What are club drugs?

Causes and Symptoms

Club drugs are often less expensive and more accessible than other controlled substances, making them particularly attractive to young people who want to experiment with drugs at a rave, dance party, or bar with friends. This desire, combined with a false belief that club drugs are safer than other drugs, can lead people to try drugs and sometimes begin using them regularly. Club drugs are often first used at dance clubs or with friends. The belief that such drugs are natural analogs of prescription drugs or are not illegal fuels a misconception of their safety. Because the drugs are psychedelic, reactions of individual users will vary significantly depending on the user’s emotional state, concurrent use of other substances, underlying psychiatric conditions, personality, and past experience with the drugs. Additionally, because these substances are street drugs, their contents are usually subject to some variability, such as being mixed with less expensive drugs, and their quality may vary substantially.

Club drugs go by many different names. They include substances such as gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB, Georgia home boy, liquid X), ketamine hydrochloride (ketamine, special K), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD, acid, blotter), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Adam, ecstasy, X, Molly), and Rohypnol (roofies, roach, roche). They also include herbal ecstasy (herbal X, cloud nine, herbal bliss), which is a drug made from ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and caffeine.

The effects of club drugs vary, but as a group they cause a number of positive reactions, including euphoria, feelings of well-being, emotional clarity, a decreased sense of personal boundaries, and feelings of empathy and closeness to others. However, they can also cause significant negative reactions, including panic, impaired judgment, amnesia, impaired motor control, insomnia, paranoia, irrational behavior, flashbacks, hallucinations, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, chills, sweating, tremors, respiratory distress, convulsions, and violence. It is not uncommon for individuals to mix these drugs with alcohol, prescription drugs, or other illegal drugs. When drugs are taken in combination, the drugs can interact and cause dangerous and unexpected reactions.

Treatment and Therapy

The effects of club drugs vary by substance and the treatment for drug abuse varies by substance as well. In general, club drugs tend to be seen more in emergency care settings than in primary health care settings. This is because some of the problems that they cause are often critical and require emergency care. For instance, overdose, strokes, allergic shock reactions, blackouts, loss of consciousness, and accidents related to these conditions may require emergency care. Similarly, dehydration and heat exhaustion can result from prolonged periods of dancing or other physical exertion, as can occur in rave situations. Date rapes have been known to occur with these drugs, particularly Rohypnol, and injuries due to sexual assault may also require emergency care.

The long-term impact of problems, such as those described above, may require psychotherapy. In addition, problems related to the abuse of or dependence upon club drugs will be addressed in much the same manner as for other substances of abuse. General addiction treatment is advised.

Perspective and Prospects

The dangers of club drugs underscore the continuing need for social awareness of these substances that may otherwise seem harmless. Just because a substance is not listed as an illegal drug does not mean that it cannot be dangerous. Any drug, whether sold over the counter, by prescription, or in any other way, can be misused and be dangerous or even fatal to the user.

While the experimental use of psychedelic substances for psychotherapeutic work may prove beneficial to certain groups of patients, such work is balanced by investigations into neurology, physiology, psychopharmacology, and psychology, which emphasize that the proposed benefits do not outweigh the risks. Continued exploration of the neuronal, developmental, social, and other health effects of using club drugs is necessary as they pose a significant danger to public health, particularly to younger populations.

Bibliography

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Kuhn, Cynthia, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie Wilson. Buzzed: The Straight Facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy. Rev. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. Print.

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Stafford, Peter. Psychedelics. Berkeley: Ronin, 2003. Print.