Troubled Teens Resources

A&E’s Intervention website offers parents basic resources for parents that will help them become acquainted with teen age drug abuse, drug vernacular, paraphernalia, drug classifications, and other materials that serve as a starting point to building an arsenal of information on drugs and drug culture.

Summer often sees an upsurge in a category of drugs that continue to make their presence known. Hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline and peyote are popular with a certain sub-culture of teens that still bear resemblance to the old “dead Head” culture of the sixties.

The glossary provided by Intervention covers a number of these hallucinogens and parents would be well advised to get some basic facts.

Mescaline, one of this group of drugs, is described thus:

“Mescaline comes from a type of cactus called Lophophora williamsii. This cactus has been used historically by some of the native peoples of Mexico and the American Southwest as part of their religious ceremonies…
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Street names: The drug is often known by the name of its natural source, peyote. Other terms for this drug include buttons, cactus, and mesc.
Short-term effects:The drug alters the user’s mental state, causing a variety of hallucinations. Like other hallucinogens, mescaline’s effects can be pleasant or horrifying with some people having anxiety and thoughts of insanity or losing control. The drug also can raise body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate. Loss of appetite and nausea are associated with mescaline use as are insomnia and weakness and tremors.

Long-term effects: Like LSD, uses may experience hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), commonly known as “flashbacks.” These flashbacks are a type of hallucination, not unlike those experienced in the initial use of the drug. They are often visual in nature.

Mental effects:Mescaline distorts reality for the user in many ways. The user may see or hear things that aren’t real and may lose his or her sense of time and space. Feelings of anxiety and intense fear may also occur.

Physical effects:The drug can impact heart and body functions, such as temperature and blood pressure. It can affect the muscles and nerves, creating a sensation of weakness and numbness.”