Go Ask Alice
...29). LSD is a hallucinogenic drug and therefore changes the way the mind perceives things. The effects are felt about thirty minutes after consuming the drug and peaks after two to six hours, depending upon the amount consumed. Users often report visual effects of intensified colors, distorted images and movement of stationary objects. Distortions of hearing occur as well as changes in the user’s sense of time and place (Adam). Users may manifest long-lasting psychoses, such as schizophrenia or severe depression (Adam). In the book, the subject became very dependent on “tripping” (Trashed.com) and quickly developed some extent of depression. The next drug that she experiments with is marijuana. Cannabis or marijuana is most commonly smoked but can also be eaten or drunk as a tea. Marijuana causes a number of mild physical effects, including increased pulse rate and decreased blood pressure, bloodshot eyes, dry mouth, increased appetite and occasional dizziness (Trashed). Together with the 'loosening' effect of the drug, it is used to produce relaxation, sociability and talkativeness (Trashed). The subject may have used this drug to make it easier to fit in with the people at her new school. After trying marijuana, her drug craze got out of control and she began to take whatever she could get her hands on. Sleeping pills, although a legal prescription drug, can also be abused in the same way. The subject stole her grandfather’s sleeping pills because it was her only escape from her drug oriented life. “I think I can’t stand it and then I just take a pill and wait for sweet nothingness to take over.” (Anonymous 42) The subject would get so high on uppers that she would not be able to s...