RESOURCES
Types of drugs
It can be difficult to know what drug does what. Although there are loads of different drugs they all fit pretty neatly into 3 simple categories.
Stimulants
These drugs all accelerate the central nervous system (CNS). This means then that your heart rate increases, your breathing and your whole digestive system. All stimulant drugs do this.
In addition most of these drugs act to increase your confidence and can lead to you thinking your abilities are increased as well. This is not the case. These drugs are not addictive in a physical sense but the confidence thing can be very habit forming if you are someone who feels shy most of the time.
Mostly also these drugs do not kill people but if you have heart problems or your blood pressure is high then you should probably avoid as any deaths that have been reported are due to difficulties in these areas.
- Amphetamine Sulphate - Speed, Whizz, Billy, Fast, Go, Phet, Amphet, Sulph
- Methamphetamine - Crystal, Meth (very rare in UK)
- Ecstasy - E, Pills, Jacks (a bit of a mixture this one)
- Mephedrone
- Cocaine
- Crack
Depressants
As you might expect all these drugs depress the Central Nervous System (CNS) but they don't make you depressed as such. The dangers of these drugs generally lie in the fact that if your CNS keeps your breathing and heart going then if it gets depressed beyond a certain point then you can stop breathing and your heart can give up. This can lead to death.
However its also true to say that the real dangers with these drugs are mixing them with other depressants. If you take 2 depressant drugs then each one exaggerates the effect of the other one leading to a 4 fold increased depressant effect on the CNS. So DON'T drink with any depressant drug because alcohol is a depressant too.
The vast majority of drug related deaths are due to mixing alcohol with heroin, methadone, valium or similar. Alcohol of course also reduces your inhibitions so of course sometimes if you have used alcohol first then resisting other drugs can be more difficult.
- Alcohol
- Heroin - H, Smack, Brown, Scag, Gear, Junk
- Morphine
- Valium
- Temazepam
- Nitrazepam or any other of the benzodiazepine group
- Methadone
- Subutex
- LSD
- Magic Mushrooms
- Ketamine
- Fly Agaric
Hallucinogens
These drugs are a bit different. Again physical addiction is not the problem but these drugs can give you some scary moments. In order to lessen the likelihood of this if you are going to use these drugs then use them with people who you trust and in a safe place that you know.
These drugs can also give you intense bursts of energy so you might want to be in a place where you can get out and move around. The other problem with them is that they can be even more concerning for people who have had a mental health problem especially one which involves frightening thoughts or images anyway. If this is you then best advice is avoid this class of drugs and stimulants might not be very good for you either.
This list is not exhaustive as new drugs come and go. Mostly though these are the main drugs which are available even though they are illegal. More detailed information is available in our Street Drugs document.
The safest way to do any drug is not to. But if you are going to then find out first and be as safe as you can. Live to enjoy.
At SAdAS we are not trying to tell you what to do or not to do. We are not promoting any form of drug use. In the wrong circumstances all drugs can be dangerous in many ways as they can cloud your judgement and affect your actions.
Information is your first step to living a long and enjoyable life with or without drugs.
