GHB along with Ecstasy has become a popular drug among those who frequent the rave dance scene. GHB has also been asociated with the so called "date rape" drugs. GHB is available as a clear, slightly salty tasting liquid or white powder.

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)

Slang or Street Names: Grievous Bodily Harm, G, Liquid Ecstasy, Georgia Home Boy

GHB can be produced in clear liquid, white powder, tablet, and capsule forms, and it is often used in combination with alcohol, making it even more dangerous. GHB has been increasingly involved in poisonings, overdoses, "date rapes," and fatalities. The drug is used predominantly by adolescents and young adults, often when they attend nightclubs and raves. GHB is often manufactured in homes with recipes and ingredients found and purchased on the Internet.

GHB is usually abused either for its intoxicating/sedative/euphoriant properties or for its growth hormone- releasing effects, which can build muscles.

Some individuals are synthesizing GHB in home laboratories. Ingredients in GHB, gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-butanediol, can also be converted by the body into GHB. These ingredients are found in a number of dietary supplements available inhealth food stores and gymnasiums to induce sleep, build muscles, and enhance sexual performance.

GHB is a central nervous system depressant that can relax or sedate the body. At higher doses it can slow breathing and heart rate to dangerous levels.

GHB’s intoxicating effects begin 10 to 20 minutes after the drug is taken. The effects typically last up to 4 hours, depending on the dosage. At lower doses, GHB can relieve anxiety and produce relaxation; however, as the dose increases, the sedative effects may result in sleep and eventual coma or death.

Overdose of GHB can occur rather quickly, and the signs are similar to those of other sedatives: drowsiness, nausea, vomiting, headache, loss of consciousness, loss of reflexes, impaired breathing, and ultimately death.

GHB is cleared from the body relatively quickly, so it is sometimes difficult to detect in emergency rooms and other treatment facilities.

Ecstasy

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)

Slang or Street Names: Ecstasy, XTC, X, Adam, Clarity, Lover’s Speed

MDMA was developed and patented in the early 1900s as an appetite suppressant, although it was never tested in humans. Chemically, MDMA is similar to the stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. MDMA can produce both stimulant and psychedelic effects.

Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) are drugs chemically similar to MDMA.

MDMA is taken orally, usually in a tablet or a capsule. MDMA’s effects last approximately 3 to 6 hours, though confusion, depression, sleep problems, anxiety, and paranoia have been reported to occur even weeks after the drug is taken.

MDMA can produce a significant increase in heart rate and blood pressure and a sense of alertness like that associated with amphetamine use.

The stimulant effects of MDMA, which enable users to dance for extended periods, may also lead to dehydration, hypertension, and heart or kidney failure.

MDMA can be extremely dangerous in high doses. It can cause a marked increase in body temperature (malignant hyperthermia) leading to the muscle breakdown and kidney and cardiovascular system failure reported in some fatal cases at raves. MDMA use may also lead to heart attacks, strokes, and seizures in some users.

MDMA is neurotoxic. Chronic use of MDMA was found, first in laboratory animals and more recently in humans, to produce long-lasting, perhaps permanent, damage to the neurongs that release seotonin, and consequent memory impairment.

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

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.

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. Higher doses of club drugs can cause severe breathing problems, coma, or even death.

Club drugs affect your brain. The term "club drugs" refers to a wide variety of drugs 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 increase 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.

What Are the Side Effects of Ketamine?

Psychedelic effects are produced quickly by low doses (25-100 mg) of Ketamine. Higher doses
(1 gram or more) can cause convulsions and death (NCADI, 2000). As with most anesthetics, eating or drinking before taking Ketamine can produce vomiting. Other reported side effects are:

Physical effects: slurred speech, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, lack of coordination, muscle rigidity, bronchodilation, respiratory distress, paralysis, increased cardiac output (leading to risk of heart attack or stroke), coma, and death.

Psychological effects: hallucinations, dreamlike states, feelings of invulnerability, psychological near-death experiences, paranoia, and aggressive behavior.

To obtain additional information on Ketamine and other "club drugs," please contact the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information web site at www.health.org.

What Is Ketamine?

Ketamine (ketamine hydrochloride) is a central nervous system depressant that produces a rapid-acting dissociative effect. It was developed in the 1970s as a medical anesthetic for both humans and animals. Ketamine is often mistaken for cocaine or crystal methamphetamine because of a similarity in appearance (NCADI, 2000).

Also known as K, Special K, Vitamin K, Kit Kat, Keller, Super Acid, and Super C, Ketamine is available in tablet, powder, and liquid form. So powerful is the drug that, when injected, there is a risk of losing motor control before the injection is completed. In powder form, the drug can be snorted or sprinkled on tobacco or marijuana and smoked (Partnership for a Drug-Free America, 2000). The effects of Ketamine last from 1 to 6 hours, and it is usually 24-48 hours before the user feels completely "normal" again.

What Are the Side Effects of Rohypnol?

Among the immediate effects of taking Rohypnol are feelings of intoxication, muscle relaxation, and drowsiness. Users under the influence may exhibit slurred speech, impaired judgment, and difficulty in walking. The drug causes "anterograde amnesia," whereby individuals are unable to remember events they experienced while under its effects.

Other adverse effects of Rohypnol include respiratory distress, blackouts that can last up to 24 hours, decreased blood pressure, hallucinations, dizziness, confusion, gastrointestinal disturbances, urinary retention, headaches, and muscle pain. Some users may display aggressive behavior.

Rohypnol can produce physical and psychological dependence. As a result, chronic users can experience withdrawal effects and seizures. When used in combination with alcohol and other depressants, Rohypnol can be fatal.

Rohypnol

Rohypnol, one of the most popular club drugs used by today’s youth, is gaining widespread attention because of its sedative-hypnotic effects. The term, "club drugs," refers to a wide variety of potentially dangerous substances being used by young people at college campus fraternities, dance clubs, bars, and all-night dance parties. Known as the "date rape" drug, Rohypnol can incapacitate a victim and prevent her or him from resisting sexual assault. Parents, community leaders, and prevention managers must be aware of the impact of this drug not only on users but also on victims, who may ingest the drug unwittingly.

Although it is prescribed in England and 26 other countries for treatment of insomnia and presurgical sedation, the use of Rohypnol is illegal in the United States. A report by the Community Epidemiology Work Group of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (NIDA, 1995) found that the use of Rohypnol was increasing in the United States among high school and college youth.

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