Don’t Be a Dope!

1. Don’t Be a Dope! The Dangers of Drug Use

2. FACT • 11 million American adolescents and young adults ages 12-29 need help with drug and alcohol problems • 9 million of these are between the ages of 12-25 (2009 National Study on Drugs and Health)

3. Why do teens use drugs? • To cope with problems • To fit in and be cool • Influenced by friends or family members • Bored • Want to see what it feels like to be high • Feeling pressured

4. Dealing With Pressure • What are some strategies that you use to deal with peer pressure? • Let’s hear how some other kids deal with pressure.

5. Cocaine • A highly addictive drug that can be risky even the first time you use it • Common side effects include increased heart rate and blood pressure • Seizures, cardiac arrest and even death are a real risk with this drug

6. What is Cocaine? • Cocaineis a white crystalline powder that comes from the cocoa plant • “Crack"is a type of processed cocaine that is formed into a rock-like crystal

7. Slang or Street Names for Cocaine Bump charlie blow rock Coke Nose candy flake “C” snow

8. How is Cocaine used? • Snorted through the nose • Dissolved in water and injected • Crack can be smoked

9. The Risks You may hear that it will keep you wired and ready to party all night. Even the first time you use it, your blood vessels constrict immediately, increasing your heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. At first, you may get sweaty and shaky, but seizures, cardiac arrest and even death are the real gamble you take when you use this drug.

10. Long Term Effects • Highly addictive; easy to get hooked • Snorting causes scabs to form on your mucus membranes • Damages your nasal septum (the thin wall between your nostrils) • Makes your nose collapse • Smoking it lets the drug reach your brain quickly causing higher risk of addiction • Become aggressive, paranoid and anxious

11. Marijuana • Most commonly used illegal drug in this country • THC is the main active chemical and causes addiction • 400 chemicals in the cannabis plant; many cause cancer

12. What does Marijuana look like? Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, flowers, stems, seeds and leaves of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa)

13. Slang or Street Names for Marijuana Weed herb skunk hash pot grass reefer ganja dope gangster

14. How is Marijuana used? • Most users roll loose marijuana into a cigarettecalled a "joint". • It can be smoked in a water pipe, called a "bong“ • Mixed into food or brewed as tea. • It has also appeared in cigars called "blunts".

15. What are some of the effects of Marijuana use? • Using marijuana at a young age can result in structural and functional deficits of the brain. • Marijuana smoke contains 50% to 70% more cancer causing substances than tobacco smoke Other Effects: • Weakened verbal and communication skills • Lowered learning capabilities • Shortened attention span • Slows thinking • Impaired coordination

16. Ecstasy • Also called MDMA • Man made drug with hallucinogenicproperties • Classified as a stimulant but has more of a mood altering affect

17. What does Ecstasy look like? Ecstasy comes in a tablet form that is often branded, e.g. Playboy bunnies, Nike swoosh, CK Can be easily mistaken for candy

18. Slang or Street Names for Ecstasy E Love Drug Hug XTC X Roll Adam

19. How is Ecstasy used? • Taken in pill form; sometimes liquid • Users sometimes take Ecstasy at "raves," clubs, and other parties to keep on dancing and for mood enhancement.

20. What happens immediately after taking Ecstasy? • Impaired judgment • False sense of affection • Sleep problems • Confusion • Depression • Nausea • Paranoia • Drug cravings • Muscle tension • Faintness and chills or sweating • Involuntary teeth clenching • Blurred vision • Severe anxiety

21. What are the long-term effects of Ecstasy? • Long lasting brain damage affecting thought and memory • Damage to portions of the brain that regulate critical functions such as learning, sleep and emotion • Psychosis • Cardiovascular collapse • Hemorrhaging • Degenerated nerve branches and nerve endings • Depression, anxiety and memory loss • Kidney failure • Convulsions • Death It’s as if the brain switchboard was torn apart and then rewired backward

22. Heroin • Highly addictive drug • Derived from morphine, which comes from the opium poppy plant • A "downer" or depressant drug • Affects the brain's pleasure systems • Interferes with the brain's ability to perceive pain

23. What does Heroin look like? A white to dark brown powder or tar-like substance

24. Slang or Street Names for Heroin junk Black Tar Smack Skag Dope Horse mud Big H Brown Sugar

25. How is Heroin used? • Injected into a vein or muscle; can lead to HIV infection • Smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe • Mixedin a marijuana joint • Rolled into a regular cigarette • Snorted as powder through the nose

26. The destructive effects of Heroin • “Rush” – surge of sensation • Slowed breathing • Clouded mental functioning • Nausea and vomiting • Sedation; drowsiness • Hypothermia (low body temperature) • Coma or death from overdose

27. What are the long-term effects of Heroin? • Bad teeth • Inflammation of gums • Breathing problems • Constipation • Cold sweats • Itching • Weak immune system • Coma • Muscular weakness • Depression • Insomnia • Loss of memory and intellectual performance • Loss of appetite Abscesses from use of needles causing pockmarks on skin

28. Why is Heroin so hard to quit? • Within hours after the drug effects decrease, the body craves more • The body experiences withdrawal symptoms including: • Restlessness • Aches and pains in the bones • Diarrhea • Vomiting • Severe discomfort

29. Other Health Risks Related to Injected Drug Use • Sharing drug needles can lead to infections such as HIV and hepatitis • HIV/AIDS – a virus that breaks down your immune system and interferes with your body’s ability to fight off infection • Hepatitis - a virus that attacks the liver

30. Inhalants • Ordinary household productsthat give off vapors or fumes • Hundreds of products on the market today that can be misused as inhalants

31. What do Inhalants look like? • Examples of products kids abuse to get high include: • model airplane glue • nail polish remover • cleaning fluids • hair spray • gasoline • the propellant in aerosol cans • spray paint • fabric protector • air conditioner fluid • cooking spray • correction fluid

32. Street Names or Slang Terms for Inhalants Huff Bolt Bullet Rush Buzz Bomb Air Blast Snappers poppers whippets

33. How are Inhalants used? • Sniffeddirectly • from the container • Bagged (fumes • inhaled from a plastic • bag) • Huffed (inhalant-soaked rag, sock, or roll of toilet paper in the mouth

34. Immediate Effects of Inhalants • Dizziness • Lightheaded • Giddiness • Impaired • Headache • Distorts senses • Slurred speech • Nausea • Rapid pulse • Disoriented • Severe headaches • Rashes around the mouth and nose • Hallucinations and delusions • Death by suffocation

35. Long-term Effects of Inhalants • Muscle weakness • Disorientation • Lack of coordination • Irritability • Depression • Hearing loss • Bone marrow damage • Damage to heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and brain • Memory impairment and diminished intelligence • Death from heart failure or asphyxiation

36. How Can Drugs Affect Your Life?

37. Helping a Friend • If you had a friend who was using drugs, would you try to help that friend? • How would you do it?