Illegal Drugs
Opium
Opium is obtained from the unripe seed pod or seed capsule of the opium poppy after the petals have fallen from the flowers.
Shallow cuts are made on the surface of the pods. The milky sap runs out onto the pod and dries as a dark-coloured
gum. The gum is scraped off, cleaned and sold as opium. This drug can either be injected, eaten or smoked.
The Opiates: Morphine and Heroin
Opiates are preparations containing opium; substances that are derived from opium, such as morphine, heroin and codeine;
and artificial drugs similar in their chemical composition to these substances.The effects of taking opiates are caused by
alkaloids, complex chemicals classed as as organic bases. Opium contains about 25 alkaloids of which morphine is present
in the largest amount. Most of the opium of illegal trade is made into heroin. Opium is refined into morphine which is further
refined into making heroin. It was once used to relieve pain and treat coughs and other respiratory ailments.
Cutting agents, usually cheap substances and other drugs, are used by dealers to cut the heroine. Larger volumes ensure
larger profits. And it also means lower purity. Street Heroin is maybe 15% or more Heroin. No one can really tell.
Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a black sticky substance, known as “black tar heroin.” Heroin can be injected, sniffed or smoked.
Heroin is known by a variety of street names; Big H, Boy, Capital H, China White, Chiva, Dead on Arrival, Diesel, Dope, Eight,
Good H, H, Hell Dust, Horse, Junk, Mexican Horse, Mud, Poppy, Smack, Thunder, Train, and White Junk, dog food, etc.
The opium poppy is Papaver somniferum of the poppy family Papaveraceae.
Psalm of a Heroin addict :
Heroin is my shepherd, it will always be wanting
He lays me down in a sewage ditch
To troubled waters he leads me
He destroys my sole
He leads me in the footstep of wickedness,
Yes, I go through poverty and will fear all calamity
Because you are with me -
You're needle and pellet comforts me
You pillage the table of my family
You make my head empty
My cup runs over with grief
Heroin addiction will follow me to the ends of my life
And I will live in the house of doom until the length of day
Images. 1) Heroin powder. 2) Heroin Black Tar.
Images. 1) Opium poppy. Flowering plant used for the production of heroin and opium. 2) boiling up heroin.
What is an Alkaloid?
It is a chemical substance of plant origin compsed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The alkaloids are organicbases similar
to the alkalies. The name means "alkali-like." Most alkaloids have pronounced effects on the nervous system of man. Many
are used as drugs. Alkaloids occur mainly in various genera of seed plants, such as the opium poppy.
Alkaloids can be
found in almost all parts of these plants, including the leaves, roots, seeds and bark. Alkaloids must be extracted from
plants before they can be used. After the plants have been dried and crushed, chemical agents such as alcohol and dilute
acids are used to extract the alkaloid content from the plant material. Some alkaloids, such as reserpine and morphine, are
synthesized (produced artificially).
In most cases, the extraction of natural alkaloids are complicated, costly processes.
Cocaine or coke - an alkaloid and stimulant.
It is a purified extract from the leaves of the Erythroxylum coca plant.
It can be smoked, snorted, injected. Cocaine is an addiction that can occur very quickly and be a very difficult habit to break.
On the street cocaine is known by a variety of names such as, Coke, Dust, Toot, Line, Nose Candy, Powder, blow, Girl,
White Pony, Flake, C, The Lady, Cain, Neurocain, Rock, and Crack. Colombia is now the world's largest producer of cocaine.
A highly addictive, smokable form of cocaine called "crack" appeared in the 1980s.
Commonly abused stimulants are cocaine and drugs of the amphetamine family
Images. 1) Cocaine powder. 2) Cocaine stripes.
Crack cocaine - known as "Rocks".
This drug is not the ordinary cocaine. Although very similar to cocaine, this drug is
processed as it is mixed with baking soda and water which then form into rocks.
This form of cocaine can be heated to produce vapours and then inhaled or smoked through a glass pipe.The term "crack"
refers to the crackling sound produced by the rock as it is heated.
Crack cocaine is obtained by mixing cocaine powder with baking soda.
Crack is usually smoked through a glass pipe or metal tubing. Car and radio antennas are used frequently. In many convenience
stores, little flowers in glass tubes are sold. You may have seen them. These are made specifically for smoking crack. Pieces of
metal wool like brillo-pad or chore-boy pads are stuffed in one end of the pipe. The metal wool serves as a filter and collector, holding
the crack rock in place while catching any residual.
