 Drugs are chemicals or substances that change the way our bodies work. When you put them into your body (often by swallowing, inhaling, or injecting them), drugs find their way into your bloodstream and are transported to parts of your body, such as your brain. In the brain, drugs may either intensify or dull your senses, alter your sense of alertness, and sometimes decrease physical pain. A drug may be helpful or harmful. The effects of drugs can vary depending upon the kind of drug taken, how much is taken, how often it is used, how quickly it gets to the brain, and what other drugs, food, or substances are taken at the same time. Effects can also vary based on the differences in body size, shape, and chemistry. Although substances can feel good at first, they can ultimately do a lot of harm to the body and brain. Drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, taking illegal drugs, and sniffing glue can all cause serious damage to the human body. Some drugs severely impair a person’s ability to make healthy choices and decisions. |
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| For your information |
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| Our preferred sample for date rape drug testing and evaluation is full length hair strands collected at the skin or scalp level. Roots or follicles are not required so no need to “pluck” your hair strand sample. We can test other body hair including eyebrows, underarm, chest, back, arms, legs, and pubic. These samples can reflect drug ingestion for a 6 (six ) month period of time prior to the sample collection date due to a much slower growth rate. |
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| The average growth rate for human scalp hair is about 1/2″/month. Therefore, for the sake of discussion, let’s say that you ingested some type of date rape drug about three (3) months ago and you collected your hair strand test sample today. Assuming the amount of the date rape drug you ingested was at a detectable level that drug would likely be found in the third half inch segment measured from the scalp out. |
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| We also assume that the segment containing the detectable drug was not trimmed or cut away. Be sure that the sample you submit for testing meets these guidelines. |
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Ecstasy (MDMA)
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| This is a designer drug created by underground chemists. It comes in powder, tablet, or capsule form. Ecstasy is a popular club drug because it is widely available at raves, dance clubs, and concerts. |
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Street Names: XTC, X, Adam, E, Roll
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| How It’s Used: Ecstasy is swallowed or sometimes snorted. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- This drug combines a hallucinogenic with a stimulant effect, making all emotions, both negative and positive, much more intense.
- Users feel a tingly skin sensation and an increased heart rate.
- Ecstasy can also cause dry mouth, cramps, blurred vision, chills, sweating, and nausea.
- Sometimes users clench their jaws while using. They may chew on something (like a pacifier) to relieve this symptom.
- Many users also experience depression, paranoia, anxiety, and confusion. There is some concern that these effects on the brain and emotion can become permanent with chronic use of ecstasy.
- Ecstasy also raises the temperature of the body. This increase can sometimes cause organ damage or even death.
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| Addictiveness: Although the physical addictiveness of Ecstasy is unknown, teens who use it can become psychologically dependent upon it to feel good, deal with life, or handle stress. |
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| GHB, which stands for gamma Hydroxy Butyrate, is often made in home basement labs, usually in the form of a liquid with no odor or color. It has gained popularity at dance clubs and raves and is a popular alternative to Ecstasy for some teens and young adults. The number of people brought to emergency departments because of GHB side effects is quickly rising in the United States. And according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), since 1995 GHB has killed more users than Ecstasy. |
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| Street Names: Liquid Ecstasy, G, Georgia Home Boy |
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| How It’s Used: When in liquid or powder form (mixed in water), GHB is drunk; in tablet form it is swallowed. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- GHB is a depressant drug that can cause both euphoric (high) and hallucinogenic effects.
- The drug has several dangerous side effects, including severe nausea, breathing problems, decreased heart rate, and seizures.
- GHB has been used for date rape because it is colorless and odorless and easy to slip into drinks.
- At high doses, users can lose consciousness within minutes. It’s also easy to overdose: There is only a small difference between the dose used to get high and the amount that can cause an overdose.
- Overdosing GHB requires emergency care in a hospital right away. Within an hour GHB overdose can cause coma and stop someone’s breathing, resulting in death.
- GHB (even at lower doses) mixed with alcohol is very dangerous – using it even once can kill you.
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| Addictiveness: When users come off GHB they may have withdrawal symptoms such as insomnia and anxiety. Teens may also become dependent upon it to feel good, deal with life, or handle stress. |
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Inhalants
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| Inhalants are substances that are sniffed or “huffed” to give the user an immediate rush or high. They include household products like glues, paint thinners, dry cleaning fluids, gasoline, felt-tip marker fluid, correction fluid, hair spray, aerosol deodorants, and spray paint. |
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| How It’s Used: Inhalants are breathed in directly from the original container (sniffing or snorting), from a plastic bag (bagging), or by holding an inhalant-soaked rag in the mouth (huffing). |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- Inhalants make you feel giddy and confused, as if you were drunk. Long-time users get headaches, nosebleeds, and may suffer loss of hearing and sense of smell.
