Drugs of Abuse

Prescription drugs play a critical role in contemporary medicine and health insurance policies typically cover prescription drugs as an integral part of the benefit package.  However, many drugs can alter a person’s thinking and judgment, and can lead to health risks, including addiction, drugged driving, infectious disease, and adverse effects on pregnancy. Information on commonly used drugs with the potential for misuse or addiction can be found in the list below, which is edited and excerpted from:

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) – Commonly Used Drugs Charts, Revised August 2020 accessed 4.30.2020 from  View PDF (drugabuse.gov).

Inhalants

 

Solvents, aerosols, and gases found in household products such as spray paints, markers, glues, and cleaning fluids; also prescription nitrites.

Street Names: Air blast, Aimies, Bullets, Laughing gas, Moon gas, Oz, Poppers, Snappers, Snotballs, Toilet Water, Whippets, Whiteout

Possible Health Effects: Confusion; nausea; slurred speech; lack of coordination; euphoria; dizziness; drowsiness; disinhibition, lightheadedness, hallucinations/delusions; headaches; sudden sniffing death due to heart failure (from butane, propane, and other chemicals in aerosols); death from asphyxiation, suffocation, convulsions or seizures, coma, or choking.

Nitrites: enlarged blood vessels, enhanced sexual pleasure, increased heart rate, brief sensation of heat and excitement, dizziness, headache.