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What
Are Hallucinogens?
What Are the Effects
of PCP?
What Are the Effects of
Ketamine?
Q:
What Are Hallucinogens?
A:
Hallucinogens are drugs that cause hallucinations - profound distortions in
a person's perceptions of reality. Under the influence of hallucinogens,
people see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but do
not exist. Some hallucinogens also produce rapid, intense emotional swings.
Hallucinogens cause their effects by disrupting the interaction of nerve
cells and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Distributed throughout the brain
and spinal cord, the serotonin system is involved in the control of
behavioural, perceptual, and regulatory systems, including mood, hunger,
body temperature, sexual behaviour, muscle control, and sensory perception.
LSD (an abbreviation of the German words for "lysergic acid diethylamide")
is the drug most commonly identified with the term "hallucinogen" and the
most widely used in this class of drugs.
Q:
What Are the Effects of PCP?
A:
PCP, developed in the 1950s as an intravenous surgical anaesthetic, is
classified as a dissociative anaesthetic: Its sedative and anaesthetic
effects are trance-like, and patients experience a feeling of being "out of
body" and detached from their environment.
PCP was used in veterinary medicine but was never approved for human use
because of problems that arose during clinical studies, including delirium
and extreme agitation experienced by patients emerging from anaesthesia.
During the 1960s, PCP in pill form became widely abused, but the surge in
illicit use receded rapidly as users became dissatisfied with the long delay
between taking the drug and feeling its effects, and with the unpredictable
and often violent behaviour associated with its use.
Powdered PCP - known as "ozone," "rocket fuel," "love boat," "hog,"
"embalming fluid," or "superweed" - appeared in the 1970s. In powdered form,
the drug is sprinkled on marijuana, tobacco, or parsley, and then smoked,
and the onset of effects is rapid. Users sometimes ingest PCP by snorting
the powder or by swallowing it in tablet form. Normally a white crystalline
powder, PCP is sometimes coloured with water-soluble or alcohol-soluble
dyes.
When snorted or smoked, PCP rapidly passes to the brain to disrupt the
functioning of sites known as NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor
complexes, which are receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate. Glutamate
receptors play a major role in the perception of pain, in cognition -
including learning and memory - and in emotion. In the brain, PCP also
alters the actions of dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for the
euphoria and "rush" associated with many abused drugs.
At low PCP doses (5 mg or less), physical effects include shallow, rapid
breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and elevated
temperature. Doses of 10 mg or more cause dangerous changes in blood
pressure, heart rate, and respiration, often accompanied by nausea, blurred
vision, dizziness, and decreased awareness of pain.
Muscle contractions may cause uncoordinated movements and bizarre postures.
When severe, the muscle contractions can result in bone fracture or in
kidney damage or failure as a consequence of muscle cells breaking down.
Very high doses of PCP can cause convulsions, coma, hyperthermia, and death.
PCP's effects are unpredictable. Typically, they are felt within minutes of
ingestion and last for several hours. Some users report feeling the drug's
effects for days. One drug-taking episode may produce feelings of detachment
from reality, including distortions of space, time, and body image; another
may produce hallucinations, panic, and fear. Some users report feelings of
invulnerability and exaggerated strength. PCP users may become severely
disoriented, violent, or suicidal.
Repeated use of PCP can result in addiction, and recent research suggests
that repeated or prolonged use of PCP can cause withdrawal syndrome when
drug use is stopped. Symptoms such as memory loss and depression may persist
for as long as a year after a chronic user stops taking PCP.
Top
Q:
What Are the Effects of Ketamine?
A:
Ketamine ("K," "Special K," "cat Valium") is a dissociative anaesthetic
developed in 1963 to replace PCP and currently used in human anaesthesia and
veterinary medicine. Much of the ketamine sold on the street has been
diverted from veterinarians' offices.
Although it is manufactured as an injectable liquid, in illicit use ketamine
is generally evaporated to form a powder that is snorted or compressed into
pills.
Ketamine's chemical structure and mechanism of action are similar to those
of PCP, and its effects are similar, but ketamine is much less potent than
PCP with effects of much shorter duration. Users report sensations ranging
from a pleasant feeling of floating to being separated from their bodies.
Some ketamine experiences involve a terrifying feeling of almost complete
sensory detachment that is likened to a near-death experience. These
experiences, similar to a "bad trip" on LSD, are called the "K-hole."
Ketamine is odorless and tasteless, so it can be added to beverages without
being detected, and it induces amnesia. Because of these properties, the
drug is sometimes given to unsuspecting victims and used in the commission
of sexual assaults referred to as "drug rape." In South-Africa,
flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) is used more commonly as the “date rape” drug. |
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