PCP Usage Trends
PCP's effects are so unpredictable and frequently so unpleasant that it has a well-deserved bad reputation, even among drug abusers. According to a NIDA InfoFacts report titled "PCP (Phencyclidine)," most people who try it once say they would never want to use it again. The drug is addictive, however. If it is used regularly, the body becomes dependent on it. Dependence occurs when a user has a physical or psychological need to take a certain substance in order to function. As such, addicts will suffer physically if they don't take the drug.
Some people use PCP regularly. The slang term for PCP addicts is "dusters." Some dusters say the only reason they continue to seek out the drug is because of their physical addiction, while others crave the physical and emotional numbness the drug brings. Dusters often go on what they call "runs" or "sprees," using the drug for two or three days in a row, hardly eating or sleeping during that time. When the spree ends, they may sleep for a long time, then wake up feeling depressed, confused, and very sick.
The 1960s Drug Culture
The first reports of PCP's use as a came from the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California, during the mid-1960s. Initially, the drug was seen in tablet form. It was said to cause feelings of great peacefulness. For this reason it was called the Peace Pill. Yet, as more people tried the drug, it became obvious how inaccurate this nickname was. At times the drug caused euphoria (yu-FOR-ee-yuh), which is a state of extreme happiness and enhanced well-being. But along with these powerfully good feelings came negative experiences with the drug that were very common as well.
By the summer of 1968, PCP use had fallen dramatically in San Francisco due to the many horror stories related to the drug. PCP use did spread to other areas in the United States, mainly large cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. As in San Francisco, after the first wave of street use passed, PCP abuse dropped sharply, because users had experienced the bad effects of the drug themselves.
Nevertheless, as time passed, PCP emerged again on the street drug market. In the early 1970s it was sold in tablet form, as a liquid, and as a crystalline powder. Even though users tended to avoid the drug, dealers continued to manufacture it because it was cheap, easy to make, and very powerful. To overcome the lack of demand for the product, dealers began the practice of giving PCP new names and pretending that it was something other than what it really was. It was most commonly sold as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
PCP Resurfaces as a Club Drug
PCP use has gone through rises and dips since the 1970s. After climbing in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, PCP use dropped off, most likely because of the popularity of another powerful, very inexpensive drugrack cocaine. The 1990s saw another upswing in PCP use, along with the many so-called club drugs being used at certain dance clubs and all-night dance parties called . Most PCP users abuse a variety of drugs, and many of the other club drugs are closely related to PCP in chemical makeup.
PCP is frequently used along with other drugs in order to produce stronger, different effects than either substance would produce alone. PCP is often taken with amphetamines, cocaine, crack cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, marijuana, or methamphetamine. Users who have taken some sort of PCP drug cocktail at a rave frequently follow up the next day with a tranquilizer called benzodiazepine (ben-zoh-die-AZ-uh-peen) in order to help them cope with the terrible feelings of coming down from their high. (Entries on benzodiazepines and tranquilizers are included in this encyclopedia.)
Tracking Users
Since 1975, NIDA has provided funds to the University of Michigan to conduct a yearly survey of American students. This survey, known as Monitoring the Future (MTF), includes questions on students' drug use and their attitudes toward drugs. MTF results indicate that PCP use among high school seniors has generally declined in the United States since 1979. In that year, 7 percent of twelfth graders reported having used PCP in the previous year. By 1990, only 1.2 percent said that they had used PCP in the past year. In 2004, 0.7 percent of twelfth graders reported having used PCP in the previous year, although 1.6 percent said they had used it at some point in their lives.
According to the "2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)," 3 percent of Americans age 12 or older had used PCP at least once in their lifetimes. Use was highest among those older than the age of thirty-five. In that age group, 3.6 percent reported ever having used PCP, compared to 3.3 percent in the age range between twenty-six and thirty-five, 3 percent of those between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, and 0.8 percent of those age twelve to seventeen.
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