- Inhalants are the most likely of abused substances to cause severe toxic reaction and death. Using inhalants, even one time, can kill you.
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| Addictiveness: Inhalants can be very addictive. Teens who use inhalants can become psychologically dependent upon them to feel good, deal with life, or handle stress. |
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Ketamine
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| Ketamine hydrochloride is a quick-acting anesthetic that is legally used in both humans (as a sedative for minor surgery) and animals (as a tranquilizer). At high doses, it causes intoxication and hallucinations similar to LSD. |
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| Street Names: K, Special K, vitamin K, bump, cat Valium |
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| How It’s Used: Ketamine usually comes in powder that users snort. Users often do it along with other drugs such as Ecstasy (called kitty flipping) or cocaine or sprinkle it on marijuana blunts. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- Users may become delirious, hallucinate, and lose their sense of time and reality. The trip – also called K-hole – that results from ketamine use lasts up to 2 hours.
- Users may become nauseated or vomit, become delirious, and have problems with thinking or memory.
- At higher doses, ketamine causes movement problems, body numbness, and slowed breathing.
- Overdosing on ketamine can stop you from breathing – and kill you.
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| Addictiveness: Teens who use it can become psychologically dependent upon it to feel good, deal with life, or handle stress. |
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LSD
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| LSD (which stands for lysergic acid diethylamide) is a lab-brewed hallucinogen and mood-changing chemical. LSD is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. |
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| Street Names: acid, blotter, doses, microdots |
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| How It’s Used: LSD is licked or sucked off small squares of blotting paper. Capsules and liquid forms are swallowed. Paper squares containing acid may be decorated with cute cartoon characters or colorful designs. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- Hallucinations occur within 30 to 90 minutes of dropping acid. People say their senses are intensified and distorted – they see colors or hear sounds with other delusions such as melting walls and a loss of any sense of time. But effects are unpredictable, depending on how much LSD is taken and the user.
- Once you go on an acid trip, you can’t get off until the drug is finished with you – at times up to about 12 hours or even longer!
- Bad trips may cause panic attacks, confusion, depression, and frightening delusions.
- Physical risks include sleeplessness, mangled speech, convulsions, increased heart rate, and coma.
- Users often have flashbacks in which they feel some of the effects of LSD at a later time without having used the drug again.
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| Addictiveness: Teens who use it can become psychologically dependent upon it to feel good, deal with life, or handle stress. |
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Marijuana
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| The most widely used illegal drug in the United States, marijuana resembles green, brown, or gray dried parsley with stems or seeds. A stronger form of marijuana called hashish (hash) looks like brown or black cakes or balls. Marijuana is often called a gateway drug because frequent use can lead to the use of stronger drugs. |
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| Street Names: pot, weed, blunts, chronic, grass, reefer, herb, ganja |
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| How It’s Used: Marijuana is usually smoked – rolled in papers like a cigarette (joints), or in hollowed-out cigars (blunts), pipes (bowls), or water pipes (bongs). Some people mix it into foods or brew it as a tea. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- Marijuana can affect mood and coordination. Users may experience mood swings that range from stimulated or happy to drowsy or depressed.
- Marijuana also elevates heart rate and blood pressure. Some people get red eyes and feel very sleepy or hungry. The drug can also make some people paranoid or cause them to hallucinate.
- Marijuana is as tough on the lungs as cigarettes – steady smokers suffer coughs, wheezing, and frequent colds.
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| Addictiveness: Teens who use marijuana can become psychologically dependent upon it to feel good, deal with life, or handle stress. In addition, their bodies may demand more and more marijuana to achieve the same kind of high experienced in the beginning. |
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Methamphetamine
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| Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant. |
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| Street Names: crank, meth, speed, crystal, chalk, fire, glass, crypto, ice |
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| How It’s Used: It can be swallowed, snorted, injected, or smoked. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- Users feel a euphoric rush from methamphetamine, particularly if it is smoked or shot up. But they can develop tolerance quickly – and will use more meth for longer periods of time, resulting in sleeplessness, paranoia, and hallucinations.
- Users sometimes have intense delusions such as believing that there are insects crawling under their skin.
- Prolonged use may result in violent, aggressive behavior, psychosis, and brain damage.
