What Are Some Popular Drug Slang Words in 2020

The word slang is often used to describe language whose meaning is very informal and is commonly understood only by a certain group of people within a given context. Some popular slang terms that are used today include words like “salty” and “extra”. The word “salty” usually means a person is unnecessarily annoyed, upset, or bitter while “extra” means someone is displaying behavior that is considered to be over-the-top or dramatic. Historically, other generations have had their own set of popular slang terms, things like “rad”, “totally tubular”, or “far out” were other common terms that were only understood by a certain group of people in the past.

While slang language is used by a large variety of the population, it is also widely practiced among teens and other members of the drug community. The reason why they use slang words for drugs is to help conceal their actual meaning from their parents, or other people who might suspect they have a problem, when they are talking about drugs or alcohol. Unfortunately, there are slang words for just about every popular drug that is out there. If you are a parent of a teen and you suspect they might be abusing alcohol or other illicit substances, and are using slang terms to conceal it, or if you suspect another loved one or a friend, then here is a common list of some popular drugs and the slang terms that are associated with them.

Marijuana

popular-drug-slang-words-2020-marijuana-cannabis-addiction
Although legal in some form in many states, marijuana still poses some clear health risks.

Marijuana is a psychoactive drug made from the cannabis plant. It is often smoked in things like “blunts”, “bowls”, “swishers”, “bongs”, or “doobies”. It can also be eaten in “edibles”, “space cake”, or “hash cookies”. Marijuana became popular in the 70’s and is still a widely used substance among teens and other drug users. Some other names for marijuana include:

  • 420
  • Hash
  • Dojo
  • Mary Jane
  • Herb
  • Pot
  • Reefer
drug-slang-terms-DXM-cough-syrup-abuse-addiction-recovery-Riverside-California
DXM is found in various over-the-counter cough remedies. If taken in excess, it can cause psychoactive reactions in users.

Dextromethorphan (DXM)

DXM is found in numerous over-the-counter medications, most commonly in cough medications. It is abused by many teens and young adults as it’s readily available for purchase at almost any market or grocery store. Dextromethorphan has hallucinogenic and psychoactive effects when taken in abundance, it can also have very severe side effects. Common names for DXM include:

  • Robo
  • Red Devils
  • Triple C
  • Velvet
  • Juice
  • Tussin
  • Gel

MDMA

MDMA, or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, is a dangerous psychoactive, synthetic drug that is popular among youth at places like dance parties, raves, or nightclubs. The drug is known to create a “euphoric” high along with other things like increased energy, but it has been known to cause some serious side effects such as addiction and even death, especially when combined with other substances such as alcohol. Common drug slang words for MDMA include:

  • Ecstasy
  • XTC or X
  • Molly
  • E or E-Bomb
  • Love Drug
  • Disco Biscuits or Dancing Shoes
  • Beans
  • Candy or Skittles
  • Thizz
  • Vitamin E, Vitamin X, or Malcom X
  • Rolls

Cocaine

Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of a coca plant and is normally seen in the form of a white powder. It can be snorted, smoked, or injected. It is a powerful and dangerous nervous system stimulant that can have many adverse effects. It has been known to last anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour, making it highly addictive with an increased risk of overdose. Some slang terms that are often associated with cocaine include:

  • Coke
  • Blow
  • Powder
  • Dust
  • Nose Candy
  • White
  • Devil’s Dandruff
  • Ice
  • Charlie
  • Bump
  • Yale

 

Methamphetamines

Methamphetamines are a powerful class of stimulants that affect the central nervous system. Meth is usually seen in the form of a crystal like powdery substance that comes in rock-like chunks, sometimes being compared to “shards” of glass. Crystal meth is highly addictive and extremely dangerous. It is one of the most widely abused substances. It is also reported to have the highest relapse rate among users. Some other common names for methamphetamines are:

  • Crank
  • Chalk
  • Crystal
  • Glass
  • Shards
  • Gak
  • Fire
  • Speed
  • Ice
Riverside-methamphetamine-detox-drug-rehab-CA
Smoking meth is addictive and highly dangerous form of substance abuse in CA.

