A lot of kids come to college with minimal alcohol or drug experience. Due to the illegality of most drugs, and the legal drinking age being 21, it’s hard to get reliable information about what to expect when experimenting.

Schools adhere to an abstinence only policy when it comes to drugs and alcohol, which is considerably unrealistic. It’s time to start telling people how to use drugs (which many people are clearly going to use anyways) safely.

I’ve compiled a list of common drugs, what to expect when doing them, and how to use them safely.

While we’re not endorsing doing any of these drugs, history has shown human nature makes worldwide abstinence near impossible. Hopefully this guide can help a partying UMass student not be on the news the next day, especially after the Zedd show tonight.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor.

Cocaine

Cocaine has many more negative side effects than positive ones, but if you are going to use cocaine, the biggest thing you should watch out for is combining with alcohol. This combination puts immense strain on your heart and, if you have any mild heart conditions, greatly increases the chance of a heart attack.

MDMA: Molly and Ecstasy

Molly is debatably the most popular party drug on the market right now. The biggest problem with this however, is that molly, which used to be MDMA in its purest crystalline form, is becoming less and less pure.

A sad majority of recent cases of molly overdoses involved the victim taking either tainted MDMA, or something that wasn’t MDMA at all.

Luckily, real MDMA is much easier to use safely than cocaine. One of the first things you should do if you are going to use what you think is molly or Ecstasy is buy a test kit (which can be found at bunkpolice.com, dancesafe.org, or eztest.org). Packaged discreetly, and reasonably priced at around $20 a kit, they help make sure what you are about to do is really MDMA. They can be used up to 30 times, and are 100 percent legal.

The next step you need to take is supplement. As a general rule, it’s good to start with buying magnesium glycinate, Tums, Vitamin C, and 5-HTP.

The magnesium glycinate gets rid of the jaw clenching, Tums will help with nausea, Vitamin C helps replenish nutrients, and 5-HTP helps to reduce the “suicide-Tuesdays” – the days after a night of MDMA.

It helps to know rolling too often can mess with your levels of serotonin and dopamine. MDMA releases massive amounts of these chemicals from your brain when taken, and both of these take about four weeks to go back to normal. If you constantly release these chemicals in your brain before they are at their normal levels it gets harder for them to replenish themselves completely.

Marijuana

While marijuana has the least amount of negative side effects on this list, it does have some. Although it is not physically addictive (any fairly knowledgeable pot smoker will tell you this), it is easy to become mentally addicted to its use (note: the pothead in your class who is constantly stoned).

Basically, the best way to ensure safe use with this substance is to simply avoid using it daily. It does not have many negative side effects from occasional use.

LSD/Mushrooms

The biggest legitimate problem with psychedelics is having a bad trip. While bad trips can happen no matter what you do, it’s relatively easy to diminish the chances of having one. Psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary coined the term “set and setting” to describe what can make or break a psychedelic trip.

“Set and setting” refers to the mindset of an individual and the setting they’re in during the trip. Having your head in the right place (i.e. not super stressed for the mid-term you have to take tomorrow that you didn’t study for) and making sure that you are in a good, comfortable area (i.e. not at a party where you know no one and don’t know what town you’re in) can help ensure a good trip.

It is also important to note you really shouldn’t eat for a few hours before taking a psychedelic substance, especially psilocybin mushrooms. Having food in the stomach has been known to cause intense nausea and even vomiting for the first half of a trip, which might take you out of the good mindset we were just discussing.

Drinking alcohol while under the influence of LSD is also strongly not advised, because the energetic state LSD leaves the user in causes it to counteract the feelings alcohol brings, making it so the user doesn’t feel drunk, yet will still have all of the fun affects alcohol brings with it the next morning.

Tripsafe specializes in ensuring a user of a psychedelic is taking proper precautions on their set and setting, as well as having on hand people to talk you through a “bad trip” should you experience one.

Alcohol

Last but certainly not least, we have alcohol, the legal drug.

The only advice that can be given into safe alcohol use is basically to not drink too much, which seems laughable in comparison to all of the other precautions associated with other substances.

You should also never combine alcohol with another drug, because a minorly annoying hangover can become more serious depending on what you did the night before.

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