Drugs and Solvents - Introduction

Drugs alter your body, and they change your mind. Most drugs have side-effects. These can be dangerous, even fatal, especially if you mix drugs or take them regularly.

Even if you risk taking drugs in small doses, they reduce the control you have over your muscles, lessen your reaction time and lower your concentration. So if, for instance, you work with machinery or drive a car, you could be a positive danger to other people as well as to yourself.

If you're feeling depressed, anxious or aggressive, drugs won't solve the problem. In fact, they will probably make it even worse.

Who says you get what you pay for? If you go into a shop and buy a CD, you know exactly what you're getting. With the drugs available on the black market, nothing is what it seems. For example, they may have been mixed with things like sugar, laxatives, even cheaper and more lethal drugs.

And how do you know how strong a drug is anyway? The simple answer is: you don't.

Mixing it can do more than just mix you up. Loading any drug on top of another is risky, very risky.

Possibly the most hazardous move of all is to mix depressants such as alcohol, solvents or tranquillisers. This is because when they're mixed, it takes a much lower dose of each drug to produce a killer cocktail.

Alcohol

Alcohol is produced by the fermentation of fruits, vegetables or grain. Beer contains about one part alcohol to twenty parts of water. Spirits, like whiskv or vodka, are almost half alcohol.

What it Does to You

The effects of alcohol begins quickly and can last for several hours - or more depending on how much you drink.

After a couple of drinks most people feel less inhibited and more relaxed. A lot of alcohol can lead to staggering, double vision and loss of balance, sometimes followed by unconsciousness.

By far the most common danger of drinking alcohol is injury in accidents. In 1992 over 600 people were killed in alcohol-related road accidents.

For many people, drinking moderately can be an enjoyable and sociable experience. But it can go too far.

To avoid damaging your health, it's a good idea to stick to some sensible limits - less than 28 units per week for men and 21 units per week for women. (One unit is the equivalent of half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider, a small glass of wine or a single pub measure of spirits.)

Sustained heavy drinking increases the risk of liver disease (particularly cirrhosis of the liver), various cancers, pancreatitis and ulcers. It can lead to heart and circulation disorders, even brain damage.

Often alcohol misuse is a factor in deaths from falls deaths in fires drownings and suicides

Amphetamines - Speed - Uppers - Sulphate - Sulph - whizz

Back in the sixties, amphetamines were widely prescribed for depression and to suppress appetite. Today, you could be sold then illegally as pills or as a powder to be sniffed. You could even be persuaded to inject them into yourself.

What They Do To You

Amphetamines arouse the body, giving a sense of energy and confidence but feelings of anxiety and irritability take over. High doses can even give you panic attacks and your body could need a couple of days to recover fully.

With amphetamines, there's no such thing as enough. To maintain the effect, regular users have to take increasing doses. Every time they stop, they feel depressed and very hungry. And their resistance to disease is lowered, which can have serious effects on their health.

Barbiturates - Barbs - Blues - Reds - Sekkies

Barbiturates - downers - are used medically to calm people down (as sedatives) and as sleeping pills (hypnotics). Most come in powdered form and are sold in coloured capsules. Misusers will swallow them, occasionally with alcohol, or even inject.

Injecting barbiturates is one of the most dangerous forms of drug misuse.

They're not many people's idea of fun.

What They Do To You

People misusing barbiturates tend to develop a tolerance to them and then a physical as well as mental dependence. Sudden withdrawal can even kill.

The effects can include irritability, nervousness, sleeplessness, faintness, sickness, twitching, delirium and convulsions.

Cannabis - Dope - Blow - Wacky Backy - Grass - Shit

Cannabis comes from a plant known as cannabis sativa.

Hash, the commonest form in this country, is resin scraped from the plant and compressed into blocks. Herbal cannabis (or marijuana) is another.

Generally, it's mixed with tobacco, rolled into a cigarette and smoked.

What it Does to You

Cannabis makes people feel more relaxed and talkative. It can also reduce the ability to carry out complicated tasks which means that it would be dangerous to drive after taking it.

Inexperienced people using high doses or taking it when anxious or depressed may sometimes experience panic. Like tobacco, frequently inhaled cannabis smoke will cause bronchitis and other breathing disorders. It may also lead to lung cancer.

Cannabis is not addictive, but users come to rely on it as a way of feeling more relaxed socially.

Cannabis takes effect very quickly if it is mixed in with a drink or food - however this way it is difficult to know how much has gone into the body. This can be very distressing especially if alcohol is involved

Cocaine - Coke - Snow - Rock - Crack - Base - Charlie

Cocaine, or coke as it's often known, is a powerful stimulant with properties similar to those of amphetamines. It's a white powder made from the leaves of the Andean coca shrub. Because of its cost, it's generally considered to be a drug of the rich.

It is sometimes injected (perhaps mixed with heroin) but is more frequently sniffed through a tube into the nose and absorbed into the blood supply.

What it Does to You

Cocaine produces feelings of mental exhilaration, well-being, indifference to pain and illusions of physical and mental strength. Sometimes, however, these feelings give way to anxiety, even panic.

