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PCP, invented in the 1950s as a painkiller and used to imobilize monkeys, was taken off the market when its dangerous side effects were discovered. Drug users ignored PCP when it was first sold on the streets in the mid-1960s. In the late 1980s PCP use soared in large cities. With $100 worth of equipment and supplies amateurs can make PCP worth $25,000 a pound. Chemicals used in PCP are explosive and dangerous. PCP looks like other drugs and can be sold as LSD or cocaine. Made illegally, PCP quality is unknown. PCP buyers don't know what they get. PCP sprinkled on marijuana is a super-joint. PCP, a stimulant, blocks pain. PCP symptoms resemble schizophrenia. With psychiatric drugs, respiration and circulation are depressed further and PCP psychoses last longer. PCP's effects last weeks. PCP poisoning, hard to treat, may require long hospitalization.
Researchers seeking ways to treat schizophrenia gave healthy and ill people the powerful hallucinogen Ketamine, Special K, a date-rape drug because it causes stupor, without fully informing them it could produce schizophrenia-like psychoses. FDA approved Ketamine by prescription as an anesthetic, mostly an animal tranquilizer. Healthy people given ketamine felt floating and of life and death. Long-term harm from ketamine-induced psychosis, less likely in healthy people, causes flashbacks months later. Disclosure is important because of possible ketamine addiction. NIMH's institutional review board approved the studies, saying ketamine was given under close scrutiny on a short-term basis, no long-term exposure. Ketamine's street use was not an issue. Old literature said it modeled schizophrenia, giving new insights into treatment. Early subjects were not told ketamine was used as a street drug. Without recent consent forms to show what participants are told now, participants were told ketamine affects mood.
Fatal, Unknowing Dose. With GHB, Line Between High and Death is Narrow
Samantha Reid, 15, hung out with friends at a party and asked for a Mountain Dew. What she got was a dose of a lethal substance slipped into her soda, leaving her comatose. By morning she was dead. Reid's tragic death Jan 17, 1999 heightened awareness of the drug Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and recently led to a federal decision making it an illegal substance. Questions remain about the potentially lethal drug and how dangerously easy it may be to target unsuspecting victims. The ease with which GHB is bought online and the lack of awareness about its potentially fatal consequences make its illicit use a particularly ruthless phenomenon, the world's sneakiest drug. GHB is also known as goop, Liquid Ecstasy, Liquid G and Gamma 10. GHB is a central nervous system depressant causing drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, unconsciousness, convulsions, numbness, suppressed breathing, slurred speech, blurred vision and coma. Colorless and odorless, GHB is used as an intoxicant, primarily by teenagers and young adults, gaining notoriety for its use in date rape. At first considered safe and natural by health enthusiasts, GHB was popularized in the 80s by body builders who used it as a muscle growth stimulant. It was also touted as an antidepressant, sleep aid, nutritional supplement and sexual enhancer. By 1990, reports of overdoses and use of the drug in date rape attacks had alerted authorities. The FDA declared GHB unsafe. Since 1990 there have been 58 documented deaths related to use of GHB and over 5,700 overdoses, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. "This is different than what we deal with with most drugs. There's no predictability as to what it'll do.
Not Entirely in Vain
Reid's untimely death has promoted awareness about GHB, not only at the small-town high school, but also nationwide. President Clinton signed a bill called the Hillory J Farias and Samantha Reid Date-Rape Drug Prohibition Act of 2000. Named after Reid and Farias, 17, who died after drinking a soda laced with GHB, the law makes it a federal crime to possess, manufacture or distribute GHB, with up to 20 years jail time. It also requires the federal government to launch a nationwide public awareness campaign about GHB. Prior to passage of this bill, GHB was illegal in only about half of the United States, leaving the possibility for state-to-state sales of GHB through the Internet. Optimistic about the impact of new legislation, it'll bring more law enforcement education in a more systematic way. While there's no approved medical uses for GHB in the U S there are clinical trials to test its effectiveness in treating narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.
What You Should Know Don't take drinks from a stranger. Don't leave your drink unattended. Don�t drink from open containers like a punch bowl. Drink from tamper-proof bottles or cans. Open them yourself. Be wary of salty drinks and flat soda. These can be signs of GHB. Avoid GBL. It turns into GHB in your body, like taking GHB.
Be suspicious of eyedroppers, mouthwash bottles and bubble solution. They're often used as GHB containers.
If you think you were drugged:
1. Call 911. Many people dead from GHB would be alive if their friends had called 911. The sooner a victim gets medical help the better the chance of life.
2. Get a urine test. Police and hospitals often use blood tests to identify drugs. GHB is only in the blood 4 hours. It can be identified in urine for longer.
If an unconscious victim is vomiting, turn the individual on either side to avoid choking or suffocation.