TEEN ECSTASY ADDICTION OVERVIEW

Club drugs affect the brain. The term "club drugs" refers to a wide variety of drugs often used at all-night dance parties ("raves"), nightclubs, and concerts. Club drugs can damage the neurons in your brain, impairing your senses, memory, judgment, and coordination.

Club drugs affect the body. Different club drugs have different effects on the body. Some common effects include loss of muscle and motor control, blurred vision, and seizures. Club drugs like ecstasy are stimulants that increase your heart rate and blood pressure and can lead to heart or kidney failure. Other club drugs, like GHB, are depressants that can cause drowsiness, unconsciousness, or breathing problems.

Club drugs affect self-control. Club drugs like GHB and Rohypnol are used in "date rape" and other assaults because they are sedatives that can make a person unconscious and immobilized. Rohypnol can cause a kind of amnesia--users may not remember what they said or did while under the effects of the drug.

Club drugs are not always what they seem. Because club drugs are illegal and often produced in makeshift laboratories, it is impossible to know exactly what chemicals were used to produce them. How strong or dangerous any illegal drug is varies each time.

Club drugs can kill. Higher doses of club drugs can cause severe breathing problems, coma, or even death.

How can you tell if a someone is using club drugs? Sometimes it's tough to tell. But there are signs you can look for. If your friend has one or more of the following warning signs, he or she may be using club drugs:

• Problems remembering things they recently said or did
• Loss of coordination, dizziness, fainting
• Depression
• Confusion
• Sleep problems
• Chills or sweating
• Slurred speech