What Are Club Drugs?
Club Drugs. You hear about them on the nightly news when a local teen dies after taking Ecstasy at a party. They crop up in date rape cases on television crime shows. In an episode of NBC’s The West Wing, they were used to lure the President’s daughter into a kidnapping trap. Club drugs seem exotic and only a little risky, and therein lays their allure and their danger. Because they are relatively easy to get and fairly inexpensive, club drugs are particularly popular with teens and young adults.
Named for their frequent use at clubs, bars, raves and trances, several distinctly different dangerous drugs — including Ecstasy, GHB and Rohypnol — are collectively called club drugs. Raves and trances are all-night dances where young people pack themselves into a warehouse by the hundreds, dancing themselves into a state of oblivion to the pulsing beat of deafening music. Club drugs are readily available at such events. Not all people who attend these events use club drugs, of course, but the overuse of alcohol, marijuana and drugs in such venues is widespread and considered a serious problem by both the law enforcement and medical communities.
The intoxicating highs produced by club drugs are said to deepen the club, rave or trance experience, which entices many young people to try them. Young people think of club drugs as “party drugs,” a way to loosen inhibitions and make the party more fun. Unfortunately, many believe club drugs to be fairly tame, assigning them the same negligible risk they attribute to smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol. Sadly, teens and 20s often seem to get their “facts” from friends, recycling misinformation on the internet until it achieves the questionable “validity” of urban legend.
The truth is club drugs are far more dangerous than young people believe. Use of club drugs can cause serious health problems. Used in combination with alcohol, as they often are, club drugs pose a significant danger. Their affect on a person is highly unpredictable and individual. What gives one person a mild high can push another person into a life-threatening coma. The risk of having an adverse and even fatal reaction, even on the first use, is high. Some club drugs rev up the central nervous system, others send it crashing. Some produce paranoia or amnesia or act as hallucinogens, altering the user’s sense of reality and ability to function. Some club drugs can interfere with the body’s metabolism, causing fatal liver, kidney, cardiovascular or respiratory failure. No club drug is without risk. Add alcohol, sex or driving to the mix and the results can be tragic, even deadly.
Next time: Club Drug Facts