Heroin

Heroin is a high strength opioid made from a powerful drug known as morphine, which is derived from a naturally occurring substance produced from various poppy plants that are grown in places like Asia, Mexico, and Columbia. It is also very highly addictive and has caused a widespread pandemic that has swept across the country. It can be injected, snorted, or smoked. Heroin is commonly mixed with things like cocaine or meth, a deadly mixture known as a “speedball”. Other words associated with heroin include:

  • Black Tar
  • Smack
  • Dope
  • Black
  • Tootsie Roll
  • Brown Sugar
  • Junk
  • Anti-freeze
  • Dragon

 

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD, is a popular hallucinogenic drug that is common among teens and young adults. LSD is usually seen in liquid form, it can be “dropped” on pieces of candy, paper, or even sugar cubes. It can also be seen as gel tabs or in the form of capsules. It is a highly dangerous and mind-altering drug that often leads to lack of inhibitions and is associated with serious adverse side effects. Other drug slang words for LSD are:

  • Cid, Acid, or Battery Acid
  • Lucy or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
  • California Sunshine, Hawaiian Sunshine, or Yellow Sunshine
  • Dots
  • Doses
  • Looney Tunes
  • Tab or Tabs
  • Hippie
  • Blotter
LSD-acid-psychedelic-doses-molly-addiction-recovery-SoCal-Los-Angeles-CA
LSD, or acid has become popular again, especially in the rave and live concert scenes.

Ketamine

Ketamine is a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anesthesia. It induces a trance-like state that helps to pain relief and sedation. It is a clear liquid or off-white powder. While it is sometimes used for medicinal purposes in both the human and veterinary fields, it is also highly abused by adolescents and members of the drug community. Ketamine has been known to have hallucinogenic effects and can cause respiratory distress and overdose when taken consumed for illicit purposes. Ketamine is commonly referred to different drug slang words on the street, such as:

  • K or Special K
  • K2, Super K, or Vitamin K
  • Cat Valium
  • Purple
  • Jet
  • Lady K
  • Kit Kat
  • Special Coke
  • Super Acid

 

These are just a few of the terms associated with the most commonly abused drugs. It is important to keep an eye, or an ear, out for anything that seems out of the ordinary or where the meaning is unclear. Any phrases or words that seem to be used out of context or repeatedly are other clues that it may be a slang term, trying to conceal drug or alcohol abuse. If you have concerns about a loved one who might be struggling with an addiction, please call us. We are available 24/7.

 

877-228-4679

 

 

MDMA Now Even More Risky Due to Rising Impurities

MDMA Ecstasy

In the past, we have written about synthetic drugs, including synthetic cannabis or bath salts, perhaps the two most popular types. Such drugs are most commonly used among young people, the impoverished or people looking to beat a drug test. The news has been good about scaring some people away from trying or using these chemical regularly— being both dangerous and addictive. Overdose death rate stats are difficult to determine in the U.S., as people present in emergency departments with various side-effect symptoms.

While individuals will continue to use such drugs, if they are available, hopefully access will begin to decrease. However, even when people think they are doing one type of drug, they may in fact be doing something altogether different. You may have heard reports about the highly potent opioid fentanyl being stamped into pills resembling OxyContin? If so, then you probably know that many overdose deaths have resulted from disguising one drug as something else.

Fentanyl is not the only drug being mislabeled. It turns out that drugs that are popular among “clubbers” and music festival goers are commonly adulterated with other substances, some of which are potentially lethal. We don’t hear much anymore about Ecstasy. It is still used and abused to be sure, but these days people are more interested in 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA). The psychoactive ingredient used to make Ecstasy. Most people prefer to use MDMA because it is purer than Ecstasy, which is usually mixed with fillers like caffeine or other harmful additives. But is it really more pure? Is it even MDMA that people are doing? Sometimes, not always.

MDMA, Or Something Else?

New research suggests that MDMA, commonly called “Molly,” often contains dangerous additives, notably the chemicals used to make bath salts, according to a press release from The Johns Hopkins University. DanceSafe, a nonprofit, tested samples of pills or powder thought to be MDMA by people at music festivals and such. The service was conducted discreetly and free of charge. Of the 529 total samples collected between July 2010 and July 2015, 318 (roughly 60 percent) actually contained MDMA or the closely related drug MDA. The adulterated Molly contained:

  • Methylone and cathinones used to make synthetic drugs.
  • Methamphetamine
  • PMA, a dangerous form of amphetamine associated with overdoses and death.

The results show that the likelihood of taking something even more dangerous than MDMA is high.

“People who take pills and first responders need to know that no matter how the pills are branded or what name they are sold as, they almost always contain a mix of ingredients,” says Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Our results should discourage a false sense of security about the purity and safety of so-called Molly.”

MDMA Addiction

If you are using drugs like MDMA regularly, there is a good chance that you will be exposed to substances that are both addictive and dangerous. “Club drugs” are far from safe. Pure does not mean that a substance is without risk. Please contact 10 Acre Ranch for help.

