According to the Minnesota Institute for Public Health and drug prevention resource center, 5,000 adults in the United States try cocaine for the first time each day. (1985)

Ecstasy is synthetic-it doesn't come from a plant like marijuana does. Ecstasy users often make the drug in secret "labs"-in trailers, basements, and even kitchens-hidden around the country.

After the initial effects, abusers usually will be drowsy for several hours. Mental function is clouded by heroin's effect on the central nervous system. Cardiac function slows. Heroin facts about its short term effects include severely slowed breathing, sometimes to the point of death. Both first time users and experienced heroin abusers are at risk for overdose because they never know the true purity of the heroin they are using. A heroin overdose can take place if the heroin the user has purchased is stronger than they anticipated or if the drug has been “cut” with a dangerous chemical.  

Another one of the risks of heroin use is that all heroin users--not just those who inject the drug-- becoming addicted. Individuals who abuse heroin over time develop a tolerance for the drug, meaning that they must use increasingly larger doses to achieve the same intensity or effect they experienced when they first began using the drug. Heroin ceases to produce feelings of pleasure in users who develop tolerance; instead, these users must continue taking the drug simply to feel normal. Addicted individuals who stop using the drug may experience withdrawal symptoms, which include heroin craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, and vomiting.