will.
http://www.bluelight.ru
It is a harm minimisation website that are EXTREMELY knowledgeable on the subject of drugs. Seriously, they know everything you will ever need to know. They are also extremely friendly and helpful and I assure you that you would have lots of help compiling all this information.
Other than that, I agree with one of the first posters http://www.erowid.org has lots of information that has no bias.
As people are saying don't forget to include prescription opiates. These are just as bad as street opiates if not stronger in some cases. Many people start out on these that end up shooting heroin due to cost.
What is sold as ecstasy is hardly ever MDMA. There is a big problem these days with some chemicals that were legal a little while ago called piperazines. They try to mimic the effects of amphetamines but a large percentage of the people who use them have bad reactions including nausea, hallucinations and general not good stuff. Other stuff commonly used are meth, caffeine, MDA (similar to MDMA but causes more hallucinations), MDEA (again similar to MDMA but slightly different effects), and the ever dangerous PMA.
PMA is one of the most deadly drugs put into recreational drugs. It has a slow come on so users who think it is MDMA take more since it feels as though its not working. Once thats happened it just raises the body temperature more and more causes seizures and death.
this shit really does kill brain cells, much akin to paint sniffing. this is a very popular drug in my area since it is cheap and easy to procure.
The first one is pretty true, especially on college campuses. Your daughter is 14 though, correct? I found that high school wasn't really a breeding grounds for selling adderral(totally butchered that). This doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, but from my experience, it was pretty rare on the high school campus. College is another story.
The second is also true. Pure MDMA ecstasy is rare, and a little more expensive than other "brands". All ecstasy contains MDMA though, but it's usually cut with something else. Speed and LSD are the two big ones I've encountered a lot. It also dehydrates you. A lot. And while the six or so hours you roll on it are a blast, the 24 hour hangover the next day sucks.
Just some of my experiences, and I have quite a few. I really wish my parents did this with me.
There were people buying and selling prescription medication all the time at my high school. Experiences definitely vary.
That's definitely a good idea. I'd also stress some sort of buddy system (for alcohol, or any other drug). I've got a few female friends who tend to stick together at parties and they've all told me that the times they've felt most threatened have been when they ended up alone with a guy (nothing bad has happened to them, thankfully). I've also walked a few girls home, sometimes after having just met them; if my intentions had been malevolent, bad things could have happened to them.