U-47700: China Bans Four Synthetic Drugs

Synthetic Marijuana Synthetic Drugs

When talking about synthetic drugs, one of two things should come to mind: Dangerous chemicals used to make bath salts or synthetic cannabis; or powerful opioids such as fentanyl, carfentanil, and U-47700. Regardless of which we are talking about, they all have two things in common. They are deadly and are made in China.

To be sure, it is a fact that the United States makes up a small percentage of the world population. We also have safeguards in place providing oversight to protect people from dangerous substances and that we have more oversight than most countries. Yet, the people of America have the highest demand for drugs, especially opioids. Americans use the clear majority of the world’s prescription opioid supply, a problem of epidemic proportions. The problem has grown arms in recent years, with addicts branching out to illicit opioids like heroin.

But they are not just doing heroin. In many cases, the powerful opioid analgesic fentanyl is introduced to batches of heroin. In other cases, an even more deadly animal tranquilizer known as carfentanil is present in heroin. Over the last year there has been talk about another designer opioid, dubbed U-47700. Also, known as “Pink.” And like fentanyl, is made in laboratories in China to be sold to drug cartels an ocean away.

Reining In China’s U-47700

Until recently, China was doing little to combat the flood of synthetic drugs being made within its borders. Due to pressure from foreign governments, like our own, China is finally making efforts to curb the problem. They have already banned a number of chemicals that were being used to make synthetic marijuana. Now, they are going after synthetic opioids, like U-47700. Pressure from America has led to China agreeing to ban U-47700, Stat News reports. This follows the DEA’s move last year to add Pink to the list of Schedule I controlled substances. Drugs that have no accepted medical use and “a high potential for abuse.”

As of July 1, 2017, four compounds will be added to China’s list of controlled substances, according to the article. Including:

  • U-47700
  • MT-45
  • PMMA
  • 4,4′-DMARbe

While this is promising news, we are still faced with the reality that chemists will be quick to alter the formula. Allowing them to skirt the bans put in place by both American and Chinese officials. A trend that Yu Haibin, a division director at the Ministry of Public Security’s Narcotics Control Bureau, realizes fully.

“My feeling is that it’s just like a race and I will never catch up with the criminals,” Yu told a news conference. “Actually, we just want to make a breakthrough in dealing with this.”

Playing With Fire

If you are buying compounds like U-47700 over the internet, please be advised that there is no telling how chemists will alter the formula. Nor the side effects that will result from such a change. Synthetic drugs are highly unpredictable. They are addictive and can be deadly.

If you feel that you might be addicted to synthetic drugs, please contact 10 Acre ranch today. We can help you break the cycle of addiction and set you on the path of recovery.

Synthetic Marijuana: Deadly Side Effects

Synthetic Marijuana

The news of late has been dominated by talk of opioid narcotics, prescription drugs like oxycodone and illicit ones like heroin. Recently there has been a lot of talk about powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil, around 100 times and 10,000 times more potent than morphine respectively. In many ways, taking synthetic opioids can be a death sentence. Fentanyl was never meant to be used illicitly, and carfentanil was meant for elephants not humans.

Synthetic opioids are a major concern, to be sure, but there are other synthetic drugs that have been plaguing American streets for some time now. And there is a good chance that you have heard or read about many of them. Spice, K2, Flakka and bath salts may come to mind. In many parts of the world the chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana and bath salts are not outlawed. When governments to ban the ingredients used to make them, chemists are quick to alter the formula in order to circumvent the blacklist.

If you are working a program of addiction recovery, or have a vested interest in understanding these chemicals, you may be wondering what the attraction is to a family of drugs that has been linked to hundreds of terrifying news stories? The easiest way to answer that question is that they are easy to acquire, relatively inexpensive and often go undetected on standard drug screens. But despite the perceived benefits of synthetic drugs, the potential side effects are not worth the risk.

Unpredictable Synthetic Drugs

For the time being, let’s just spotlight synthetic cannabinoids; which, despite the moniker have little in common with traditional marijuana. To be sure, marijuana despite its benign reputation is not without risk. Yet, when you compare marijuana to synthetic cannabis—apples and oranges is what you find.

The chemical makeup of what is sprayed on herbal matter to be smoked by users is constantly being changed. A user hasn’t any way of knowing what to expect, and what they experience can be deadly. Common side effects of synthetic marijuana, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), include extreme anxiety, confusion, paranoia and hallucinations. And even more concerning:

  • Rapid Heart Rate
  • Vomiting
  • Violent Behavior
  • Suicidal Thoughts

In order to combat the synthetic drug crisis in America, lawmakers and government agencies have banned certain chemicals and begun targeting people distributing the dangerous drugs. Just this week, 42-year-old Ramsey Jeries Farraj from Bakersfield, pleaded guilty to a charge related to more than $4 million in synthetic drug-sale proceeds, Bakersfield Now reports. For his crimes related to selling spice and K-2 online, Farraj is looking at five years in prison and a fine.

