Drug Slang and Street Terms for Drugs

What is Drug Slang?

It is important for prevention providers, caregivers and educators to be informed about the different slang words used in reference to specific drugs and drug abuse. Creative names and abbreviations are used to disguise conversations as being innocent so as to not raise red flags.

There are numerous drug slang terms and street names for illicit drugs. This drug culture has developed with its own language in which ordinary sounding words can take on entirely different meanings.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has compiled a list of more than 2,300 terms that mean something different in the drug culture—street terms that refer to specific drug types or drug activity. [1]

 Slang terms used for drugs can range from humorous to clever to serious warnings.

Common Drug Slang

Slang terms are derived from a wide variety of sources, including the physical appearance and type of drug, geographic location, the effect it has on users, and how it’s packaged for sale. Some drug slang or street names for drugs are simply designed to cover up the topic of conversation from possible eavesdroppers.

Someone riding the wave or on the nod is under the influence of drugs. To inject drugs with a syringe is to shoot, spike, boot, or slam the drug. Someone who is bipping is snorting drugs, while a tweaker is a person on a mission to find crack cocaine (but tweek is a methamphetamine-like substance). People who are chiefing, blasting, or participating in a clam bake are smoking marijuana. [2]

Common Drug Slang Include:

Marijuana

• Weed, hash, grass, Mary Jane, reefer, cannabis, hemp, herb, skunk, Pot, Boom, chronic [3]
• Synthetic Marijuana: K-2, Spice, Fake Weed, Gold Spice
• Marijuana Concentrates: Hash Oil, 710, Dabs, Dabbing, Amber, Honey

Heroin:

Some of the slang terms for heroin are based on the drug’s appearance after it is cut and packaged for sale on the street. Some terms are based on the color of the drug and others on its composition. Heroin addiction treatment may be required for prolonged abuse of this illegal drug.

• Big H, Brown Sugar, Antifreeze, Cheese (When mixed with Cough Medicine) Horse, Junk, Mug, Tar, Train, Skag

Bath Salts

• Arctic Blast, Blue Magic, Cloud 9, Cloud 10, Ivory Fresh, Lady Bubbles, Meow Meow, Snow Leopard, White China, China Girl, Vanilla Sky, Wicked X

Cough & Cold Medicine

• C-C-C, Dex, DM, DMX, Skittles, Triple C, Tussin, Vitamin, D, Purple Dank, barre, Bo, Lean, Purple, Jelly, Sip-Sip, Sizzup, Texas Tea

Inhalants

• Duster, Snappers, Ozone, Poppers, Whit-its/Whippets, nitrous

Methamphetamines

• Meth, Chalk, Crank, Crystal, Crystal Meth, Glass, Ice, Speed

Meth addiction treatment may be required for prolonged abuse of this illegal drug.

Cocaine

Cocaine begins as green leaves of the coca plant, but by the time it reaches users, it is a flaky white powder (or hard, white rocks in the form of crack cocaine). The appearance of the drug has been the basis for many of its street names or drug slang.

• Blow, C, candy, coke, do a line, freeze, girl, happy dust, Mama coca, mojo, monster, nose, pimp, shot, smoking gun, snow, sugar, sweet stuff, and white powder, Crack (a form of cocaine, smokeable): Base, beat, blast, casper, chalk, devil drug, gravel, hardball, hell, kryptonite, love, moonrocks, rock, scrabble, stones and tornado.

Depressants

• Backwards, blue heavens, downie, drowsy high, green dragons, idiot pills, joy juice, M&M, no worries, peanut, rainbows, red bullets, stoppers, stumbler, tooles and yellow

Fentanyl

• Apache, China girl, China town, dance fever, friend, goodfellas, great bear, he-man, jackpot, king ivory, murder 8, poison, tango and cash, and TNT

GHB

• GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid): Caps, cherry meth, ever clear, easy lay, fantasy, G, G-riffic, gamma hydrate, Georgia home boy, grievous bodily harm, liquid ecstasy, liquid X, soap, and sodium oxybate

GHB addiction treatment may be required for prolonged abuse of this illegal drug.

