drugs
... feel “high”. Marijuana can cause long term damage to your brain, lungs, heart, and immune system. It can also have an effect on emotional feelings. Ecstacy is a popular term for an illegal, mood-altering drug . Ecstasy is often referred to as a designer drug. Designer drugs are produced in secret, unregulated laboratories to mimic the physical effects of common illegal drugs such as heroin. Ecstasy is almost always swallowed in 100 to 125 mg pills. It is very infrequently snorted or taken in a liquid form through injection. The strength and contents of Ecstasy tablets cannot be known accurately. Sometimes these pills are stamped with symbols (like clover leafs, horseshoes, or smiley faces) as underground brand names or identifying markers. However, these symbols do not mean that a pill is pure or safe. All Ecstasy available on the street is produced in unregulated black market laboratories. Ecstasy produces a euphoric high that lasts from 3 to 4 hours by generating a rush of serotonin and a smaller amount of dopamine, the brain messenger molecules that help to regulate mood. Serotonin is the brain chemical that many antidepressants regulate. Users describe Ecstasy as making them empathic, producing a temporary state of openness. Depending on its contents, Ecstasy can also cause mild hallucinogenic effects. Users report that the rush of serotonin is pleasurable and produces both an emotionally relaxed and physically exhilarated state. However, this extremely fast deployment of serotonin can deplete normal serotonin levels and produce depression or malaise after the drug wears off. Although further studies are needed, more and more research suggests that Ecstasy causes serotonin levels to drop below normal, which impairs the brain's ability to learn, retain information and regulate mood. It appears that Ecstasy causes serotonin receptors, which allow the serotonin to fire in the brain, to shrink from overuse. Some evidence shows that restoration of serotonin receptors is possible with continued abstinence from the drug, but that people who have never taken Ecstasy have more functioning serotonin receptors than those who have. Other studies suggest that regular or heavy Ecstasy use has long-term negative effects on memory and brain function which go well beyond the last pill taken (and seem to continue to increase in spite of long-term abstinence from the drug). One study found that women are particularly vulnerable to damage to the serotonin system by MDMA. Psilocybin is produced synthetically or extracted from the psilocybe mexicana mushroom and other mushroom species. It is chemically related to LSD. The drug is most often sold in the mushrooms themselves and are known by names...