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Did you know?
Jimson Weed, also known as Angel's Trumpet, can cause serious illness and can easily cause death on its first use.
Common names for
hallucinogens include:
PCP, Angel Dust, Love Boat (also slang for phencyclindine), LSD (or acid), Mescaline and Peyote,
Psilocybin or "magic mushrooms"
The effect of hallucinogens can last for 12 hours, causing the user to lose control of their mind and body for an extended period of time.
Hallucinogens can also affect learning and
memory.
Know the signs:
Common signs of hallucinogen use include dilated pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite,
sleeplessness, dry mouth, tremors.
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Hallucinogens
What are hallucinogens?
Hallucinogens, big surprise, are drugs
that make you hallucinate. Thy change your thought process, mood and perceptions. The most popular are acid and mushrooms.
What do they look like?
Acid usually comes in the form of a
small, saturated piece of paper (a blotter) that users place on the tongue, where it infuses into the blood stream. Mushrooms look like dried mushrooms. (These aren't the same mushrooms you find on your
pizza--there are thousands of different kinds of mushrooms. Hallucinogenic mushrooms are unique, and contain a poison which can make you feel "high".)
What do they do?
Hallucinogens' effects vary
greatly, and even unpredictably. In many cases, the five senses start to play tricks on people using the hallucinogens, and they lose their sense of time and direction. With LSD the physical effects
include dilated pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. More extreme reactions can make users become
very strange and can be violent against themselves or others in their confusion of what they are experiencing. Occasionally, heart or lung failure can occur. NIDA
But the real problem with
hallucinogens is they distort users sense of reality. People on acid or mushrooms start to believe they can fly, or drive 1000 miles an hour, or whatever. Thousands of people end up in emergency rooms
with injuries they caused themselves while "tripping." NCADI
The scariest part is that you never know how they'll
affect you, or why. Each experience could end up completely different. Sometimes users only feel a little tingly or detached from reality. Other times they feel violent. Other times they become
disoriented, confused, or delirious. Mood swings become like huge roller-coasters. Trippers may even sit in the corner doing strange, repetitive movements, like picking scabs.
This all lasts for
up to 12 hours, and flashbacks can occur years after using. (A flashback is like a re-lapse--science hasn't totally figured out what the deal is, but it's like your brain "flashes back" to your
previous trip. It's never good, and freaks you and everyone around you out.) Another problem is that you never know what you are getting. Most of these drugs are prepared in underground labs and there is
no guarantee that what you're getting isn't mixed with something else.
I've heard that hallucinogens aren't even addictive.
So what is the big deal?
Well, hallucinogens aren't quite like cocaine or alcohol or nicotine - in that, you don't start needing more as soon as you come down. But if you keep taking hallucinogens, each time you'll need more to get as high. Unfortunately, taking too much can kill you. And no one ever knows exactly how much "too much" really is.
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