What is PCP?

Phencyclidine, commonly referred to as PCP, was developed in 1959 as an anesthetic and was later used in veterinary medicine as a powerful tranquilizer. Use of PCP in humans was discontinued in 1965, as it was found that patients often became agitated, delusional, and irrational while recovering from the anesthetic affects of PCP. PCP is illegally manufactured in clandestine laboratories.

PCP is a white crystalline powder which is readily soluble in water or alcohol. It has a distinctive bitter chemical taste. PCP can be mixed easily with dyes and turns up on the illicit drug market in a variety of tablets, capsules, and colored powders. It is normally snorted or smoked. When it is smoked, PCP is often applied to a leafy material such as tobacco, mint, parsley, oregano or marijuana.

PCP was first introduced as a street drug in the late 1960s and quickly gained a reputation as a drug that could cause bad reactions and was not worth the risk. Many people, after using the drug once, will not knowingly use it again. Yet others use it consistently and regularly. The reasons that are often cited by users as factors in their continued PCP use are: feelings of strength, power, invulnerability, and a numbing effect on the mind that often results in anger, rage, and in the disappearance of unpleasant memories.

What Does PCP Look Like?

Pure PCP (or phencyclidine) freebase appears as clear, solid crystals at room temperature, while the salt forms are glistening white solids. PCP on the street often appears as a clear, yellow, or even tan-colored liquid. It is usually sprinkled or sprayed on another substance such as parsley, marijuana, tobacco, or commercial cigarettes. Liquid PCP is typically carried by drug dealers in a vanilla extract bottle (such as the one pictured on the left). The dealer dips a Sherman, a brown cigarette such as the one pictured at the top of this page, or Kool cigarette (hense the nicknames: Sherms and Kools) into the bottle, then he sucks on the cigarette to draw the liquid PCP up into the tobacco. The PCP saturated cigarette is usually sold for around ten dollars to the drug user. Because PCP is easily and cheaply made, it is often passed off as LSD, "Supergrass," "speed," or as a brand new recreational drug by dealers who can't get the real thing or want to increase their profits by paying less for their active ingredients. It is not possible to identify street PCP by visual inspection. An analytical laboratory run by a competent chemist is needed for positive identification.

When PCP is made in illegal laboratories, the noxious chemicals used in the process are almost never removed from the final product. These impurities cause PCP to be a liquid at room temperature. The PCP available on the street is most often a mixture of PCP and industrial chemicals.

Physical Signs of PCP Usage

At low to moderate doses, physiological effects include a slight increase in breathing rate and a more pronounced rise in blood pressure and pulse rate. Respiration becomes shallows, and flushing and profuse sweating occur. Generalized numbness of the extremities and muscular incoordination may also occur. Psychological effects include distinct changes in body awareness, similar to those associated with alcohol intoxication. Use of PCP among adolescents may interfere with hormones ralated to normal growth and development as well as with the learning process.

At high doses, there is a drop in blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration. This may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, flicking up and down of the eyes, drooling, loss of balance, and dizziness. Psychological effects at high doses include hallucinations. PCP can cause effects that mimic certain primary symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delusions, mental turmoil, and a sensation of distance from one's environment. Often times, speech is sparse and mangled.

People who use PCP for long periods of time report memory loss, speech difficulties, depression, and weight loss. When given psychomotor tests, PCP users tend to have lost their fine motor skills and short-term memory. Mood disorders have also been reported. PCP has sedative effects, and interactions with other central nervous system depressants such as alcohol can lead to coma or accidental overdose.

Who Discovered PCP?

PCP was originally developed in the 1950's by Parke, Davis & Company. It was tested on animals and humans, and found to be medically useful as an anesthetic for surgery. Parke Davis marketed it for a short amount of time as a surgical anesthetic for humans under the trade name Sernyl(R), but it sometimes cause terrifying hallucinations in patients after surgery. Because of this side effect, it was removed from the human market and sold to veterinarians for surgery on animals under the trade name Sernylan(R). PCP became more and more known as a recreational drug, and legitimate veterinary supplies were increasingly diverted for illicit sale. The commercial product Sernylan(R) was withdrawn from the market in 1978. PCP is still made in clandestine laboratories. Because the activities of these laboratories is not regulated in any way, the purity and potency of street PCP is highly questionable.

Where Does PCP Come From?

PCP is a completely artificial substance. Unlike cocaine and THC which are derived from natural sources, PCP is made from industrial chemicals. Narcotics police often detect an illegal PCP lab when the neighbors complain about terrible chemical fumes coming from a nearby house or apartment. Because illegal chemists often do not take proper safety precautions, these illegal laboratories may explode or catch fire, providing another clue to their existence.

What Kind of Drug is PCP?

PCP is a "dissociative anesthetic." It was first used in medicine as an anesthetic for surgery. PCP prevents the user from feeling pain while high. PCP also temporarily changes a person's understanding of the boundaries of his or her own body. While under the influence of PCP, a person may look at his own hand and not realize whose hand it is.

This inability to recognize one's own body parts coupled with the inability to feel pain allow the drug user to damage his or her own body. In one published account, a person jailed for drug possession blinded himself by mutilating his eyeballs with his bare hands. Later, he claimed to remember destroying his eyes but reported that he felt no pain while doing it. Other bizarre behaviors reported in the medical literature include biting one's forearms "almost to the bone," appearing nude outdoors for long periods of time in Winter, or "standing in the park like a statue." While people do not routinely blind themselves when taking PCP, violence or agitation occur in about a third of the people who take the drug. It is the combination of agitation or violent actions and the inability to feel one's own body parts that sometimes results in serious injuries to the PCP user.

Common Nicknames for PCP

PCP is sold on the street by such names as Angel Dust, Crystal Supergrass, Killer Joint, Ozone, Shrems, Kools, Wack and Rocket Fuel. The variety of street names for PCP reflects its bizarre and volatile effects.