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The National Institute on Drug Abuse DOCUMENT RESUME ED 453 460 CO 030 739 TITLE Hallucinogens and Dissociative Drugs, Including LSD, PCP, Ketamine, Dextromethorphan. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series. INSTITUTION National Inst. on Drug Abuse (DHHS/PHS), Rockville, MD. REPORT NO NIH-01-4209 PUB DATE, 2001-03-00 NOTE 10p. AVAILABLE FROM For full text: http://drugabuse.gov. PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Drug Education; Drug Rehabilitation; Illegal Drug Use; *Lysergic Acid Diethylamide; Moods; *Prevention IDENTIFIERS Dissociation; *Hallucinogens; Phencyclidine ABSTRACT Research is developing a clearer picture of the dangers of mind-altering drugs. The goal of this report is to present the latest information to providers to help them strengthen their prevention and treatment efforts. A description is presented of dissociative drugs, and consideration is given as to why people take hallucinogens. The physical characteristics of LSD are described along with its mood altering effects. Specific facts about dissociative drugs are also included such as the forms of phencyclidine (PCP); the nature of ketamine and dextromethorphan; their street names; and their side effects. (Contains a glossary of terms and 10 references.) (JDM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can'an be made from the original document. Hallucinogens and Dissociative Drugs, Including LSD, PCP, Ketamine, Dextromethorphan. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and ImproverneM EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) O This document has been reproduced es received from the person or organization originating IL O Minor changes have been made to Improve reproductice quality Points of view or opinions stated In this dominant do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE Research Report Drugs with street names like acid, angel dust, and vitamin K distort the way a user perceives time, motion, colors, sounds, and UCIN GE S self. These drugs can disrupt a person's ability to think and communicate rationally, or even to recognize reality, sometimes I. SSOC TAT resulting in bizarre or dangerous behavior. Hallucinogens such elQ Including LSD, PCP, as LSD cause emotions to swing kJ- Ketamine, Dextromethotphan wildly and real-world sensations to assume unreal, sometimes Hallucinogens cause their frightening aspects. Dissociative What are effects by disrupting the inter- drugs like PCP and ketamine may hallucinogens? action of nerve cells and the make a user feel disconnected neurotransmitter serotonin. and out of control. Hallucinogens are drugs Distributed throughout the brain In addition to their short-term that cause hallucinations and spinal cord, the serotonin effects on perception and mood, profound distortions in a system is involved in the control LSD is associated with psychotic-like person's perceptions of reality. episodes that can occur long after of behavioral, perceptual, and a person bas taken the drug, and Under the influence of hallucino- regulatory systems, including PCP and ketamine can cause gens, people see images, hear mood, hunger, body tempera- respiratory depression, heart sounds, and feel sensations that ture, sexual behavior, muscle rate abnormalities, and a with- seem real but do not exist. Some control, and sensory perception. drawal syndrome. Use of LSD and hallucinogens also produce LSD (an abbreviation of the other hallucinogens by secondary rapid, intense emotional swings. German words for "lysergic school students has declined since 1998, but ketamine and LSD are '....41. becoming more widely used at dance clubs and all-night raves 4t. by older teens and young adults. e." MDA research is developing a clearer picture of tbe dangers 44..- of these mind-altering drugs. We have compiled the scient& information in this report to inform readers and to strengthen prevention and treatment efforts. Psil n mushrooms and peyote cactus .11ii ore pants that people hove used to Alan I. Leshner,Ph.D. produce "visions! Director National Institute 'on Drug Abuse 3 .S. Department of Health and Human Services Nationalinstitutes of Health(44- (*Noe NIDA RESEARCH REPORT SERIES acid diethylamide") is the drug dissociationfrom the environ- Why do most commonly identified with ment and self. But these mind- the term "hallucinogen" and the altering effects are not people take most widely used in this class of hallucinations. PCP and ketamine hallucinogens? drugs. It is considered the typical are therefore more properly hallucinogen, and the character- known as "dissociative anesthet- Hallucinogenic drugs have istics of its action and effects ics." Dextromethorphan, a widely played a role in human described in this Research Report available cough suppressant, life for thousands of years. apply to the other hallucinogens, when taken in high doses can Cultures from the tropicsV)the including mescaline, psilocybin, produce effects similar to those arctic have used plants to induce and ibogaine. of PCP and ketamine. states of detachment from