The effects tend to peak quickly and lessen rapidly. The drug then has to be taken more often to maintain the high.

Over the longer term, happiness is replaced by sickness, sleeplessness and weight loss. Sniffing cocaine can also damage the membranes inside the nose which, even without all the other problems, can be particularly painful.

A Lot Less Than Its Cracked Up to Be

Crack is cheaper than cocaine but more dangerous. It's cocaine which has been treated with chemicals so that it can be smoked. The initial high is followed by unpleasant after-effects which not only encourage compulsive use but can also lead to dependence

Ecstasy

Ecstasy, mainly known as E, comes in tablets or different coloured capsules. You could also be offered it under various other names such as dennis the menace, rhubarb and custard, new yorkers, love doves, disco burgers or phase 4.

If it's taken in a hot atmosphere, at a rave for example, it can cause heatstroke. In fact, there have been several deaths associated with Ecstasy. Studies also suggest that it may damage certain brain cells, and using it for a long time could cause liver damage.

What it Does to You

Ecstasy can make people very friendly towards each other or give them a feeling of extra energy. Once the effect wears off, though, it can leave them feeling pretty miserable. It can also affect their body co-ordination, making it dangerous to do things like driving.

Taken in larger amounts, Ecstasy can cause feelings of anxiety or confusion, even paranoia.

People who use it regularly find it difficult to sleep. Girls find that it makes their periods heavier, and it is particularly dangerous for anyone who suffers from epileptic fits or any kind.

Heroin - Smack - Junk - H - Skag

Heroin, along with other opiates, is made from the opium poppy. In its purest form, it is a white powder. Heroin is sometimes sniffed like cocaine, sometimes smoked, sometimes injected.

What It Does To You

Heroin depresses brain activity, widens blood vessels (giving a feeling of warmth) and causes constipation.

Opiates such as heroin create a feeling of total relaxation and detachment from pain and anxiety. They make people feel drowsy, warm and content and appear to relieve stress and discomfort.

But that's where the bad news starts. Once physical dependence has established itself, this pleasure is replaced simply by the relief of getting hold of the drug. Misusers need more and more just to get the same effect.

Overdosing results in unconsciousness and coma, and often death from breathing failure. The chances of dying are even greater if other drugs, such as alcohol, are used at the same time.

The first-time user often feels sick and vomits, especially if he or she has injected.

Damage to the body is common among misusers. It's usually caused by repeated injections with dirty needles and by the substances that are often mixed with the heroin.

Added to this, there is the general apathy that comes with heroin addiction - poor diet, self-neglect and an existence that no one would envy.

As the intake increases (which it inevitably does), the user feels the effects, even between doses. These include aches, tremor, sweating and chills, sneezing and yawning, and muscular spasms.

LSD

LSD (also known as acid) stands for lysergic acid diethylamide, and is a white powder. It is generally mixed with other substances and formed into tablets or capsules or supplied in paper or sugar cubes. Sometimes, people find that a package contains no LSD at all.

What it Does to You

A trip begins about an hour after taking LSD and fades after about twelve hours depending on the dose.

Effects depend on the user’s mood, where they are and who they are with, as well as the dose. They often include distortion of vision and hearing or a feeling of being outside the body.

Bad trips can lead to depression, dizziness, even panic. These are more likely if the user is anxious or in unfamiliar surroundings.

Anyone driving during an LSD trip will endanger themselves as well as other people.

Magic Mushrooms

There are several types of wild mushroom which can produce dreams or visions. Of these the best known is the Liberty Cap which contains hallucinogenic chemicals. It's not illegal to pick magic mushrooms and eat them raw. But once you dry them or turn them into any kind of preparation, you could be outside the (UK) law.

What They Do To You

A magic mushroom trip is rather like one on LSD. The difference is that it takes effect more quickly and doesn't last as long.

Although they can lead to hallucinations, magic mushrooms can also bring on feelings of vomiting and stomach pains. One of the biggest dangers is that several mushrooms found in this country (UK) are extremely dangerous and can even kill. For example telling the difference between a Liberty Cap and a mushroom such as the poisonous Amanita, for instance, is not at all easy.

Solvents

Solvents are found in products like glue, lighter fuel, paint, aerosols and petrol. When their vapours are inhaled, they produce a similar effect to alcohol. Some people increase the effect by inhaling from inside a plastic bag placed over the head.

What They Do To You

The effects are similar to being drunk (including the hangover). Vapours are absorbed through the lungs and quickly reach the brain. Repeated inhaling can cause loss of control.

Sniffers can be accidentally injured because they are in an unsafe place - on a roof or by a railway line. What's more, some sniff to the point of unconsciousness and then risk death by choking on their vomit.

Sniffers can suffocate if they inhale solvents by putting plastic bags over their heads.

Heavy solvent misuse can result in lasting damage to the brain. Long-term misuse of aerosols and cleaning fluids has also been known to cause lasting kidney and liver damage.

A Nasty Way To Die

A number of people have died during their first attempts at misuse because they have squirted aerosol gases directly into their mouths so freezing their air passages.

