Miscellaneous Compounds

Steroids have a legitimate medical use, but are also often used in larger than normal doses to enhance muscle mass, improve appearance or performance, or increase size. There are many serious long-term side effects of steroid use. These include things such as masculinization as well as sterilization.

“Bath Salts” refer to a stimulant similar to cathinone (which is a stimulant derived from a plant called khat). To stay under the radar of law enforcement the drug was marketed as “bath salts” and labelled “not for human consumption.” These compounds are not intended for bathing, and are indeed intended to be used for the stimulant effect of the drug. Bath salts are potent and dangerous stimulants.

Ecstacy is a drug with a combination of effects. It acts as a stimulant and as a hallucinogen. It is a popular club drug, used at “raves.” Raves are parties with very loud music and ongoing dancing and drug use. Ecstacy gives them energy while making them feel excessively empathetic towards others. They feel very emotionally connected to people around them. The use of these drugs lead to dangerous situations, such as exhaustion and dehydration. The withdrawals can be very severe and uncomfortable, including possible memory loss.

GHB is another club drug. It is often added to drinks to decrease inhibitions and cloud memory. This is known as the “date-rape drug.” It can also increase sex drive along with tranquility and euphoria. GHB is hard to identify, and hard to test for. It has been implicated in deaths related to attempted intoxications intended to end in sexual assault. The dose has typically been hard to control and hard to predict.

Khat is a naturally occurring stimulant derived from a plant found in the Middle East and East Africa. It is very similar to methamphetamine or cocaine, but not as potent. It is chewed, and in various cultures using it is quite common and acceptable.

Krokodil is derived from “cooking” codeine using very toxic substances. It produces a very potent high and is very addictive. It is so toxic that it causes tissue death and scarring when injected. Krokodil has been primarily used in Russia, but has been reported on rare occasion in America.

Rohypnol is a benzodiazepine (see appendix E). It is included here because it is a very popular drug to use at raves. Rohypnol is very potent for causing sedation. It decreases many of the negative side-effects of stimulants, as well as enhancing the effects of heroin. This drug is also known as a “date-rape” drug.

Salvia is from a plant and has been used in religious ceremonies. It is a hallucinogen, but it also has opiate activity. Recent popularity seems to come from some internet posting of people using salvia. They use it for a “trip” and then post their experience on the internet.

Synthetic marijuana refers to a group of chemicals that have a structure similar to THC (the active component of marijuana), thus they have similar effects to marijuana. Since they are slightly different in structure from THC then they are hard to detect on drug screens for marijuana. These synthetics have been marketed under other names, initially to evade the detection of law enforcement, such as Spice and K2.