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Drug Slang and Street Terms for Drugs, ADHD Meds, Amphetamines, Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, Designer Drugs, Heroin & LSD

Addiction thrives on secrecy and deception. Individuals suffering from substance abuse often hide their habits by using slang to refer to specific substances. A wide variety of drugs have street names, including prescription medications and “designer drugs.” To maintain discretion, drug users and those who sell drugs will use drug slang names to fly under the radar and continue […]


Addiction thrives on secrecy and deception. Individuals suffering from substance abuse often hide their habits by using slang to refer to specific substances. A wide variety of drugs have street names, including prescription medications and “designer drugs.” To maintain discretion, drug users and those who sell drugs will use drug slang names to fly under the radar and continue their habitual use. In a very practical way, this is their real language, and they use it as they seek, purchase, and use drugs.

The challenge for concerned friends and family members is to educate themselves about these drug code words, so they can be more aware of what’s going on around them. If you hear these terms or notice messages containing them, it may be time to look for other red flags and warning signs. To that end, here is a list of common drug slang and street names for drugs. When you familiarize yourself with these terms, you will be in a better position to help your addicted loved one. It might be a good idea to bookmark this page, so you can refer back to these drug street names.

Drug Slang
When you familiarize yourself with the drug slang and street names for drugs, you will be in a better position to help your addicted loved one.

ADHD Medications

These prescription stimulants are given for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  However, they are popular drugs of abuse, especially among older teenagers and young adults, who use them as supposed study aids.  Full-time college students are twice as likely to abuse ADHD meds as young adults who are not in college. Identifying drug abuse with ADHD medications may require a closer look at common drug slang and street names for ADHD medications. Here are a few:

  • Addys
  • Black Beauties
  • Dexies
  • Pep Pills
  • Smart Drug
  • Vitamin A
  • Zing
  • Coke Jr.
  • Crackers (Ritalin and Talwin)
  • Diet Coke
  • Jif
  • Kibbles and Bits
  • Kiddie Cocaine
  • Kiddie Coke
  • One and Ones (Ritalin and Talwin)
  • Pineapple
  • Poor Man’s Heroin (Ritalin and Talwin)
  • R-Ball
  • R-Pop
  • Ritz and Ts (Ritalin and Talwin)
  • Silver Bullet
  • Skippy
  • Skittles
  • Smarties
  • Speedball (Ritalin and Cocaine)
  • Study Buddies
  • Speedball (Ritalin and Heroin)
  • Ts and Rits (Ritalin and Talwin)
  • Vitamin R
  • West Coast

Amphetamines

Originally discovered in the late 1800s, amphetamines were not used medically until the 1930s when they were prescribed as decongestants.  Later, they were used to treat other conditions, such as obesity and narcolepsy. However, during World War II, they were used by soldiers for their performance-enhancing and stimulant effects. This created a full generation of amphetamine addicts, and by the 1970s, they were listed as controlled substances. Here are a few drug slang and street names

  • Co-Pilots
  • Crank
  • Criss-Cross
  • Cross Tops
  • Crossroads
  • Crystal
  • Crystal Methadrine
  • Debs
  • Desoxyn
  • Dex
  • Dexedrine
  • Dexies
  • Diamonds
  • Diet Pills
  • Dolls5
  • Dominos
  • Double Cross
  • Drivers
  • Eye Openers
  • Fast
  • Fastin
  • Fives
  • Flatliners (4-Methylthioamphetamine)
  • Footballs
  • Forwards
  • French Blue
  • Glass
  • Go Fast
  • Golden Eagle (4-Methylthioamphetamine)
  • Greenies
  • Head Drugs
  • Hearts
  • Horse Heads
  • Hydro
  • Iboga
  • Amp
  • Amphets
  • Back Dex
  • Bam
  • Bambita
  • Beans
  • Bennies
  • Bens
  • Benz
  • Benzedrine
  • Billy
  • Black and Whites
  • Black Beauties
  • Blackbirds
  • Black Bombers
  • Black Cadillacs
  • Black Mollies
  • Blue Boy
  • Blue Mollies
  • Bolt
  • Bombido (Injectable)
  • Bombita (Amphetamine and Heroin)
  • Brain Pills
  • Brain Ticklers
  • Brownies
  • Browns
  • Bumblebees
  • Candy
  • Cartwheels
  • Chalk
  • Chicken Powder
  • Chocolate
  • Christina
  • Christmas Tree
  • Coast to Coasts

Barbiturates and benzodiazepines

Barbiturates and benzodiazepines are tranquilizing medications typically prescribed for the treatment of anxiety or insomnia. They are extremely habit-forming, and users may develop a physical dependence within a matter of weeks, even when the medications are used precisely as directed. Benzodiazepine addiction can be so severe that abrupt cessation can be fatal. Benzodiazepine use has largely replaced barbiturates, but the older medications are still used in some cases. The most-common barbiturates include:

  • Nembutal/Pentobarbital
  • Luminal/Phenobarbital
  • Seconal/Secobarbital

The most-often prescribed “benzos” include:

Special caution: Barbiturates and benzodiazepines are Central Nervous System depressants that slow heart rate and breathing and reduce blood pressure.  When they are used with other similarly-acting substances such as alcohol or opioids, these effects are magnified dangerously. 30%  of all prescription drug deaths involve benzodiazepines. But what drug street names do barbiturates and benzodiazepines take on from a day-to-day perspective? Here are a few drug slang and street names:

