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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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