- The chemicals used to make methamphetamine can also be dangerous to both people and the environment.
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| Addictiveness: Methamphetamine is highly addictive. |
| email: carlsonco@comcast.net |
ROHYPNOL
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| Rohypnol (pronounced: ro-hip-nol) is a low-cost, increasingly popular drug. Because it often comes in presealed bubble packs, many teens think that the drug is safe. |
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| Street Names: roofies, roach, forget-me pill, date rape drug |
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| How It’s Used: This drug is swallowed, sometimes with alcohol or other drugs. |
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Effects & Dangers:
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- Rohypnol is a prescription anti anxiety medication that is 10 times more powerful than Valium.
- It can cause the blood pressure to drop, as well as cause memory loss, drowsiness, dizziness, and an upset stomach.
- Though it’s part of the depressant family of drugs, it causes some people to be overly excited or aggressive.
- Rohypnol has received a lot of attention because of its association with date rape. Many teen girls and women report having been raped after having rohypnol slipped into their drinks. The drug also causes “anterograde amnesia.” This means it’s hard to remember what happened while on the drug, like a blackout. Because of this it can be hard to give important details if a young woman wants to report the rape.
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| Addictiveness: Users can become physically addicted to rohypnol, so it can cause extreme withdrawal symptoms when users stop. |
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| Scroll down to learn more |
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| Certified, court supportable, testing services available by mail worldwide Serving You / Attorneys / Law Enforcement / Government / Military Average test result turn around time, 16-20 business days, most cases. Non-standard cases often require additional testing time. Express service is available |
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Date Rape Drug Update
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| Alcohol alone or combined with a drug of some type is frequently part of the equation regarding drug related sexual assault also called, “Date Rape” Possible alcohol + date drug combinations can include Benzodiazepines, Valium, Clonazepam, Rohypnol, Ketamine. GHB. Other combinations might be included in an alcoholic drink called a ‘”Mickey.” We are finding that Benadryl (OTC), sleeping aids e.g. Ambien, Doxylamine, Lunestra, and others being added to food or drink are also being used by sexual assault perpetrators. |
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| Be sure to review and submit a Chain of Custody Form with your test sample (s) |
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| A comment from one of our many clients . . . |
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| Hi Denny |
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| I must tell you that I was very concerned and extremely uncomfortable about calling your office to discuss the possibility of being a victim of a sexual predator using a suspected date rape drug. I must say I was pleasantly surprised even though you, a strange man, answered my call. You are E-Z to talk to and I appreciated your concern. Your demeanor was always professional and you provided answers to my questions. I’m so glad I called you. Your client service is the best. Finding answers to my date rape drug concerns from the privacy of my home was E-Z and helped me feel more comfortable. Just a call to you and the submission of my hair strand test sample by mail kept things simple. What’s not to like? I’m going to tell a friend in a similar situation about your testing services. |
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| Gabriela – Ft. Worth,TX |
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| What is Burundanga? |
| An interesting explanation about this drug can be found at |
| http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/crime/a/burundanga.htm |
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| What is Scopolamine? |
| Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopolamine |
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| Date rape drugs explained and de-mystified |
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| Click the banner for special date rape drug information |
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| F.Y.I – Caveat: Consumer Beware – Self test date rape drug indicator test kits There are many companies on the internet that are selling self test date rape indicator coasters, cards, or strips that claim to detect for the presence of a date rape drug. These indicator devices have not been proven to effectively and consistently detect for the presence of date rape drugs. The indicated results of self test date rape drug test kits are not sustainable in a court of law. |
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| Some of the companies that sell these types of date rape test kits have a disclaimer on or in the packaging indicating that the product may not work under certain conditions. |
| Check the user instructions on the carton or review the printed product disclosure contained within. |
| We strongly recommend that you review and submit a completed Chain of Custody form with your test sample. |
| Looking for miscellaneous poison testing using hair strands? |
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| Please send email or call our toll free at 1-866-889-3410 regarding testing tailored to meet your particular needs |
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| New Colorado Law Regarding Forensic Medical Exams for Victims of Sexual Assault Crimes |
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| Our test reports are court supportable when using strict Chain of Custody sample collection procedures. There is no additional fee to submit a completed Chain of Custody form with your test sample Be sure to review and submit a Chain of Custody Form with your test sample (s) |
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| continue to date drugs page 2 |
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| Questions about hair testing related to the presence of date rape drugs? Call us now toll free! 1-866-889-3410 |
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| email: carlsonco@comcast.net |
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