Names: Cannabis (THC, marijuana), LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide, blotter, tile, windowpane, acid), peyote (mescaline), MDA (methylenedioxyamphetamine), MDMA (XTC, ecstasy, Adam), PCP (phencyclidine), PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine, death drug), psilocybin (magic mushroom).

Type: Hallucinogens, psychotomimetic, psychedelic.

Forms: Natural plant derivations, partial and total synthetics as powders, solutions, pills, vapors.

Usage: Sniffed (snorted), injected into bloodstream (mainlining), muscle or under skin (skin popping), smoked, swallowed, applied to membrane surfaces, cooked into foods, chewed.

Legal Status: Illegal except for licensed research, medical applications and ritual use of peyote by the Native American Church.

Unpredictable alterations of mood, thought, and perceptions of time, space, and self. Produces vivid distortions of all senses ranging from extreme excitement and joy to absolute terror, in the same session and varying from session to session. Sensory experiences combine so that what is heard is also seen. Initial episodes are often negative, a "bad trip." Depending upon drug, episodes last from minutes to days, effects from hours to weeks.

 WHAT IT DOES

To Your Mind: Disrupts systems variously from altered heart rate to convulsions.

Many illegally manufactured hallucinogens are sold on the street as substitute drugs, creating unpredictable risk for buyers. Effects are individual to each user. Psychic and physical reactions are not predictable. Depression can be mild or severe. Psychosis can last for months. Flashbacks can recur anytime.

Death can result from convulsions, poisonous dose levels, bizarre accidents murder, suicide, driving under the influence, fatal effects of substitution or alterated manufacture or drugs, lethal effects of combinations of drugs.

One "yes" and your common sense knows it’s time to get smart about drugs and the rest of your life.