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What Are Street Drugs?
Methamphetamines, Crystal Meth, Bath Salts, Spice, K2 are just some of the more common drugs that fall into the category that can be described as ‘street drugs’. These types of drugs are extremely dangerous and experimenting with them once or twice is not a good idea. One additional danger of these illicit drugs is the unknown source. The potency or quantity of chemicals is often difficult to know before using the drug. Even after a single exposure, these substances can cause serious addiction problems and create deep holes that are hard to climb out of.
Length of Detox
The time and intensity involved with the detox process from street drugs depends on how long someone has been using, how much has been ingested and in what ways it has been ingested. All of these factors affect how the brain and the body have become dependent upon the drug.
The detox period can last only a week, but depending upon how severe the chemical addiction may be, an extended period of time may be required. A medically supervised program with therapy, counseling and if necessary, medication, is key to ensuring a smooth transition off the the drug and reducing the risk of complications.
Symptoms of Withdrawal
How to Spot Street Drug Addiction
Street and synthetic drugs are dangerous for many reasons and continued use of them is a gamble with your life. To begin with, many of the drugs sold on the street will contain unknown substances with no way to verify what they are. In fact, all synthetic drugs are man-made chemicals that have been combined by untrained, unscientific and unethical “chemists”, motivated only by money. The user’s health, safety and life is not important to them. Some of these synthetic drug products are lab experiments with new and unidentified chemicals, with no guarantee as to the long term physical, emotional and psychological effects.
Symptoms of Street Drug Abuse
The Dangers of Street Drugs
Many of these street and synthetic drugs are “manufactured” in unclean environments i.e. someone’s apartment, bathroom, kitchen, abandoned warehouses, etc. Some of the products being marketed as a “safe high” might be further adulterated with addictive constituents (like heroin) to ensure dependency and repeat customers.
Brain scans are beginning to reveal the damaging psychological effects these substances are having on the brain and there is no way of knowing what the longer-term effects will be. Even a casual one time experience with these unknown chemicals can have a permanent effect impacting mental health and manifesting with depression, anxiety or psychotic behavior.
Common Health Risks
Street and synthetic drugs are risky. No one knows what is in them or how much. When mixing these substances with other types of drugs or alcohol, this risk is magnified exponentially.
Science has now enabled doctors to locate those areas of the brain that are affected when these unknown substances are ingested. The use of Gamma rays and single photon emission tomography now allows doctors to construct three dimensional images of the brain. These images can view those areas of the brain that have been damaged as a result of the blocked blood flow that many types of these various drugs cause. They impair blood vessel operation in the brain, constricting circulation to specific brain regions; these areas are manifested as holes in the brain.
Unlike familiar substances like cocaine or alcohol, it is not known what the long term effects are of synthetic drugs or if these negative health effects can be reversed if the problem is caught in time. It is highly recommended that these substances not be ingested or immediately stopped.
Unlike familiar substances like cocaine or alcohol, it is not known what the long term effects are of synthetic drugs or if these negative health effects can be reversed if the problem is caught in time. It is highly recommended that these substances not be ingested or immediately stopped.
Overdose and Death
There are countless new street and synthetic drugs beginning to become available in the U.S. Because not much is known about them it is difficult to pinpoint with certainty the unique addictive qualities of each. However, they will all demonstrate the general properties of addiction in users who abuse them.