Tobacco

Tobacco is one of the most widely used addictive substances in this country.

If you get through twenty a day, over 40 years, you will consume 292,000 cigarettes - That's more than £36,000 up in smoke, even at today's prices

What it Does to You

Inhale cigarette smoke and you take tar, nicotine, and poisonous gases like carbon monoxide into your body. (It's not just smokers who inhale of course, it’s those around them too.)

Smokers claim that these gases help them to relax or to concentrate. Some people, especially young women, believe it helps to keep their weight down.

The more you smoke, the more likely you are to suffer from heart disease, blood clots, cancer, strokes, bronchitis, had circulation, and ulcers. Pregnant women who smoke a lot tend to have smaller babies. And they run a greater risk of losing their child before or shortly after birth.

The sad fact is that tobacco is a cause of over 100,000 early deaths in the UK every year.

Tranquilisers - Tranx - Benzos - Eggs - Jellies

Tranquillisers are prescribed by doctors to control anxiety and tension or to help people sleep. Although they are supposed to be taken in pill form, they are sometimes injected into the body by drug users.

What They Do To You

Tranquillisers lessen alertness and affect driving and other skills where concentration is required. They can also release aggression by lowering inhibition. Mixed with alcohol, they can even lead to death.

Dependence is fairly common among long-term users. Once people stop taking the drug, they can feel confused, irritable and anxious, and unable to carry on with their normal routine.

The Law and Drugs

You know the Facts - But Do you Know the Law?

Most of the drugs listed are illegal. Dabbling with illegal drugs may not necessarily mean that you’re sent to prison, but you could end up with a criminal record which certainly won’t help you when it comes, for instance, to looking for a job.

11 Brunswick Square, Bristol, BS2 8PE, Tel 0117 987 1500

Email: mail@bdp.org.uk

If you are concerned about your drug use, or maybe a partner, friend or relative's drug-use, you can go to Bristol Drugs Project to talk to someone privately about your concerns.

They are an independent organisation and are not connected to social services, the police or any other authority. Nobody else need know you have contacted them. They don't ask for addresses, only first names - so it is a safe place to go to.

Their aim is to help people so that they can reduce the risks associated with their drug use.

They are interested in talking to people about all sorts of drugs, including heroin, amphetamine, crack, ecstasy, LSD, solvents and tranquillisers etc. You don't need to have made a decision to give up drugs to contact them.

If you have a concern around drug use they can offer the following:

• A chance to sit down and talk to someone about your concerns and worries. Just having a talk with someone can really be a help.

• An initial assessment session for counselling.

• Time-limited counselling sessions at Bristol Drugs Project

• Good clear usable information (leaflets etc) on all sorts of issues to do with drugs - how to avoid harm, how to stop etc.

• Referral to treatment services, such as the Avon Drug Problem Team, St. Michael's Hill Clinic, if you are seeking help to come off drugs.

• Information on where to register for your health care needs.

• Referrals to residential projects; and information on the range of rehabilitation centres available.

• Information on where to go to get help with welfare benefits, housing etc.

• An introduction to a number of different groups running at the Project, where people are offering each other help and support in overcoming their difficulties.

• A visit, particularly if you cannot make it down to the project, maybe because you are house-bound, in prison, or in hospital.

• A family support worker, who works with families where drug use is an issue.

• Support to pregnant drug-users, which includes contact with the drop-in ante-natal clinic at St. Michael's Hill Hospital on Thursday mornings from 10am - 12.30pm.

• A women's morning on Wednesdays between 11am - 2pm, where various activities are organised with child-care and needle exchange available.

• A needle exchange scheme which is available from Monday - Friday between 2pm - 5pm.

• A detached team working in and around Bristol at different venues, providing information and advice on drugs, HIV and health related issues. The detached workers also provide needle exchange facilities if you are unable to attend the Project and can put you in touch with the other services we provide. The team can be contacted through the Project.

• A Criminal Justice Team including a Probation Partnership Worker. Prison Workers who work in the area and can help with release plans, information, advice and ongoing counselling and alternatives to custody for remand prisoners.

To people working with drug users in the area they offer the following:

• Information and statistics on drug use locally and nationally.

• Information on many issues related to drugs and drug use, including leaflets, books and videos - which can either be borrowed or purchased.

• Help and advice on drug use and problems on a consultancy basis.

• Specific training packages for groups and projects who have needs not met by current training programmes.

• Support packages for GPs.

When they are available:

• You can ring them for a chat from Monday - Friday between 9.30am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm.

• Counselling appointments are available Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm and late on Wednesday and Thursday evenings until 8pm.

• You can drop in any weekday between 2pm and 5pm - there is no need to make an appointment.

• A needle exchange for injecting drug users is also available every weekday between 2pm - 5pm.

• Women only drop-in with needle exchange every Wednesday morning between 11am - 2pm and creche facility 11.30am- 1.30pm.

They have a loop facility

Bristol Drugs Project receives funding from Avon Health, Avon Social Services and Avon Probation Service. It is a Registered Charity, No. 291714