What Is It?
A drug is any substance other than food which changes the way the body or mind function. Drugs can be prescribed and come from a pharmacy, grown as plants or created in labs. Both legal and illegal drugs have potential to do harm. Although we separate alcohol into its own category, it’s still a drug, because of its effect on our body and mind.
Nicotine
Nicotine is the addictive ingredient in tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars, and snuff. Nicotine comes from tobacco leaves and is absorbed when you inhale the smoke into your lungs or through the tissues in your mouth when you ‘chew’ snuff.
Alcohol
Did you know that alcohol is basically like the rotten juice from a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains? Alcohol (a.k.a. booze) is made by fermenting and purifying fruits, veggies and grains. Alcohol itself is a clear liquid. The colour in beer, spritzers, wine and other alcoholic drinks comes from other ingredients and from the process of fermentation
Alcohol is called a depressant because it ‘depresses’ or slows down parts of your brain. Drinking alcohol can make you feel more relaxed. It can also make it harder to think clearly, make good decisions and do every day things like driving, writing or even talking.
Marijuana
Marijuana – ‘pot’, ‘ganja’, ‘the green’ - hashish (hash) and hash oil all come from “cannabis sativa”, a type of plant. All three contain THC, a chemical that changes the way you think, feel and act.
Marijuana is made from the dried leaves and flowering tops of the hemp plant. At a certain stage in the growth of the plant, before the flowers are mature, they become coated with a sticky resin. The resin can be dried to make hash.
Hemp is one of the world’s strongest fibres and is usually used to make rope, fabric and paper. When it is grown for this purpose, the amount of THC is too small for someone to use it to get high. Hemp production is regulated carefully.
What does marijuana look like?
• Marijuana is a green, brown or grey mixture of dried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds and flowers.
• Marijuana is often rolled in paper (a “joint”) so it looks similar to a cigarette.
• Hash is dark brown or black, and comes in solid chunks.
• Hash oil is reddish-brown or green.
Ecstasy (MDMA)
The chemical name for the popular party drug ecstasy is “3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine” or MDMA. What’s sold as ecstasy often contains drugs other than MDMA, which may or may not have a similar effect on you like MDMA would. Some of the other drugs often combined to make an ‘e’ pill include caffeine, ephedrine, amphetamine, ketamine LSD or crystal meth.
Ecstasy is made in illegal, unsafe labs and the chemicals and processes vary. MDMA affects the chemistry of the brain, by releasing a high level of serotonin. Serotonin is the chemical in the brain that helps regulate of your mood, energy level and appetite, among other things.
Ecstasy is usually sold as tablet or capsule. It can be swallowed or crushed & snorted. Often different kinds of ecstasy is branded with different colours, shapes, sizes and logos. Unlike candy or clothing, these brands don’t necessarily stand for quality because low-quality copycats are everywhere.
Even though something is sold as ecstasy, it might not even contain MDMA
Cocaine & crack
Cocaine comes from the cocoa leaf. There are two forms of cocaine: powdered cocaine and crack or rock cocaine.
Powdered cocaine is snorted or injected - is a white crystalline powder. It is sometimes “cut,” with things that look like it, such as cornstarch or talcum powder, or with other drugs, such as local anesthetics or amphetamines.
Powder cocaine can be chemically changed to create forms of cocaine that can be smoked. These forms, known as “freebase” and “crack,” look like crystals or rocks. Cocaine is often used with other drugs, especially alcohol and marijuana. Cocaine and heroin, mixed and dissolved for injection, is called a “speedball.”
Methamphetamine (Meth)
Crystal Meth or simply, meth, is derived from amphetamine, a highly addictive synthetic stimulant that affects the pleasure centers of the brain. It’s synthetic because it comes from completely man-made chemicals.
Imagine you’re swimming at a friend’s pool and he told you to snort some pool chemical powder? Or imagine if you saw someone peel open a lithium battery and eat the stuff inside? Well when you do meth, you might as well be doing both.
Meth is usually made using ephedrine or pseudoephedrine plus common household products like:
•acetone (nail polish remover)
• fertilizer
• drain cleaner
• lithium (batteries)
•red phosphorus (matches or road flares)
• brake fluid
• pool chemicals
•table salt
• ether and iodine.
This nice little recipe creates common forms of the drug known as speed and crystal meth. Speed can be swallowed in pill form, snorted or injected, and has a high that lasts from 2-4 hours.
Crystal meth is usually snorted or smoked, and sometimes injected. The high lasts from 4-14 hours and is highly addictive, both physically and psychologically. Crystal meth is colorless and odorless and is typically smoked like crack cocaine (using a glass pipe, empty pop can, tinfoil or a broken light bulb).
Heroin
Heroin is one of the most dangerous and illegal drugs because of it’s hugely addictive qualities. It is also an effective painkiller. As an opiate derived from morphine, it has a strong and instant effect on users.
In its pure form, heroin is a fine, white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that dissolves in water. When it is sold on the street, its colour and texture vary, depending on the manufacturing process and what additives it has been “cut,” with. Street heroin may come in the form of a white powder, a brown, sometimes grainy substance or a dark brown sticky gum.
The purity of heroin varies from batch to batch, and can range from two to 98 per cent pure. Some additives, such as sugars, starch or powdered milk are used to increase the weight for retail sale, or other drugs may be added to increase the effects of the heroin.
The most common ways of using heroin are:
• injection - either into a vein (”mainlining,” intravenous or I.V. use), into a muscle (intramuscular or I.M. use) or under the skin (”skin-popping” or subcutaneous use). Injection may be chosen because this method gives the greatest and most immediate effect for the least amount of drug.
•snorting - inhaling the powder through the nostril
• inhaling or smoking - this method is also referred to as “chasing the dragon,” and involves gently heating the heroin on aluminum foil and inhaling the smoke and vapours through a tube.
People who are dependent on heroin are known to inject two to four times a day.