A Parent Guide to Drug Slang & Street Names

If one positive thing could be said of drug users, it’s that they apparently have a big vocabulary—when it comes to their illicit activities that is. Like walking thesauruses, abusers are chalk full of dozens and dozens of alternate names for various substances and the acts or smoking, doing, or being high on them. 

It can be hard to keep up.

But just as you, as a parent or guardian, should be aware of changes in your teen’s personality and behavior and watch out for physical evidence as indicators of possible teen substance abuse, so too should you have some knowledge on the slang of drug culture.

Maybe you catch some whisperings of all the Looney Tunes that are going to be at this weekend’s party or overhear a new friend tell your teen about freebasing. With this trusty guide, you’ll recognize that those aren’t just terms kids these days are using to describe the latest YouTube fad or video game trend, but are coded names for LSD, cocaine use, and the like.

Cocaine

Other Names: Aunt Nora, Bernice, Binge, Blow, C, Charlie, Coke, Dust, Flake, Mojo, Nose Candy, Paradise, Sneeze, Sniff, Snow, Toot, White.

Terms for Cocaine Use: Amped, Bump, Freebase, Ride the White Dragon/Horse, Toot, Wake Up.

-Crack Cocaine (Crystal Form of Cocaine)

Other Names: 24-7, Apple Jacks, Badrock, Ball, Base, Beat, Candy, Chemical, Cloud, Cookies, Crack, Crumbs, Crunch & Munch, Devil Drug, Dice, Electric Kool-Aid, Fat Bags, French Fries, Glo, Gravel, Grit, Hail, Hard Ball, Hard Rock, Hotcakes, Ice Cube, Jelly Beans, Kryptonite, Nuggets, Paste, Piece, Prime Time, Product, Raw, Rock(s), Rock Star, Rox/Roxanne, Scrabble, Sleet, Snow Coke, Sugar Block, Topo, Tornado, Troop.

Ecstasy

Other Names: Adam, Cadillac, Beans, California Sunrise, Clarity, E, Essence, Elephants, Eve, Hug, Hug Drug, Love Drug, Love Pill, Lover’s Speed, MDMA, Roll, Scooby Snacks, Snowball, X, XE, XTC.

Terms for Ecstasy Use: Cuddle Puddle, Drop, Double Drop, E-Puddle, Flip, Rave, Roll, Thizzing.

Heroin

Other Names: Big H, Brown Sugar, H, Hell Dust, Horse, Junk, Nose Drops, Skag, Smack, Thunder.

Terms for Heroin Use: Channel Swimmer, Chase the Dragon, Daytime (to be high) & Evening (to come off the high), Dip and Dab, Do Up, Fire the Ack Ack Gun, Give Wings, Jolly Pop, Paper Boy.

Inhalants

Other Names: Air Blast, Ames, Amys, Aroma of Men, Bolt, Boppers, Bullet, Bullet Bolt, Buzz Bomb, Discorama, Hardware, Heart-on, Hiagra in a Bottle, Highball, Hippie Crack, Huff, Laughing Gas, Locker Room, Medusa, Moon Gas, Oz, Pearls, Poor Man’s Pot, Poppers, Quicksilver, Rush, Satan’s Secret, Snappers, Snotballs, Spray, Texas Shoe Shine, Thrust, Toilet Water, Toncho, Whippets, Whiteout.

Terms for Inhalant Use: Bagging, Banging, Glading, Huffing, Shooting the Breeze, Sniffing.

LSD

Other Names: Acid, Battery Acid, Blotter, Boomers, California Sunshine, Cid, Doses, Dots, Golden Dragon, Heavenly, Blue, Hippie, Loony Toons, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Microdot, Pane, Purple Heart, Superman, Tab, Window Pane, Yellow Sunshine, Zen.

Terms for LSD Use: Dropping, Experience, Flashing, Journey, Tripping, Tripping Balls.

Marijuana

Other Names: Astro Turf, Bhang, Boom, Chronic, Dagga, Dope, Gangster, Ganja, Grass, Hemp, Herb, Home Grown, J, Kiff, Mary Jane, Nederweed, Pot, Purple Haze, Reefer, Smoke, Skunk, Super Skunk, Texas Tea, Weed White, Widow.

Names for Marijuana Cigarettes: Joint, Blunt, Spliff, Roach.

Terms for Marijuana use: Bake/Get Baked, Blast, Blaze, Blow One’s Roof, Blow a Stick, Boot the Gong, Bite One’s Lips, Choke, Fire It Up, Fly Mexican Airlines, Get a Gage Up, Get the Wind, Go Up to Bat, Green, Hi the Hay, Hotbox, Mow the Grass, Toke, Torch Up.

