From our drug policy file archives. For educational purposes only, to inform the debate about drug policy. Some of the activities discussed here may be illegal, dangerous, stupid, or more than one of the above. (Please note that web links inside this document may be broken.)
From mimsy!dtix!darwin.sura.net!tulane!spool.mu.edu!uunet!boulder!ucsu!
spot.Colorado.EDU!andersom Wed May 20 13:35:35 EDT 1992
Article: 8481 of talk.politics.drugs
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From: andersom@spot.Colorado.EDU (Marc Anderson)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,misc.legal,
sci.med,alt.rodney_king,alt.rodney-king
Subject: Re: PCP turns people into Supermen (was Re: King verdict)
Message-ID: <1992May20.034920.3001@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 20 May 92 03:49:20 GMT
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Upon hearing this whole "PCP turning people violent" thing, and because I
don't know too much about PCP, I decided to read up on the drug. Here's
something that surprised at least me, quite a bit.
This is excerpted w/o permission from _Drug Abuse and Drug Abuse Research_,
an annual report to congress by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human
Services, pg. 153. (1991)
"There are two aspects to phencyclidine (PCP) intoxication that
have warranted particular attention by the general public, as well
as by law-enforcement and clinical personnel. Both aspects concern
the relationship between phencyclidine abuse and aggressive
behavior. There are reports of increased aggressiveness and
'super-human' strength that develop in some people who take
phencyclidine.
Recent studies, including those of men arrested for criminal
activity in Washington D.C. and New York City (Wish 1986) and
evaluations of published clinical reports of phencyclidine
intoxication (Brecher et al. 1988), indicate that if
phencyclidine induces violent, criminal behavior, it does so only
extremely infrequently.
Although Wish (1986) noted that most men who had urines positive
for phencyclidine were younger than those who had taken no drugs
or other drugs, their crimes were likely to be __less aggressive__
than the crimes of those who had not taken phencyclidine.
[emphasis added -ma] Khajawall et al. (1982) found no
difference in the behavior of clients admitted for phencyclidine
detoxification and those admitted for opioid detoxification. __Thus,
phencylidine-induced aggression appears to be a rare phenomenon,
if it occurs at all__. [emph -ma]"
cited references:
Wish, E.D. PCP and crime: just another illicit drug? _Natl
Inst Drug Abuse Res Monogr Ser_ 64:174-189, 1986.
Brecher, M.; Wang, B.W.; Wong, H.; and Morgan, J.P. Phencyclidine
and violence: clinical and legal issues. _J Clinical
Psychopharmacology_ 8:397-401, 1988.
Khajawall, A.M.; Erickson, T.B.; and Simpson, G.M. Chronic
phencyclidine abuse and physical assault. _Am J
Psychiat_ 139:1604-1606, 1982.
---
-marc anderson
andersom@spot.colorado.edu
