If puffing on cigarettes in the past made the American youth feel grown up and macho, smoking street drugs is now supposed to make them feel invincible. At least this is the notion that is sold via a variety of alternative media as well as some forms of music that are actively proclaiming the coolness of smoking street drugs – much like a Siren song that proves once again that misery does, indeed, love company. While there is precious little that makes smoking anything look cool, clamorous, macho, or sophisticated, it is the use of street drugs in particular that makes this bald faced lie not only life changing but also very often life ending.

The general effects of smoking street drugs vary with the drug that is used. While small doses of marijuana, for example, are known to alter the user’s ability to express herself, giggle extensively, and provide an increased appetite – thus are often associated with weight gain – an overdose of weed is often reported to cause a severe mood swing and even panic attacks. Short term memory loss is severely amplified to such an extent that a panicked individual is unable to remember her address when calling for help.

Of course, smoking street drugs is not limited to marijuana. Amongst those who are known to be smoking street drugs, crack cocaine is usually the poison of choice, simply because the high the weed was able to give them is no longer enough. Crack is known to give the user a perceptible high within two minutes after the first hit. Generally speaking, the high only lasts about 30 minutes and thereafter the effects will gradually subside. What makes this street drug so dangerous is the fact that almost immediately upon losing the effects of the high, the user’s levels of certain chemicals found in the brain start to dangerously dip to such an extent that a mood swing of extreme proportions is experienced. High one moment, and succumbing to an almost deadly depression the next, the crack smoker will almost immediately begin looking for the next hit to get out of the slump.

Smoking street drugs is the kind of habit that can be regulated until Kingdom come; the reality of the matter dictates, however, that only a full disclosure of the effects will help potential users to make educated decisions. While some of the anti-drug groups use scary stories and tales of horror to woo away those on the fence, it is the scientific community that will be able to do the most good by clinically and without a bias show that the effect of these drugs is short lived, temporary, and usually will lead to a physical, psychological, and social decline.