This way, every bit of the crack rock is smoked. When a pipe is "pushed", the
metal wool is pushed from one end of the pipe to the other, catching any remaining crack residue inside the pipe.
A crack pipe may be burnt from both sides and is sometimes cracked or broken. A crack user may have burnt fingertips or lips
from smoking a hot pipe.
Images. 1) Rocks of crack cocaine. 2) Cooking Crack to Enhance the effects of doing lines.
Fake coke
It is sold in packages labeled "bath salts" and even says "Not for human consumption". Fake cocaine - is also
known as Cloud 9, Ocean, Hurricane Charlie, Scarface, Ivory Wave, White Lightning, Red Dove and White Dove.Newspaper report
Bath salts misused as 'fake cocaine' send Florida users to hospitals.
The half-gram bottle of bath salts promises an "invigorating" and "energizing" experience. But to local and federal authorities,
it's another dangerous product misused as fake cocaine that's sending youths to emergency rooms and mental hospitals in
Florida and across the country.
As federal officials prepare to ban synthetic marijuana, specialty shops and convenience stores across Florida have started
stocking up on bottles of bath salts. Louisiana and Florida authorities have linked these bath salts to at least two suicides in
Louisiana, 21 calls to Florida poison control centers and dozens of hospital visits in Central and South Florida in the past year.
"We're seeing teenagers experiment with this," said Dr. Nabil El Sanadi, chief of emergency medicine for Broward Health.
"They will do stuff that they wouldn't normally do, like dive from a third-story window into a pool. It's very, very dangerous."
These products being sold as bath salts are not those commonly to be used in baths, authorities say. Some manufacturers
are making designer drugs being sold as bath salts, said Wendy Stephan, health educator with the Florida Poison Information Center in Miami.
Users usually snort the powder and experience effects similar to cocaine and crystal meth, El Sanadi said. But the euphoria
often leads to paranoia, chest pains and irregular heart beats.
Those cases have popped up at Broward General Medical Center and other Broward Health hospitals, El Sanadi said.
"They come in confused, disoriented, with high blood pressure," said El Sanadi, who first noticed the trend in spring 2010. "
I guarantee you most parents don't even suspect their kids might be doing it." A half-gram bottle sells for $25-$30.
The bath salts are found in many of the shops and gas stations that once sold legal weed, according to the U.S. Department
of Justice, which has reported an alarming increase in abuse of the bath salts. Source. Sunsentinal.com
Crystal meth
Crystal meth, or methamphetamine, a synthesized (artificially produced) drug, is a stimulant that is extremely
addictive when taken. Its parent drug is amphetamine. Amphetamines include drugs that are classified as amphetamines,
dextroamphetamines and methamphetamines. It is normally made from household items or medications that can be obtained
over the counter.
There are several ways meth is consumed, it can be injected into the vein, snorted, smoked, and taken orally.
Crystal meth is known by a variety of streetnames; Crank, Speed, Chalk, Blade, Cristy, Crystal Glass, Hot Ice, L.A. Ice, L.A. Glass,
Quartz, Tina, Shards, and Super Ice. Tik is the South-African slang for crystal meth.
Crystal Meth
Sugars - is a mixed drug, commonly thought to contain waste cocaine and waste heroin, and possibly also other chemicals, including
strychnine (rat poison). The drug is in powder form, and users place a piece of foil over the powder then light it and
inhale the fumes through a straw.
Ecstasy (Club drug), the real name is MDMA or methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
Ecstasy is usely sold at raves and clubs. With ecstasy you feel this great high. Everyone is just great. It creates endless
energy, excitement, intimacy, closeness, openess and empathy. That sense of emotional well being is nothing more than a chemical
reaction inside the brain. Ecstasy stimulates the discharge of Serotonin which effects mood, energy and emotion.
The compound that inspires these feelings, emotions and energy is methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).
Images. Ecstacy tablets.
LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide
It is a component of the mold of ergot, a fungus that forms on rye grain.
1943. Basel, Switzerland. While searching for a cure for migrane headaches Chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested
an experimental substance that would change his life, LSD 25.
