PCP, also known as “Angel Dust, Amoeba, Amp, Belladonna, Zoom, Peace Pills…” ("PCP | CESAR") is a white crystalline powder that was first commercially manufactured by “Parke, Davis and Company under the trade name Sernyl for use as a general anesthetic for humans in the 1950's” ("PCP | CESAR"). In 1965, repeated reports of patients experiencing delusions, hallucinations, and feeling detached from their bodies stopped production and illegalized use in humans. However, it continued to be used as an animal tranquilizer. Due to its anesthetic properties, this drug is Schedule II. CHECKPOINT
Ketamine, also known as Special K, Vitamin K, K, Super K, Ketaset, or Jet was first developed and sold as a strong anesthetic in 1962. It was quickly processed …show more content…
LSD is the most potent of the category and has the longest half-life averaging around ten hours. Next up is mushrooms with a slightly broader margin of safety—unless the mushrooms are poisonous rather than psychedelic—and a half-life of six hours. Ketamine has a fairly broad margin of safety, but with its addiction and dissociative qualities seems to be quite dangerous; a small dose will last an hour. Lastly, MDMA has the broadest margin of safety of this list of drugs, while on this substance, the participant’s perception may be altered slightly, but they are still coherent. MDMA has a half-life of 5 hours. …show more content…
Each of these are most popularly taken orally, but MDMA, PCP, and Ketamine can also be snorted or injected. Although these drugs are all illegal, falling under Schedule I and II, there has been some recent research on the use of LSD to curb addiction and using MDMA and mushrooms to treat depression in therapy. As opposed to the other classes of psychoactive drugs, hallucinogens vary greatly in their dependence and addictive properties. Most users of hallucinogens prefer to space their “trips” as to give their minds and bodies time to recover, but also to keep their tolerance low. Once use of the substance becomes more frequent, tolerance increases rapidly, but when the pattern of use ceases, that built up tolerance recedes quite rapidly as well. When compared to coming off a highly addictive substance such as amphetamines or alcohol, hallucinogens’ lack of craving and withdrawal is astonishing. Studies have shown that “These drugs are not associated with dependence or withdrawal and have low liability for repeated use following one exposure” (D’Souza). Due to these amazing side effects, or lack thereof, there has been consideration within the health and therapeutic fields to use these drugs under supervision in controlled doses to treat