Marijuana (also Hash)

Short-term effects:

• Sleepiness
• Difficult keeping track of time, impaired or reduced short-term memory
• Reduced ability to perform tasks requiring concentration and coordination, such as driving a car
• Increased heart rate
• Potential cardiac dangers for those with pre-existing heart disease
• Bloodshot eyes
• Dry mouth and throat
• Decreased social inhibitions
• Paranoia, hallucinations

Long-term effects:

• Enhanced cancer risk
• Decrease in testosterone levels for men; also lower sperm counts and difficulty having children
• Increase in testosterone levels for women; also increased risk of infertility
• Diminished or extinguished sexual pleasure
• Psychological dependence requiring more of the drug to get the same effect

Stimulants
(Cocaine, Crack Cocaine)

Physical risks:

• Increases in blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature
• Heart attacks, strokes, and respiratory failure
• Hepatitis or AIDS through shared needles
• Brain seizures
• Reduction of the body's ability to resist and combat infection

Psychological risks:

• Violent, erratic, or paranoid behavior
• Hallucinations and "coke bugs" - a sensation of imaginary insects crawling over the skin
• Confusion, anxiety and depression, loss of interest in food or sex
• "cocaine psychosis" - losing touch with reality, loss of interest in friends, family, sports, hobbies, and other activities

Methamphetamine (Crystal Meth), Amphetamines (Speed)

Effects:

• increased heart rate and blood pressure
• increased wakefulness; insomnia
• increased physical activity
• decreased appetite
• respiratory problems
• extreme anorexia
• hyperthermia, convulsions, and cardiovascular problems, which can lead to death
• irritability, confusion, tremors
• anxiety, paranoia, or violent behavior
• can cause irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain, producing strokes

Hallucinogens
PCP (Angel Dust); LSD (Acid); Mescaline; Peyote; Mushrooms

Physical risks:

• increased heart rate and blood pressure

• sleeplessness and tremors
• lack of muscular coordination
• sparse, mangled and incoherent speech
• decreased awareness of touch and pain that can result in self-inflicted injuries
• convulsions
• coma; heart and lung failure

Psychological risks:

• a sense of distance and estrangement
• depression, anxiety, and paranoia
• violent behavior
• confusion, suspicion, and loss of control
• flashbacks
• behavior similar to schizophrenic psychosis
• catatonic syndrome whereby the user becomes mute, lethargic, disoriented, and makes meaningless repetitive movements

Inhalants - Chemicals found in consumer products such as aerosols and cleaning solvents.

Single-time use risks:

• sudden death by asphyxia, suffocation, choking on vomit, careless behaviors in dangerous setting, cardiac arrest
• visual hallucinations and severe mood swings
• numbness and tingling of the hands and feet

Short-term effects:

• Heart palpitations
• Breathing difficulty
• Dizziness
• headaches

Prolonged use risks:

• Headache, muscle weakness, abdominal pain
• Decrease or loss of sense of smell
• Nausea and nosebleeds
• Hepatitis
• Violent behaviors
• Irregular heartbeat
• Liver, lung, and kidney impairment
• Irreversible brain damage
• Nervous system damage
• Dangerous chemical imbalances in the body
• Involuntary passing of urine and feces