Ketamine

• Bump, cat killer, cat valium, fort dodge, green, honey oil, jet, K, ket, kit kat, psychedelic heroin, purple, special “K”, special la coke, super acid, super C, and vitamin K

LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)

• A, Acid, black star, blotter, boomers, cubes, Elvis, golden dragon, L, microdot, paper acid, pink robots, superman, twenty-five, yellow sunshine and ying yang

MDMA (Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine)

• Adam, bean, blue kisses, clarity, club drug, disco biscuits, E, ecstasy, hug drug, love drug, lover’s speed, Mercedes, Molly, New Yorkers, peace, roll, white dove, X, and XTC

Methcathinone

• Bathtub speed, Cadillac express, cat, crank, ephedrone, gagers, go-fast, goob, qat, slick superspeed, star, the C, tweeker, wild cat, and wonder star

Opium

• Ah-pen-yen, aunti, big O, black stuff, Chinese tobacco, chocolate, dopium, dover’s deck, dream gun, hard stuff, hocus, joy plant, O, ope, pin yen, toxy, and zero

PCP (Phencyclidine)

• Angel dust, belladonna, black whack, CJ, cliffhanger, crystal joint, Detroit pink, elephant tranquilizer, hog, magic, Peter Pan, sheets, soma, TAC, trank, white horizon, and zoom

Psilocybin/psilocin

• Boomers, god’s flesh, little smoke, magic mushroom, Mexican mushrooms, mushrooms, musk, sherm, shrooms, silly putty, and simple simon

Ritalin

• Crackers, one and ones, pharming, poor man’s heroin, R-ball, ritz an ts, set, skippy, speedball, ts and ritz, ts and rs, vitamin R, and west coast

Rohypnol

• Circles, forget-me pill, la rocha, lunch money drug, Mexican valium, pingus, R2, Reynolds, roche, roofies, rope, ruffles, and wolfies

Steroids

• Abolic, anadrol, arnolds, bolasterone, dihydrolone, equipose, gym candy, juice, methyl testosterone, proviron, pumpers, stackers, therobolin, weight trainers, and winstrol V

Substance Abuse Treatment

The original development of addiction may have come about as a response to a mental health issue gone untreated. Without proper diagnosis, many seek to control or manage their disorders by self-medicating, using alcohol or tranquilizers for anxiety, amphetamines or cocaine for depression, etc., and the short-term relief or distraction makes the experiment look like a success. [1]

Alternatively, a person mostly free from mental health problems might experiment with drugs and continue past “recreational use” to dependency–then secondary mental health issues can emerge. Untreated, these hasten the ongoing drug abuse with catastrophic results. Also, certain drugs like amphetamines and PCP can cause psychotic episodes themselves that may repeat themselves—these flashbacks can be triggered by stress even in the long absence of drug use and are a major health and safety risk to the individual and those around them,

Repeat use then often leads to dependency, and a substance abuse disorder is formed where one previously might not have been. This very substance abuse can and will often exacerbate the mental illness, The mental illness then can impede long-term sobriety. This cyclical effect of dual-diagnosis makes it difficult to treat without the proper support or treatment, and treatment is paramount to all other matters in the individual’s life in order to achieve a life without major impediments.

At We Level Up Treatment Center in Texas, we believe that if the client can identify the underlying issue and treat it simultaneously with their treatment for addiction. In this scenario,  the client’s chances of a successful, relapse-free recovery are much improved. In fact, once we can identify and properly begin treatment on the underlying issue that’s driving or co-occurring with the dependency on alcohol or other drugs, clients will have reached a major milestone and will be that much closer to long-term sobriety. The symptoms of the multiple disorders that can occur alongside addiction often present complex and similar symptoms: proper diagnosis requires a highly trained professional staff with years of experience. [2]

Identifying Dual Diagnosis Cases

We understand that long-term recovery does not come in a one-size-fits-all program. For this reason, each client, upon arrival at our drug treatment center, will undergo an extensive and comprehensive physical and psychological exam with our team of physicians, counselors, mental health specialists, spiritual advisers, and nutritionists. Together, we will determine what the client’s underlying issues are so we can then customize and fine tailor an individualized approach and, when appropriate, provide integrated dual-diagnosis treatment.

Addiction Treatment at We Level Up Texas

Every individual presents a different story of addiction and recovery that’s unique to him or her. From the first interaction with the individual or family member, we work with you hand in hand in order to provide you with the perfect level of care to meet your specific needs as you heal and rebuild your life.

• We are a fully licensed and accredited facility
• We accept most private insurance providers
• Our professional experts meet the highest quality of addiction treatment
• We offer comprehensively effective addiction treatment programs
• We feature many evidence-based dual- diagnosis therapies

Get the Help You Need

If you or someone you love is seeking a safe, secure, and compassionate resource for addiction treatment, We Level Up TX is here for you. Please contact us to speak with an addiction counselor today about our levels of care and to learn more about drug slang to protect your suspected loved one.