Epidemic or False Alarm?

While educators, medical researchers, government leaders, parents, and social commentators scrutinize the details of abuse, young people continue to experiment with illicit substances. The debate over hallucinogens is particularly complicated. Unless they are used in combination with other, more harmful items, they do not seem to cause addiction or destroy the body the way “harder” substances do. On its Web site, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration states that “the most common danger of hallucinogen use is impaired judgment that often leads to rash decisions and accidents.”

Besides the known negative effects produced by certain hallucinogens, potential users should think about the uncertainty involved. The effects are unpredictable and are not necessarily the same in different individuals. There is also the possibility that a user will be sold an altered substance. MDMA tablets, for example, may contain elements of highly dangerous drugs. One MDMA look-alike, PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine), can be deadly if ingested in heavy doses.

A further complication is that experimenting with marijuana, ecstasy, and other hallucinogens can lead to experimentation with more dangerous, addictive substances. Users frequently take several different drugs at a party. The results of mixing drugs are all the more unpredictable.

Educators, law enforcement authorities, and medical professionals are encouraged by recent declines in the use of certain hallucinogens among teenagers. Other trends concern them, however, such as the rise in MDMA use by middle and high school students.

Some believe if parents became more involved with their children, substance abuse would decline. Many parents, they suggest, fail to establish expectations or discuss drug abuse. Virtually everyone agrees education and open dialogue are the keys to controlling the abuse of hallucinogens and other risky substances.