Designer drugs that can kill catching on among the young

Designer drugs like methamphetamine and Ecstasy are becoming the drug of choice for abusers, who are getting younger, with some hardly in their teens.

These “party” drugs are becoming more popular than opiate-based drugs as they are more easily available ­­‑ being concocted locally - and hard to trace through standard police urine tests. There is also the misconception that such drugs are not addictive.

● Many of these drugs, in pill form, are heavily contaminated, some even with rat poison.

● According to private drug rehabilitation centres, almost 80% of their new inmates are users of such drugs.

● Many of those in rehabilitation are in their teens or 20s and suffer from brain damage and other side effects.

● The National Anti-Drug Agency will begin a pilot programme by the year’s end to specifically treat synthetic drug abusers.

Types of party drugs

Erimin 5


Ketamine


Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine (Syabu, Ice, Yaba, WY, Pil Kuda) is a type of amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS), which also covers amphetamine (Bennies, Benz), Ecstasy, cocaine (Coke, Snow, Blow, Toot) and crack (Base, Sugar Block, Roxanne). ATS is a synthetic drug, produced through chemical reactions, it acts on the central nervous system.

Users feel “awkwardly confident” and bold, and this also makes them aggressive. They usually experience sleeping difficulty, staying awake for up to eight days.

The detrimental effects of methamphetamine:

● It affects various sides of the brain instead of being receptor-specific like conventional drugs. It makes the user more violent, aggressive and will in the long run cause brain damage, 60% of which is irreversible.

● It is highly acidic and can destroy the walls of blood vessels or cause internal vessel rupture.

● It affects the cardiovascular system, leading to heart attack or stroke.

● It leads to mental disorder. More than 40% of those taking methamphetamines suffer from mental disorder after two years.

Ketamine is an anaesthetic for horses, legally manufactured in India in liquid form, but the powder form is abused as a party drug. Low doses give users a drunk-like effect while a high dose induces an “out of the world”, dream-like or floating sensation. The drug numbs the users and their thinking, and hence, is widely used as a rape drug.

Only a certain percentage of users develop dependency, but even those not addicted to it will experience the following effects:

● Severe epigastric pain.

● Urinary incontinence (passing urine every five minutes), urinary track infection, kidney failure.

● Pronounced damage to the cerebella (back of brain) and brain stem (the part of brain that controls our stomach and urinary bladder movement).

Erimin 5 (Five-chai, Happy 5) or Nimetazepam, which belongs to the benzodiazepine group of drugs, is an anti-anxiety, sleeping tablet that has the properties of amphetamine. It is highly abusive, hence the benzodiazepine was added to the Malaysian Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in May, 2001.