Synthetic Marijuana is Dangerous

Young people are often drawn to synthetic drugs for the reasons mentioned earlier. They frequently do not know about the synthetic drugs deadly nature and that they can be addictive. If you are young adult male who is using synthetic drugs of any kind on a regular basis, there is a good chance that you have become dependent. With each week that passes, there is no way of knowing what changes chemists will make to the drugs you are consuming, the next batch may be your last. Please contact 10 Acre Ranch to break the cycle of addiction and begin the journey of recovery.

Fentanyl and Carfentanil Taking Lives

Book with fentanyl and test tubes

It would seem that we all live in an era where the drugs of our parents’ generation do not hold the same appeal. That is not to say that people no longer use cocaine, marijuana, speed and heroin (especially heroin); but rather, that the environment has changed dramatically and we live in a time when synthetic drugs are seemingly the biggest threat—at least with respect to posterity. Over the last decade, give or take, the media has flooded America with horror story after horror story, centered on synthetic analogs that are literally killing people.

First, it is important to make clear that the greatest problem regarding drug use today is centered around the American opioid addiction epidemic. A crisis of epic proportions that arose from what can only be called reckless overprescribing of prescription opioid painkillers. For nearly two decades both individual states and the Federal government have been reeling to find a way to reign in the scourge of opioid addiction that resulted from prescribing opioids for all things considered painful, whether that be a stubbed toe or back pain.

What started with pills prescribed legally, morphed into an even greater problem when crackdowns made it harder for already addicted Americans to acquire painkillers from a doctor. Such people did what any addict would do, looked to the black market for relief. A marketplace with zero-oversight and few concerns about patient wellbeing. Many pill abusers found that they could save money and actually achieve a greater high by making the switch to heroin. Thinking that prescription painkillers and heroin were both opioids, what’s the difference? The answer to which is, a lot!

Opioid Mystery Bags

Is it true that people die every day from prescription opioid overdoses? Yes. However, many of the overdose deaths today are the result of using heroin, and it isn’t just the heroin that is killing people. But rather what is mixed into the heroin, unbeknownst to users, in order to boost potency. For a number of years now, people have been dying of overdoses on heroin that is mixed with an extremely powerful synthetic opioid narcotic. One that is often resistant to the life-saving effects of the overdose reversal drug naloxone—sold under the brand name Narcan.

You may already have guessed that the synthetic being referred to is fentanyl. A drug commonly used in hospital settings for surgery and traumatic injuries which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The ingredients to make fentanyl can be acquired with relative ease from Chinese laboratories, and shipped overseas to cartels in Mexico. From there, the drug which causes severe respiratory depression is either stamped into pills disguised as other drugs (i.e. OxyContin) or it is mixed in with batches of heroin. Either way, by the time the fentanyl reaches people with opioid use disorder in the U.S., there is little way of knowing what is being consumed.

To make matters even worse, there are stronger analgesics also finding their way into the hands of American drug addicts, once again without their knowledge of the drugs’ presence. Interestingly, the more powerful drugs are analogs of fentanyl, but were never intended for human use.

Gray Death: A Fentanyl Admixture

In Alabama, Georgia and Ohio there has been a spate of deaths linked to dangerous opioid admixture, fittingly referred to as “Gray Death.” It was given the moniker because it looks like concrete mix, and causes overdose, the Associated Press reports. It is usually a mixture of heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil — an analog of fentanyl 10,000 times more potent than morphine, often used to tranquilize large animals like elephants. Sometimes another obscure synthetic opioid called U-47700, which has been associated with dozens of deaths, is added to the bags.

“Gray death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,” Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

If you are actively abusing opioids, these combinations of drugs should be cause for concern. Around one hundred people die every day in this country just from abusing heroin on its own and prescription opioids. If you add something that includes elephant tranquilizers into the mix, then the stakes suddenly get much higher. If you think that you are buying heroin, there is no way of knowing until it’s too late. If you think that just because a pill has an OC stamped on the side and it is therefore OxyContin, it could in fact be something entirely different.

At 10 Acre Ranch, we strongly encourage you to consider reaching out for help. Entering substance use disorder treatment will end the risk of a fatal overdose and prevent the often slow death of active addiction. We can help you break the cycle and show you how to live a fulfilling life in recovery. Please contact us today.