ILOILO City – The Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) warned youngsters against taking prohibited party/recreational drugs.
“When you are at a party, festival or concert, you might be offered drugs with the promise of having an even better time. Do not accept them. Your health could be at risk,” said RDEU chief Police Captain Marc Dado.
Party or club drugs are sometimes referred to as “designer drugs”. The substances are typically produced in illegal laboratories using a variety of chemicals.
It is extremely difficult to predict their strength, what their effects will be and whether they contain poisonous ingredients. Therefore these drugs can pose serious risks to health and safety
The prohibitive cost of party drugs makes them less rampant than shabu, said Dado.
These drugs are more expensive than shabu – between P5,000 to P20,000 apiece – thus their typical users are well-off people.
This has posed a problem to the RDEU. Dado said wealthy users of party drugs usually transact business or use these in exclusive, private settings.
Party drugs mostly used are depressants that include marijuana and gamma hydroxylbutyrate (GHB), stimulants that include cocaine (coke, charlie) amphetamines (speed) and methylamphetamines (ICE, crystal meth) and hallucinogens that include LSD (acid) and ecstasy (E).
Some, such as cocaine and amphetamines, are addictive, and regular use can lead to the user craving more of the drug. Some are more associated with overdoses while others can cause adverse health effects which can be harmful to the user, such as dehydration.
On March 25, a cocaine and shabu were confiscated from a disc jockey of a disco bar in Boracay Island during a police buy-bust operation.
The Boracay Tourist Assistance Center (BTAC) police arrested disc jockey Reuben Mendoza, a Metro Manila resident working in Boracay these past three years.
Cocaine, also known as coke, is a strong stimulant commonly snorted, inhaled as smoke, or dissolved and injected into a vein.
Mental effects may include loss of contact with reality, an intense feeling of happiness, or agitation./PN
