From the archive.

Drugs can be fun and amazing but they can also totally ruin your life,make you penniless, change your personality for the worse, send you to prison and kill you. We’d say that the latter half of that sentence was more consistent with what happens to people who REALLY get into drugs.

GHB

Lots of you will experience your first brushes with the wild and crazy world of drugs at university. Some of you will puke up, have a panic attack and never do them again, but the majority of you will keep doing them, in all their different forms, until something really bad happens or your parents find out.

With this in mind, here’s a rundown of the drugs that are currently “doing the rounds” among “the young folk”. We got the guys at FRANK, the drugs helpline, to tell us about them as well.We thought only leather boys who went to fisting nights in Berlin sex clubs still did this but apparently it’s making a resurgence at student nights. People are putting it in Snapple bottles and drinking it. Expect a euphoric high that’s akin to alcohol without the sloppiness, bad breath and aggression. Be forewarned, though – mixing it with alcohol or taking too much will end up with you puking your guts out, passing out on the spot and possibly dying. Do not under any circumstances take it with coke – it will make you feel like your head is going to explode.

FRANK says: A small capful will give you a euphoric effect, make you feel happy, sensual, uninhibited. If you take too much it’ll act like a sedative and a downer and make you really sleepy. Too much will make you feel really disorientated and physically sick. Your muscles can go numb and they can start to go into spasm. You may well make yourself unconscious, maybe it will slow down your respiratory system, maybe it’ll stop.

ADRENALINE INJECTIONS

These little darts of potential pleasure are prescription only but as they are given out to anyone and everyone who is allergic to nuts, or bee or wasp stings, you are pretty sure to know at least one person who can get a year’s supply from one trip to the chemist. They are intended for people whose allergies result in them going into anaphylactic shock, which causes tensing of the muscles and can lead to death by asphyxiation. The EpiPen combats this tension by relaxing the muscles with pure unadulterated adrenaline. Ever read or seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Yup, adrenaline is the stuff they do at the very end that causes a three day blackout. You can get over stabbing the inch long propelling needle into your thigh.

FRANK says: Adrenaline is going to make your heart go faster. It’s not a common thing which people take. It will make everything go faster – your heart, your breathing. There’s a big danger of a heart attack. It’s something that should only ever be prescribed. It’s potentially a very dangerous drug if taken on its own without a controlled medical dose.

FOXY (5-MeO-DIPT)

Foxy is one of those drugs that used to be legal, but got reclassified so it’s really, really hard to find now. It usually comes in white powder form and is the most unpleasant thing to sniff in the whole world – more unpleasant than sniffing your dad’s hangover poo mixed with vapourised sand and fumes of sulphuric acid. The effects are somewhere between that of an hallucinogen and an aphrodisiac, which means you feel frisky and get mild acid visuals. Like all drugs, the situation where you ingest it can make or break your experience. Do take with your new girlfriend at a friend’s house party, don’t take at a squat party surrounded by horny AIDS hippies.

FRANK says: I haven’t heard of that. It sounds like a form of ecstasy. Does it have a fox printed on it?

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