Those who are high of LSD would often feel like they are in a whole new dimension far away from reality. In the case of
synesthesia, the senses are all tangled up, that a person high from LSD would see sounds and taste colors. This drug can
cause great psychological alterations known as trips while experiencing euphoria which is why the psychonauts use this as
a form of entheogen for psychedelic therapy in the 1960's. Read more here: What You Need To Know About LSD
LSD acts as an antagonist on 5HT-2a receptors in your body. Your body naturally produces such subtances to act on these receptors.
Upon ingestion of LSD, you are introducing a higher dose of the chemical to act on the receptors. This is the mechanism of most of the drugs.
LSD is in fact a hallucinogenic synthesized (artificially produced) drug.
Among the hallucinogens widely abused is LSD
Phencyclidine (PCP)
A general anesthetic is another popular hallucinogen. It has severe psychological effects. Street
names: angel dust, hog, rocket fuel.
Speed
Methamphetamine, is commonly known as "speed" and is a highly addictive drug. Cocaine and amphetamines
produce closely related biological effects. Methamphetamine is an amphetamine derivative. If injected it enters the blood-
stream quicker than by ingesting it. Amphetamine is taken by clubbers or dancers because it gives the person taking it a
burst of energy and he/she will feel wide awake. Amphetamines used to be used to suppress hunger and was often used in
diet pills.
Mandrax
Methaqualone ("Buttons" in South Africa)
White Pipe, Buttons, MX, Gholfsticks, doodies, lizards, press outs, flowers, mandys, M-pils. In South Africa MX tablets are
mixed with dagga. MX can be swallowed, injected or smoked. MX is crushed and smoked with tobacco or Cannabis (dagga) through a
bottle-neck known as a white pipe.
Crack Cocaine has become the number 1 substance of abuse after Mandrax and Cannabis (dagga) in South Africa.
The other major drug abused in South Africa is heroin. Tik (Crystal meth) is extremely popular
among school children and is widespread in Cape Town's poorest suburbs.
Mandrax tablets and capsules
Cat (methcathinone HCI)
It is also known as Jeff, Mulka or Ephedrone
Street names for the drug include Cat, Cadillac Express, Wonder Star, Wild Cat, The C, Gaggers and Bathtub Speed.
There are various recipes for the manufacturing of Cat, the main ingredients are horrifying.
Popular choices include ephedrine or pseudo-ephedrine, found in flu medication and diet pills; acetone, which is an explosive
paint solvent; muriatic acid, used for sandblasting or cleaning mortar off bricks; sulphuric acid, also known as battery acid; lye,
obtained from crystal drain cleaner; and toluene, a paint thinner and known precursor for manufacturing Mandrax. Source. IOL News.
Kat or Cat commonly refers to two types of drugs. Although similar, one is the leaf from the shrub catha edulis which contains
Cathinone and is also called khat, quat, kat, gat and tchat. The other is a synthetic powder which contains Methcathinone
and also has the street names Jeff in Russia and Cat in the USA. Source. Detect A Drug.
It can be sniffed, smoked or injected.
Date rape drugs (predator drugs). Also known as Club drugs.
GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid) Also known as: G, Georgia Home Boy, G-Juice, Grievous Bodily Harm, Liquid Ecstasy,
Soap, Gook, PM.
Ketamine Also known as: Cat Valium, K, Keller, Kit Kat, Special K, Super Acid, Jet, Super C, Special K.
Rohypnol Also known as: Forget-me pill, R2, Roach, Roche, Roofies, Rope, Rophies, Lunch Money, Mind Erasers.
Date rape drugs used to assist in the execution of drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA), can be added to a food or drink
without the victim's knowledge.
The new Date rape drug
Look out for "Eyedrops" It is used to spike victims’ drinks in nightclubs and at parties, making them easy targets for robbers
and rapists.
"Alcohol" is the most commonly employed drug in sexual assaults, not Rohypnol, Ketamine or GHB.
Inhalants
These substances are usually not considered drugs. Some of the inhalable substances (household products) abused
(inhaled or sniffed to get high) by people are glues, gasoline, aerosols, spray paints, hair or deodorant sprays, paint thinners
or solvents. There are three main types of inhalants: solvents, gases and nitrates.
Also called: Bang, Bold, Glue, Huff, Kick, Laughing Gas, Poppers, Rush, Snappers, Sniff, Texas Shoeshine, Whippets.
