Club Drugs Abuse Signs & Symptoms
It can be hard to tell if someone has been using club drugs. If someone shows several of the following warning signs, they may be using club drugs.
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.
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.
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.
It's Not What It May 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. How strong or dangerous any illegal drug is varies each time.
They Can Kill You
Higher doses of club drugs can cause severe breathing problems, coma or even death.
Know the Risks
Mixing club drugs together or with alcohol is extremely dangerous. The effects of one drug can magnify the effects and risks of another. In fact, mixing substances can be lethal.
Know the Law
It is illegal to buy or sell club drugs. It is also a Federal crime to use any controlled substance to aid in a sexual assault.
Quick Facts About Club Drugs - Despite what you may have heard, club drugs can be addictive.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The club drug scene is constantly changing. New drugs and new variations of drugs appear all of the time.
