What is phencyclidine (PCP)?
Phencyclidine ("angel dust") is a drug which was developed as a surgical anesthetic for humans in the late l950s. Because of its unusual and unpleasant side effects in human patients--delirium, extreme excitement, and visual disturbances--PCP was soon restricted to its only current legal use as a veterinary anesthetic and tranquilizer.

What are PCP's effects?
Effects of the drug vary according to dosage levels. Low doses may provide the usual releasing effects of many psychoactive drugs. A floaty euphoria is described, sometimes associated with a feeling of numbness (part of the drug's anesthetic effects). Increased doses produce an excited, confused intoxication, which may include any of the following: muscle rigidity, loss of concentration and memory, visual disturbances, delirium, feelings of isolation, convulsions, speech impairment, violent behavior, fear of death, and changes in users' perceptions of their bodies.
Research shows that PCP seems to scramble the brain's internal stimuli, altering how users perceive and deal with their environment. Everyday activities like driving and even walking can be a task for PCP users.

What makes PCP so dangerous?
One danger of PCP intoxication is that it can produce violent and bizarre behavior even in people not otherwise prone to such behavior. Violent actions may be directed at themselves or others and often account for serious injuries or death. Bizarre behavior can lead to death through drownings, burns, falls from high places, and automobile accidents. More people die from accidents caused by the erratic and unpredictable behavior produced by the drug than from the drug's direct effect on the body.
A temporary, schizophrenic-like psychosis, which and last for days or weeks, has also occurred in users of moderate or higher doses of the drug. During these episodes, users are excited, incoherent, and aggressive; or they may be quite the opposite: uncommunicative, depressed, and withdrawn. Paranoia, a state in which the user feels persecuted, often accompanies this condition.

How do users get PCP?
Nearly all PCP in today's drug culture is made illicitly since it is easily synthesized in bootleg laboratories. Because of its bad reputation on the street, dealers often sell it as mescaline or other drugs more attractive to users. Users can never be sure what they're buying. Street PCP comes in various forms:
as the powdered "angel dust",
as tablets, as crystals,
and in pills named "hogs" or "Peace Pills".
Smoking the dust, usually mixed with marijuana, parsley, and mint leaves, has become the preferred method of PCP use. The smoker can control the drug's effects better than the pill taker can.

Is PCP a big problem?
Statistics tell us the PCP use is on the rise. In the l960s and early l970s PCP was not very popular with the drug community because of its unpleasant effects, but now it is becoming a drug of choice. More and more hospital emergency rooms and drug crisis centers are seeing cases of PCP-induced panic and overdoses.

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