What is Prevention? There are three types of prevention: Primary prevention This means trying to stop people using drugs before they have started using them. Secondary prevention This means trying to stop or reduce the harm that people do to…
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Pregnancy
What are the effects of drugs on pregnancy? Heavy drug use can damage the health of a pregnant woman, cause complications during pregnancy and possibly damage the foetus. Drugs can affect an unborn baby through the mother’s bloodstream. It is…
Polydrug use
What is Polydrug use? Polydrug use is the use of more than one drug, often with the intention of enhancing or countering the effects of another drug. Polydrug use may however simply occur because the user’s preferred drug is unavailable…
PMA
Please note that the information on this page (and other DrugSearch pages) is being updated What is PMA? PMA has been used as a recreational psychoactive drug, primarly in the 1970s, and in Australia since late 1994. More recently, it…
Peer pressure
What is meant by Peer Pressure? The idea is that young people will not really want to take drugs but that their friends and people around them will put pressure on them to do so by excluding them from their…
PCP
What is PCP? PCP is a synthetic drug that was originally manufactured in the 1950s as a veterinary anaesthetic and painkiller. It became widely used in America in the 1970s as an illegal street drug. PCP is still used in…
Overdose
What is an Overdose? Drug overdoses can be accidental or intentional. They occur when a person takes more than the medically recommended dose of a drug or more than their body has developed a tolerance for. Some people may be…
Over the Counter drugs
What are Over the Counter (OTC) drugs? OTC medicines are classed as “general sales list (GSL)” medicines. You can buy GSL drugs from pharmacies, supermarkets and other retail outlets without the supervision of a pharmacist and without a prescription. OTC…
Nutmeg
What is nutmeg? Nutmeg is the kernel of a peach-like fruit Myristica fragrans. Dried and separated from its husk, known as mace, nutmeg (and the mace) are used mainly as a spice. They can be bought whole or in powder…
Nitrites
What are Nitrites or poppers? Poppers, alkyl nitrites, amyls, amyl nitrite, butyl nitrite, isobutyl nitrite, isopropyl nitrite, hardware, liquid gold, locker room, ram, rock hard, rush, snapper, stag, stud, thrust, TNT Nitrites or poppers are yellow liquids which are inhaled…