Ecstasy (MDMA or MethyleneDioxyMethAmphetamine) is a stimulant that combines the effects of amphetamines and hallucinogens. This drug has gained popularity as a “party drug” from coast to coast in the last few years because it gives users an energetic high, making them feel happy, invincible, and euphoric. Kids dance at all-night parties (raves) or clubs, stimulated by this “designer drug,” risking exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke. Teens believe this drug to be harmless, but recent research findings link ecstasy use to long-term damage to those parts of the brain critical to attention, thought, and memory. A chemical cousin to methamphetamine, ecstasy is extremely dangerous. The toxic dose of ecstasy is very close to the dose needed to get high.
GHB (GammaHydroxyButyrate) is a highly dangerous central nervous system depressant used to produce euphoric and intoxicating effects. GHB was originally available in health food stores to aid body builders but was outlawed by Congress in 2000 due to many deaths and permanent brain damage associated with its use. A dose of GHB mixed into any beverage can render a victim unconscious within 15 minutes. The use of GHB is extremely dangerous: the amount kids take to get high is very close to the overdose amount, which can cause seizures, coma, and death.
Rohypnol (Flunitrazepam), an inexpensive tranquilizer known as the “Date Rape Drug,” is a central nervous system depressant 10 times more potent than Valium. It produces a long-lasting sedative effect, muscle relaxation and amnesia. Rohypnol, when mixed with alcohol and/or other depressants, can cause blackouts lasting 8-24 hours, or even death.

Ketamine is a fast-acting anesthetic used by veterinarians. In humans it produces hypnotic, sedative and hallucinogenic effects and is used as a date-rape drug. Ketamine can produce an intense experience of floating, dissociation, and stimulation lasting about an hour. Heavier doses may produce a “K-hole” in which the user reaches the point of being anesthetized and has an “out-of-body” or “near-death” experience. Ketamine is chemically similar to the hallucinogen PCP.
LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) is a potent hallucinogen which, depending on the amount taken, will produce a psychedelic trip that may last up to 12 hours. The effect is very unpredictable, with a user never knowing whether the trip will be pleasurable or terrifying. A bad trip can cause an extreme paranoid or panicky reaction. LSD use can bring on a major depression or psychosis in people with a predisposition for these mental illnesses. Blackouts and frightening “flashbacks,” during which a user re-experiences an earlier LSD trip, can occur days, weeks, or years later.