-Synthetic Marijuana

Other Names: Algerian Blend, Aroma, Black Mamba, Blaze, Bliss, Bombay Blue, Bonsai-18, Chaos, Chill, Dream, Fake Pot, Fake Weed, Genie, Herbal Incense, K2, Lava, Mojo, Mr. Happy, Mr. Smiley, Phantom Wicked, Potpourri, Red X Dawn, Scooby Snacks, Sence, Sensation Serenity, Silent Black, Skunk, Smoke, Space Diamond, Spice, SpicyXXX, Spike 99, Tai Fun, Wicked X, Yucatan Fire, Zen.

Meth

Other Names: Beannies, Brown, Chalk, Crank, Chicken Feed, Cinnamon, Crink, Crypto, Fast, Getgo, Methlies, Mexican Crack, Quik, Pervitin, Redneck Cocaine, Speed, Tick Tick, Tweak, Wash, Yaba, Yellow Powder.

Words for Meth Use: Box Labs, Chicken Flippin’, Fried, Foiled, Get Geared Up, Getting Glassed, Go Fast, Hot Roll, Hot Rail, Scattered, Spun, Spun Out, Tweak, Wooop Chicken, Zoomin.

-Crystal Meth

Other Names: Batu, Blade, Cristy, Crystal, Crystal Glass, Glass, Hot Ice, Ice, Quartz, Shabu, Shards, Stove Top, Tina, Ventana.

Over the Counter (OTC) & Prescription Drug Abuse

Names for OTC or Prescription Drug Abuse: Dexing, Pharm Parties, Pharming, Recipe (mixing prescription drugs with alcoholic or other beverages), Robodosing, Robotripping, Trail Mix (mixing various prescription drugs).

-Cough Syrup

Other Names: Dexies, Drank, Drex, Orange Crush, Poor Man’s Ecstasy, Purple Drank, Red Devils, Robo, Rojo, Sizzurp, Triple C, Tussin, Velvet.

-Depressants

Commonly Abused Drugs: Amytal, Seconal, Valium, Xanax, Zyprexa.

Other Names: Barbs, Benzos, Bricks, Candy, Downers, Phennies, Reds, Red Birds, Sleeping Pills, Tooies, Tranks, Yellows, Yellow Jackets, Z-Bar.

-Opioids & Painkillers

Commonly Abused Drugs: Codeine, Demerol, Fentanyl, Morphine, OxyContin, Percodan, Roxanol.

Other Names: Captain Cody, Cody, Demmies, Dillies, Doors & Fours, Drug Street Heroin, Footballs, Hillbilly Heroin, Hydros, Juice, Loads, M, Miss Emma, Monkey, Ns, Oxycet, Oxycotton, Oxy 80’s, Pancakes & Syrup, Perks, Pinks, Pink Footballs, Schoolboy, Vikes, White Stuff, Yellow Footballs, 65’s.

-Stimulants

Commonly Abused Drugs: Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin.

Other Names: Bennies, Black Beauties, Crosses, Diet Coke, Hearts, JIF, Kibbles and Bits, Kiddie Cocaine, Kiddie Coke, LA Turnaround, Poor man’s Cocaine, R-ball, Rids, Skippy, Skittles, Smarties, Speed, The Smart Drug, Truck Drivers, Uppers, Vitamin R.

While simply hearing your teen use any of these slang terms does not necessarily mean he or she is doing drugs, repeatedly hearing these phrases without a logical explanation, especially when coupled with other warning signs and suspicious behavior, could indicate possible abuse and should be taken seriously.

*          *          *

By Tyler Wroblewski

Click here for tips and strategies on how to intervene when your teen is using drugs or alcohol.

Pictures From

Smoking: From Chuck Grimmet at https://www.flickr.com/photos/7723128@N04/6307374507

Cocaine: From https://pixabay.com/en/drugs-cocaine-user-addiction-908533/

Crack Cocaine: From Argv0 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ecstasy: From DEA (DEA, US) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Heroin: From United States Drug Enforcement Administration [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Inhalants: From English: Lance Cpl. Matthew K. Hacker [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

LSD: From Psychonaught (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Marijuna: From Evan-Amos (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Synthetic Marijuana: From English: Lance Cpl. Damany S. Coleman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Meth: From United States Drug Enforcement Administration [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Crystal Meth: From Radspunk (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Pills: From Dominque Godbout at https://www.flickr.com/photos/dominiquegodbout/5180502739

Cough Syrup: From Stickpen (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Morphine: From Eric Norris at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfxeric/3964596491

Ritalin: From en:User:Sponge [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons