Methamphetamine (Syabu, Ice, Yaba, WY, Pil Kuda) is a type of amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS), which also covers amphetamine (Bennies, Benz), Ecstasy, cocaine (Coke, Snow, Blow, Toot) and crack (Base, Sugar Block, Roxanne). ATS is a synthetic drug, produced through chemical reactions, it acts on the central nervous system.

Users feel "awkwardly confident" and bold, and this also makes them aggressive. They usually experience sleeping difficulty, staying awake for up to eight days.

The detrimental effects of methamphetamine:

•  It affects various sides of the brain instead of being receptor-specific like conventional drugs. It makes the user more violent, aggressive and will in the long run cause brain damage, 60% of which is irreversible.
• It is highly acidic and can destroy the walls of blood vessels or cause internal vessel rupture.
• It affects the cardiovascular system, leading to heart attack or stroke.
• It leads to mental disorder. More than 40% of those taking methamphetamines suffer from mental disorder after two years.
• It causes psychotic symptoms including paranoia and hallucination, among others, that often lead to suicide.

Ketamine is an anaesthetic for horses, legally manufactured in India in liquid form, but the powder form is abused as a party drug. Low doses give users a drunk-like effect while a high dose induces an "out of the world", dream-like or floating sensation. The drug numbs the users and their thinking, and hence, is widely used as a rape drug.

Only a certain percentage of users develop dependency, but even those not addicted to it will experience the following effects:

• Severe epigastric pain.
• Urinary incontinence (passing urine every five minutes), urinary track infection, kidney failure.
• Pronounced damage to the cerebella (back of brain) and brain stem (the part of brain that controls our stomach and urinary bladder movement).

Erimin 5 (Five-chai, Happy 5) or Nimetazepam, which belongs to the benzodiazepine group of drugs, is an anti-anxiety, sleeping tablet that has the properties of amphetamine. It is highly abusive, hence the benzodiazepine was added to the Malaysian Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 in May, 2001.

The Star/Asia News Network