Synthetic Drugs

Synthetic drugs are made in a laboratory using man-made chemicals. The most common types of synthetics imitate drugs that are often abused: marijuana, stimulants, tranquilizers and opioids. The number of synthetics, or “designer drugs,” on the illicit market is always changing.

Synthetics became popular because drug traffickers and dealers could claim that they were selling “legal” substances. Drug users do not know what is in the synthetic drug they just bought, how it will affect them or what harmful substances it may contain.

Street Names:

• Bath Salts
• Black Mamba
• Blizzard
• Fake Weed
• K2
• N-bomb
• Smiles
• Spice

Short‑Term Effects:

Hallucinations and delusions, confusion and disorientation, psychosis, suicidal thoughts or suicide, extreme agitation and anxiety, panic attacks, depression, insomnia, violent behavior, difficulty breathing, unresponsiveness, loss of consciousness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, heavy sweating, high fever, kidney problems, heart attack and bleeding in the brain.

Long‑Term Effects:

Kidney damage and failure, liver damage, seizures, brain swelling, brain death, tremors, extreme tiredness, insomnia, memory loss and confusion, paralysis, severe and lasting anxiety and depression, gangrene that may require amputations and death.

Updated: 2025