“Club drugs” are categorized as those drugs that are frequently utilized in all-night parties, “rave” dance clubs, and bars. Drugs that are utilized in these settings include folks that have long been abused, like marijuana and cocaine, and also drugs whose abuse could even be a relatively newer development. Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), GHB (GHB), methamphetamine, flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), and ketamine are among these.
MDMA, frequently called “Ecstasy” but also mentioned as “X”, “XTC”, “Adam”, “Clarity”, and “Lover’s Speed”, is perhaps the foremost popular drug used today.
GBH, also mentioned as “G”, Liquid X, “Easy Lay”, and “Grievous Bodily Harm”, was first synthesized within the 1960s and was employed by bodybuilders during the 1980s and 1990s. It had been marketed in food stores as a natural because of promote sleep, slow aging, and build muscle. It is relatively easy to synthesize with ingredients obtained through websites and hardware stores.
- Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) use began gaining popularity within the us within the first 1990s
- Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, mostly utilized in veterinary practice.
How Are Club Drugs Abused?
- GHB and Rohypnol are frequently combined with alcohol and other beverages. Both drugs are used to commit sexual assaults thanks to their ability to sedate and incapacitate unsuspecting victims, preventing them from resisting sexual assault .
- Both GHB and Rohypnol also are abused for intoxicating effects, almost like other CNS depressants.
- Ketamine is usually snorted or injected intramuscularly.
How Do Club Drugs Affect the Brain?
- At high doses, GHB’s sedative effects may end in sleep, coma, or death.
- Rohypnol can produce anterograde amnesia, during which inpiduals won't remember events they experienced while under the influence of the drug.
- Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic which acts on a kind of glutamate receptor (NMDA receptor) to supply its effects, which are almost like those of the drug PCP.
- Low-dose intoxication leads to impaired attention, brain, and memory. At higher doses, ketamine can cause hallucinations; delirium and amnesia.
Addictive Potential
- Repeated use of GHB may cause withdrawal effects, including insomnia, anxiety, tremors, and sweating.
- There are reports of inpiduals binging on ketamine, a behavior that's almost like that seen in some cocaine- or amphetamine-dependent inpiduals.
What Other Adverse Effects Do Club Drugs have on Health?
We do know that:
Combined use with other drugs like alcohol may end in nausea and breathing difficulties. GHB and two of its precursors, gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4 butanediol (BD), are involved in poisonings, overdoses, date rapes, and deaths.
What Treatment Options Exist?
- There are not any GHB detection tests to be utilized in emergency rooms, and as many clinicians are unacquainted the drug, many GHB incidents likely go undetected. according to case reports, however, patients who abuse GHB appear to present both a mixed picture of severe problems upon admission and an honest response to treatment, which regularly involves residential services like rehab centers
- Treatment for Rohypnol consists inpatient detoxification program with 24-hour intensive medical monitoring and management of withdrawal symptoms, since withdrawal from benzodiazepines are often life-threatening. Such treatment and successful management are best provided at residential rehabilitation centers targeting substance abuse / addiction, such as Sanctum Wellness and Healing.
- Patients with a ketamine overdose are managed through supportive lookout of acute symptoms, with special attention to cardiac and respiratory functions.