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Illegal street drugs can be found on at least one corner of every city or town in America. Today, there are an estimated 15 million Americans using and abusing illegal street drugs. There is no proper quality control over illegal drugs. It is often difficult to know whether a powder, pill, resin, herb, or liquid is a particular drug. Even if the user thinks it is a particular drug, they may have no idea how strong the dose is or whether it also contains other drugs to bulk it out. They may contain harmful substances such as some of these listed below
Impurities - substances present in the drug as a natural result of how it was made rather than deliberately added. For example, opiate alkaloids may be present in heroin from refining opium into heroin.
Adulterants - these are drugs that deliberately mimic or enhance the effects of the drug being offered. Examples are the way caffeine and/or ephedrine are often found in amphetamine or ecstasy.
Diluents - these are mainly sugars such as glucose, lactose, and mannitol.
These are added to bulk out the deal and assist the process of dilution of the
drug for injection.
Essentially, drugs are pain killers. They may seem to avert emotional and physical
pain by providing the user with a temporary and illusionary escape from, or
way to cope with life's realities. In fact, more problems are created by using
and abusing drugs. The effects of illegal drug use are felt on many levels:
personal, friends and family, and societal. Individuals who use drugs experience
a wide array of physical effects due to their drug and alcohol addiction that
they had never anticipated. The effects of illegal street drugs include tolerance,
withdrawal, sickness, overdose, and resorting to a life of crime. Here is a
list of some of the most common illegal street drugs: meth, ecstasy, cocaine,
crack, hallucinogens, ghb, rohypnol, steroids, ketamine, heroin, marijuana,
and pcp.
