Series: The Drug Issue: Part 8 Of 13

ILLICIT DRUGS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES

The Langley Advance News has compiled a list of popular drugs and
their forms and effects.

Acid

Form: a transparent crystal, soaked into small squares of blotting paper.

Trip: changes users' perceptions of the world around them. Light and
sound levels change, colours become vivid, images and touch change,
causes hallucinations. Can cause out-of-body experiences.

Negative effects: users can become paranoid. Acid can also unlock
mental illness. Sometimes users can never escape the nightmares they
experience.

Speed

Form: a white powder, looking like salt. Can also come in a pill or paste.

Trip: stimulates the nervous system, causing blood pressure, heart
rate and body temperature to go up. Users feel energetic and
talkative, and that every need around them is urgent.

Negative effects: can become addictive, can cause panic attacks,
long-term nervousness. Users can become dehydrated, their brains can
swell, they can get body cramps, headaches, and other illnesses.
Speed can lead to heart attacks.

Marijuana

Form: three kinds - herbal (greenish-brown, dried leaves), resin
(black or brown blocks), or hash oil (black or green oil).

Trip: can make users feel relaxed and happy or talkative and giggly.

Negative effects: users can feel sick, dizzy and faint. Judgment and
coordination are impaired, and people can feel panic or paranoia.

Cocaine

Form: white crystalline powder.

Trip: sense of euphoria and well-being, energy levels rise, inhibitions fall.

Negative effects: after the initial high, users become deeply
depressed, tired, and irritable.

Crack

Form: small, rock-like crystals.

Trip: for a very short time, users feel intense elation, energy, and euphoria.

Negative effects: users get the shakes, and feel cold, weak, tired,
depressed, lonely, paranoid, and aggressive.

Ecstasy

Form: come in tablets, often with pictures on them.

Trip: skin feels warm and tingly, perception is heightened, energy rises.

Negative effects: heart pounds, users can become jumpy and panicky,
and then feel lifeless and depressed. It can also cause brain damage,
strokes, and organ failure.

Heroin

Form: brown or grey powder.

Trip: all pain disappears, people feel confident, energized, and
happy. Can sometimes send users into trances, followed by a mellow
feeling.

Negative effects: Often users overdose, and the body can't get enough
oxygen. Users can feel sick, and find it hard to sleep. Highly
addictive.

b

Form: white, impure powder.

Trip: stimulates the body, but also causes drowsiness, slurred
speech, and gives out-of-body experiences. Users lose sensitivity to
pain and can become violent.

Negative effects: can cause blurred vision, inability to speak or
move, vomiting, memory loss, dehydration, and hallucinations. People
have died from long fits of convulsions.