AHS Views

Ecstasy and other club drugs – so many people are taking them, and think they are just ‘fun.’ But, in fact, they are among the most dangerous drugs around. Anyone who is taking them needs to know the truth about these drugs and, if they don’t stop taking them when they find out the truth, they should really get some addiction help as soon as possible.

Why are club drugs so dangerous? Ecstasy, for example, is supposed to consist of an active ingredient called MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine). MDMA is bad enough in itself, but at least if you know what you’re taking you have some control over it and know what to expect – although different people react to it differently.

But, in fact, a lot of Ecstasy has next to no MDMA content. Instead, you have ingredients like PMMA (para-methoxymethamphetamine) or PMA (para-methoxyamphetamine) – both of which have been around since the early ‘70s, both of which are addictive, and both of which have some disastrous side effects, including:

• severe hyperthermia, which is an increase in body temperature, even at low doses
• increase in blood pressure and in heart rate
• heightened visual stimulation
• rapid and irregular eye movement
• motion sickness
• muscle spasms
• difficulty breathing
• death, at high dosages

When combined with other drugs, alcohol, or caffeine – not an unusual scenario – the effects are more intense.

One of the worst things about these chemicals is that little is know about the toxicity of either of these chemicals, the interaction of them with other substances, how they are metabolized, and so on.

In other words, you never really know how an individual is going to react to them.

PMA is nicknamed ‘Death’, and for good reason. Doses of more than 50 milligrams, PMA are potentially deadly. It can cause heart failure, kidney failure, brain seizures, sudden collapse, and an rise in body temperature up to 115 degrees! Temperatures that high can cause convulsions, coma, and a complete shutdown of the organs of the body – at which point, of course, the person dies. This rise in body temperature can happen within 30 to 40 minutes of taking the drug.

Ecstasy and other club drugs are common at ‘raves,’ in clubs, and at other parties. Teenagers and young adults are exposed to them all the time.

Make sure your kids are educated about Ecstasy. And make sure they know that, no matter what someone who offers it to them tells them, only the people who made the drug really know what’s in it. If they are still tempted, a good drug rehab program will sort them out.

There’s a new, nasty, so-called ‘designer drug’ in town. It’s known as Cloud 9, or C-9. Why it’s called Cloud 9 is beyond me – because the effects of it are anything but what we would normally think of when someone says they’re ‘on Cloud 9.’ It’s dangerous, addictive and deadly, and anyone using it should get addiction help as soon as possible.

What is Cloud 9? It’s a chemical similar to ‘bath salts.” It’s a hallucinogen and stimulant. It’s sometimes marketed as plant food, insect repellent or fertilizer. It is, in fact, none of those, but if you hang those labels on it and make it look legitimate you can get it into a headshop or convenience store.

Here’s what someone taking it can expect:

• erratic behavior
• serious injuries
• addiction
• agitation
• abnormal heart beat
• delusions
• hallucinations

It is being touted as a replacement for Ecstasy. But according to Dr. David Withers, associate medical director of the Marworth Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Center in Waverly, “”When you buy this bath salt you are getting many hundreds more. For a very few dollars, $50 or less, you can get a tremendous amount of MDPV (a similar chemical in ‘bath salts’). But MDPV is many times more potent than Ecstasy. When (users) lay out a line, they can be taking 20 to 25 hits of Ecstasy.”

He also said that people take it compulsively: “They may be awake for days and may exhibit symptoms of psychosis. Like seeing things and hearing things.”

Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center sees about two or three cases of Cloud Nine intoxication a day.

The law is constantly trying to keep up with these ‘desinger drugs’ as they hit the street, but Cloud 9, which contains the illegal Mephedrone, is sold on the Internet.

This stuff is serious poison – as are most drugs.

If you hear anyone around you talking about being on Cloud 9, or you hear C-9, be aware that they may well be talking about this drug. And get them into drug rehab right away.

Meow meow – the chemical name is mephedrone – is one of the new so-called designer drugs. It’s very popular in Australia (where it originated), New Zealand, the UK and Europe. I’m surprised no one is making it in the U.S. It’s bound to happen soon. And plenty of people are going to need addiction help fast when it hits the streets.

What’s so dangerous about meow meow? A scientist in New Zealand analyzed the drug to see what effects it creates on the brain. He found out that it is similar to Ecstasy, but with a twist – it is also highly addictive.

Parents need to watch out for meow meow – which I’m sure will have other names soon. So, if you hear kids talking about kitties or some such thing, don’t brush it off as if they were animal lovers.

Mephedrone is one of the many designer drugs that have been created to circumvent the law. There’s nothing illegal about it yet; hopefully, it won’t take the law too long to catch up with it. In the UK, they already have legislation on the table to ban meow meow, along with other, similar drugs.

It’s hard to believe that there are people in the world who will go out of their way to create substances that are addictive, dangerous, can ruin people’s lives the lives of their families, can make people extremely ill and, in some cases, kill them.

But, they’re out there. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t have such a big drug problem in the U.S. This is not intended to scare anyone, but you do need to be constantly on the alert – just as you would with younger children, but for other dangers. And if there is any sign of a problem, don’t delay on getting your family members or friends into a good drug rehab.

Last week, Matthew Chesher, husband of New South Wales’ (Australia) Education Minister and Chief of Staff for Member of Parliament David Borger, was arrested for buying an Ecstasy tablet. So far, no one knows of him buying it any other time, or using other drugs, or needing addiction help. In any case, he quit his own job the day after the arrest and now his wife’s position as Education Minister may be in jeopardy.

The media is, of course, having a field day. Some just reporting the facts, and some offering opinions. One opinion is that buying one Ecstasy tablet isn’t even important enough to make the media, let alone cost someone their job.