Barbiturates
The drugs most commonly abused are the barbiturates. These drugs are made from barbituric acid combined with other
compounds used primarily as sedatives. They are powerful, habit-forming drugs and should not be taken without medical
advice. Barbiturates are medicines prescribed to treat insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Excesive doses can result in
dizziness, hallucinations, thickened speech, coma and death. Barbiturates are commonly used in suicide attempts.
New Drugs
Paco - a new deadly and highly addictive drug is spreading among the young poor kids in Argentina. It is made of kerosene,
pieces of glass, sulphuric acid and the Coca paste left over from cocaine production. Paco is a cheap drug, so cheap that
even the children in the slums can afford it.
Wunga (or whoonga)
A new drug in South Africa is made of rat poison, weed (marijuana) and antiretrovirals (ARVs).
Nyaope (or Wunga) - South Africa
Known as 'Sugarz' in KZN, 'Ungah' in the Western Cape, 'Pinch' in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, and 'Kataza' in Johannesburg
Nyaope is highly popular among teenagers in townships around Gauteng while Wunga originated in KwaZulu-Natal. The drug
nyaope is in the processes of being classified as an illegal drug making it possible for people in possesion to be prosecuted.
Nyaope is a cocktail of, among other things, rat poison, dagga, heroin and antiretroviral medication. It is mainly used by
teenagers. It appeared around 2007 on the streets of the Tshwane townships of Soshanguve, Atteridgeville and Mamelodi.
Nyaope is smoked by heating it up and inhaling the fumes. Nyaope abusers are typically between 13 and 19 years old. The
drug is cheap.
Krokodil - Russia
A dirty cousin of morphine that is spreading like a virus among Russian youth. It has roughly the same effect as heroin but is
at least three times cheaper and extremely easy to make. The active component is codeine, a widely sold over-the-counter painkiller
that is not toxic on its own. But to produce krokodil, whose medical name is desomorphine, addicts mix it with ingredients including
gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous, which they scrape from the
striking pads on matchboxes. A users life span is, on average, 3years. Source. Time World.
Once the drug enters the user's bloodstream it immediately starts killing the white blood cells in the flesh around it, leaving the user's
skin greenish and scaly like a Crocodile's, before it completely rots away.
Purple Drank - USA
Purple Drank is an illegal recreational drink popular in the Southern United States rap community. It is also known by the
names lean, sizzurp, and liquid codeine.It generally consists of promethazine/codeine cough syrup, lemon-lime soda
(Sprite, Sierra Mist, 7up, Mountain Dew, Fresca, etc), and jolly ranchers for flavor. It is called "purple drank" for a) the purple colour that
the dye in the syrup gives it, and b) the southern pronunciation of the word "drink."
Jenkem - Africa
Also known as "butt hash" Jenkem originated in Africa by fermenting raw sewage to create a gas which is inhaled to achieve
a high. It is certain the most disgusting new way for people to get high. Solid human waste (fecal matter) and urine are mixed together
to get high. This narsty mixture is placed in a bottle or jar and covered with a balloon.
The container is then placed in
a sunny area for several hours or days until fermented. The contents of the container will seperate and release a gas, which is captured
in a the balloon. Inhaling the gas is said to have a euphoric high similar to ingesting cocaine but with strong hallucinations of times past.
Once ingested the onset of the high takes approximately 10 seconds with the most severe hallucinations happening in approximately 20 minutes.
The high has been described as a feeling of "being out of it" and talking to dead people.
Slang terms: Winnie, Shit, Runners, Fruit from crack pipe, Leroy Jenkems, Might, Butthash, and Waste. Source. Collier County Sheriffs Office
Oxi (Oxi, short for oxidado or rust) - Brazil
Oxi is cheaper and more powerful than crack cocaine. Like crack, oxi is based on cocaine but it is more deadly. Freebase
cocaine goes through a simple process to become oxi. The process can be done anywhere. It may also contain kerosene or gasoline
as well as acetone, battery acid or assorted other chemicals. The drug is smoked and has a nearly instantaneous
effect. The effects of oxi on users are devastating.
The Rio Times notes: “Users take on a yellowish skin color, lose weight very quickly
and develop liver problems. They start to look like emaciated living corpses in just a few weeks time. The drug causes stomach aches,
vomiting and constant diarrhea, but perhaps the most alarming fact is that most users die within a year.”