reality The dissociative drugs act by and to precipitate "visions" What are altering distribution of the neuroL thought to provide mystical transmitter glutamate throughout insight. These plants contain dissociative the brain. Glutamate is involved chemical compounds, such as drugs? in perception of pain, responses mescaline, psilocybin, and ibo- to the environment, and memory. gaine, that are structurally similar Drugs such as PCP (phen- PCP is considered the typical to serotonin, and they produce cyclidine) and ketamine, dissociative drug, and the their effects by disrupting normal which were initially description of PCP's actions and functioning of the serotonin sys- developed as general anesthetics effects in this Research Report tem. Historically, hallucinogenic for surgery, distort perceptions largely applies to ketamine and plants were used largely for of sight and sound and produce dextromethorphan as well. social and religious, ritual, and feelings of detachment- their availability was limited by Prevalence of Students Who Have Ever Used Hallucinogens and PCP 14% 14% 14% 12th-graders 10th - graders 12 12 12 8th-graders 10 10 10 F8 8 8 (Data notavailable for g6 6 6 8111- and 10th - graders) 4 4 4 2 2 2 0 0 0 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 LSD Other Halludnogens PCP Source: Monitoring the Future Survey, 2000 NIDA RESEARCH REPORT SERIES3 the climate and soil conditions they require. After the develop- ment of LSD, a synthetic com- Chemist Albert Hofmann, working at the Sandoz pound that can be manufactured Corporation pharmaceutical laboratory in Switzerland, anywhere, abuse of hallucino- first synthesized LSD in 1938. He was conducting research gens became more widespread, on possible medical applications of various lysergic acid and from the 1960s it increased compounds derived from ergot, a fungus that develops dramatically. All LSD manufac- on rye grass. Searching for compounds with therapeutic tured in this country is intended value, Hofmann created more than two dozen ergot-derived for illegal use, since LSD has synthetic molecules. The 25th was called, in German, no accepted medical use in the Lyserg-Saure-Diathylamid 25, or LSD-25. Five years after United States. he first created the drug, Hofmann accidentally ingested Physical a small amount and experienced a series of frightening characteristics of LSD sensory effects: LSD is a clear or white, odorless, "My surroundings...transformed themselves in more water - soluble material synthe- terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun around, sized from lysergic acid, a compound derived from a rye and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed fungus. LSD is the most potent grotesque, threatening forms. They were in continuous mood- and perception. altering motion, animated, as if driven by an inner restlessness drug known: oral doses as small ....Even worse than these demonic transformations as 30 micrograms can produce of the outer world were the alterations that I perceived effects that last 6 to 12 hours. in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will, LSD is initially produced in every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the crystalline form. The pure crystal outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to can be crushed to powder and be wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken mixed with binding agents to possession of my body, mind, and soul." produce tablets known as "microdots" or thin squares of gelatin called "window panes"; more commonly, it is dissolved, discolor soon after it is manufac- receptors, and that its effects are diluted, and applied to paper tured, and drug distributors often most prominent in two brain or other materials. The most apply LSD to colored paper, regions: One is the cerebral cor- common form of LSD is called making it difficult for a buyer to tex, an area involved in mood, "blotter acid"sheets of paper determine the drug's purity or age. cognition, and perception; the soaked in LSD and perforated other is the locus ceruleus, into 1/4-inch square, individual LSD's effects which receives sensory signals dosage units. Variations in manu- The precise mechanism by which from all areas of the body and facturing and the presence of LSD alters perceptions is still has been described as the brain's contaminants can produce LSD unclear. Evidence from laborato- "novelty detector" for important in colors ranging from clear or ry studies suggests that LSD, like external stimuli. white, in its purest form, to tan hallucinogenic plants, acts on LSD's effects typically begin or even black. Even uncontami- certain groups of serotonin within 30 to 90 minutes of inges- nated LSD begins to degrade and receptors designated the 5-HT2 tion and may last as long as NIDA RESEARCH REPORT SERIES Structure of Serotonin and Selected Hallucinogens SEROTONIN LYSERGIC ACID DIETNYLAMIDE 1SD Hallucinogenic drugs are much like the neurotransmitter serotonin in their molecular structure as well as where and how they act in the brain.
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