Is that true? Is that really the way we should be looking at this?

Some reporters are going on about the other things politicians or their families do and say that, comparatively speaking, this is nothing.

It is undoubtedly true that some politicians have done far worse – and I believe that would be true from anyone’s viewpoint. But the problem here isn’t that Mr. Chesher is being held accountable to taking drugs; the problem is that the other politicians or family members who have done ‘worse’ things have not been held accountable for their actions.

Personally, I’m not in a rage because Mr. Chesher bought Ecstasy.

But if anyone should be held to higher standards than the general public, shouldn’t it be our elected politicians and their families? Representing the population is a privilege, and with that privilege comes responsibility.

Club drugs. Young people take them at clubs, parties, concerts, bars – anywhere groups of kids get together to have some fun. Sometimes they know they’re taking the drugs, and sometimes the drug was slipped into their drink without their knowledge or consent.

Whether taken knowingly or not, club drugs can have disastrous consequences:

Amnesia – especially during the time they were high on the drug
Seizures
Coma
Delerium
Dangerously high body temperature
Liver failure
Kidney failure
Heart failure
High blood pressure
Respiratory problems
Loss of coordination
Depression

In combination with alcohol or other drugs, the effects can be even worse.

What are these drugs?

MDMA – also known as “Ecstasy”
GHB – “Liquid ecstasy,” “soap,” “easy lay,” or “vita-G”
Ketamine – “special k” and “vitamin k
Rohypnol – the ‘date rape’ drug, also known as “roofies,” “roach,” and “rope”

Kids like these drugs because they also usually give them a sense of euphoria or a dream-like state. Although some, like Rohypnol, can put you right out, leaving you with no memory of what happened while the drug was in your system.

But many kids do not know about the serious side effects listed above. As a parent or friend, it’s your job to tell them. The other kids who give them the drugs are only going to tell them the good stuff.

Club drugs aren’t generally physically addictive, but psychological addiction is another story. If your son or daughter is using club drugs, consider contacting Addiction Help Services to help find a way to get them sorted out.

As if Ecstasy and methamphetamine weren’t bad enough by themselves, high school kids are now mixing the two. Meth is cheaper than Ecstasy, but the combination is dangerous. You mix the rise in body temperature and potential liver, kidney and heart damage of Ecstasy with the irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure and brain damage caused by meth and you’ve got a recipe for addiction help – if you make it that far.

Meth isn’t the only drug being mixed with Ecstasy – with the prescription drug abuse epidemic going on, it’s almost a certainty Ecstasy is being cut with OxyContin, methadone, and some of the other prescription drugs that kids are in rehab for right now trying to get the addiction help they need.

Methamphetamine is highly addictive – and it was in more than half the meth seized by law enforcement last year. A 10% increase from the previous years.

Since 2003 the amount of Ecstasy seized at the Canadian U.S. border has increased by 10 ties. In 2006 almost 5.5 million pills were confiscated.
 
The scary thing is the use of ecstasy by high school and college students. If they are also using it with prescription drugs the combination could be lethal.

Your kids, and your town, are not immune. If they’re involved in drugs at all, get them addiction help services now. Don’t wait for the worst to happen.

In Australia it was reported that 25% of the MDMA (Ecstasy) seized contained no active drug. The question is: Do people taking placebos still need addiction help? I’m guessing that if you aren’t taking the drug you purchased, you may not need to get addiction treatment.

Recreational Ecstasy users have suspected that the drugs they were buying were of low quality but, lucky for them, the drugs were not drugs at all. If you tried selling non-drugs to U.S. consumers you might get sued – or worse – but you more than likely wouldn’t need any addiction help.

I am not sure anyone would find this particularly funny but perhaps the large drug companies could start shipping non-drugs to the Internet pharmacies selling them to drug dealers. The government could flood the market with non-drugs and prices would go down because of the unlimited supply. People would then be forced to get the addiction help services they needed because they didn’t have a supply of real drugs, only non-drugs. Just a thought …

Over the last several years there have been emerging problems with the abuse of club drugs and the damaging effects caused as a result. In fact, incidents of the abuse and the fatal effects of these drugs are in the news increasingly.

These types of drugs include MDMA or Ecstasy, Rohypnol, and GHB. All these drugs are most commonly used in the club or rave scene.

While ecstasy is said to be similar to a stimulant and a hallucinogen, ecstasy is a synthetic drug that can have many different properties and effects. Some ecstasy is laced with heroin while other pills can be laced with everything from cocaine to any synthetic chemical that the person making it decides to put into it. So you don’t really know what you’re taking when you take ecstasy.

Drugs like Rohypnol, GHB and Ketamine are drugs that heavily sedate a person and are most commonly used by those committing sexual assaults. Surprisingly, there are people that voluntarily take these drugs. All are tasteless and odorless.

Many people who go to raves on a regular basis say that they go to for the music and to meet new people. Even they cannot deny that clubs and rave parties are very common locations that these drugs are used and sold.

Of an estimated 106 million emergency department (ED) visits in the U.S. during 2004, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) estimates that:

Ketamine was involved in 227 visits.

To some, club drugs seem harmless.

In reality, these substances can cause serious physical and psychological problems—even death. Often, the raves where these drugs are used are promoted as alcohol-free events, which gives parents a false sense of security that their children will be safe attending such parties. These parents are not aware that raves may actually be havens for the illicit sale and abuse of club drugs

Do you think that club drugs are over hyped or is not enough information known about them and we need to be more careful.

Article by Eric

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children, club drugs, ecstasy, general drugs, GHB, ketamine, rohypnol