Drug Slang
Some of the drug Slang and street names for barbiturates and benzodiazepines are: B-Bombs, Bank Bandit Pills, Barbies, Barbs, Bars.
  • 714s
  • B-Bombs
  • Bank Bandit Pills
  • Barbies
  • Barbs
  • Bars
  • Beans
  • Bennies
  • Blockbusters
  • Blue Angels
  • Blues
  • Bluebirds
  • Blue Bullets
  • Blue Clouds
  • Blue Devil
  • Blue Dolls
  • Blue Heavens
  • Blue Tips
  • Blue Vs
  • Bombido
  • Bombita
  • Busters
  • Butisol
  • Candy
  • Chorals
  • Christmas Rolls
  • Christmas Tree
  • Control
  • Coral
  • Courage Pills
  • Dead Flower Power
  • Disco Biscuits
  • Drunk Pills
  • Emotion
  • Five-Way (Flunitrazepam, Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine, and Alcohol)
  • Foo Foo
  • G.B.
  • Golf Balls
  • Goofballs
  • Goofers
  • Gorilla Pills
  • Green Dragons
  • Green Frog
  • Heavenly Blues
  • Idiot Pills
  • In-Betweens
  • Joy Juice
  • Karachi (Phenobarbital, Methaqualone, and Heroin)
  • Kiddie Dope
  • King Kong Pills
  • Kpin (Klonopin/Clonazepam)
  • Lay Back
  • Lib
  • Love Drug
  • Dolls
  • Double Trouble
  • Downers
  • Downie
  • Drowsy High

Cocaine

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, cocaine is a greater drug threat in the United States than it has been in at least a decade. Since 2010, the number of fatal overdoses in America involving cocaine has spiked by 350%. As one of the most commonly abused substances, cocaine is often referred to by many names. Here are a few drug slang and street names that reflect cocaine abuse:

  • 8-Ball (Crack and Heroin)
  • 51 (Crack sprinkled on Tobacco)
  • All-American Drug
  • Angie
  • Apple Jacks
  • Aspirin
  • Aunt
  • Aunt Nora
  • Baby
  • Baby T
  • Bad
  • Ball
  • Basa
  • Base
  • Baseball
  • Basuco
  • Batman (Cocaine and Heroin)
  • Bazooka (Crack and Marijuana)
  • Bazulco
  • Beam
  • Beam Me Up Scottie (Cocaine and PCP)
  • Beamers
  • Beans
  • Beat
  • Beautiful Boulders
  • Bebe
  • Beemers
  • Belushi (Cocaine and Heroin)
  • Bernice
  • Bernie
  • Bernie’s Flakes
  • Bernie’s Gold Dust
  • Grit
  • Groceries
  • Hail
  • Half-Track
  • Hamburger Helper
  • Handlebars (Crack and Alprazolam)
  • Happy Dust
  • Happy Powder
  • Happy Trails
  • Hardball
  • Hard Candy
  • Hard Line
  • Hard Rock
  • Hard Stuff
  • Heaven
  • Heaven Dust
  • Five-Way (Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine, Flunitrazepam, and Alcohol)
  • Flake
  • Flamethrowers (Cocaine, Heroin, and Tobacco)
  • Flat Chunks (Crack and Benzocaine)
  • Flave
  • Fleece (Fake Cocaine)
  • Flex (Fake Crack)
  • Florida Snow
  • Foo Foo
  • Foo Foo Dust
  • Foo Foo Stuff
  • Foolish Powder
  • Freebase
  • Freeze
  • French Fries
  • Fries
  • Frisco Special (Cocaine, Heroin and LSD)
  • Frisco Speedball (Cocaine, Heroin, and LSD)
  • Gaffel (Fake Cocaine)
  • Gaffle (Fake Crack)
  • Garbage Rock
  • Geek (Crack or Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Geek Joints (Crack or Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Gift of the Sun
  • Gift of the Sun God
  • Gimmie (Crack and Marijuana)
  • Gin
  • Girl
  • Girlfriend
  • Glad Stuff
  • Glo
  • Big Bloke
  • Big C
  • Big Flake
  • Big Rush
  • Bill Blass
  • Billie Hoke
  • Bings
  • Birdie Powder
  • BJs
  • Black Rock
  • Blanca
  • Blast
  • Blotter
  • Blow
  • Blowout
  • Blue
  • Bobo
  • Bollo
  • Bolo
  • Bone
  • Bonecrusher
  • Boost
  • Bopper
  • Botray
  • Boubou
  • Boulder
  • Boulya
  • Bouncing Powder
  • Boy
  • Boy-Girl (Cocaine and Heroin)
  • Brick
  • Bubble Gum
  • Bugle
  • Bullia Capital
  • Bullion
  • Bump
  • Bump Up (Cocaine and MDMA)
  • Bunk
  • Burese
  • Bush
  • Butler
  • Crank
  • Crck
  • Crib
  • Crimmie (Crack-laced tobacco cigarette)
  • Croak (Cocaine and Methamphetamine)
  • Crumbs
  • Crunch & Munch
  • Crystal
  • Cubes
  • Dama Blanca
  • Demolish
  • Devil Drug
  • Devil’s Dandruff
  • Devilsmoke
  • Dice
  • Dip
  • Dirties (Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Dirty Basing
  • Dirty Joints (Crack and Marijuana)
  • DOA
  • Double Bubble
  • Double Rock (Crack diluted in Procaine)
  • Double Yoke
  • Draf (Cocaine, Marijuana, and MDMA)
  • Dragon Rock (Crack and Heroin)
  • Dream
  • Duct
  • Dust (Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Dynamite (Cocaine and Heroin)
  • Eastside Player
  • Egg
  • Gold
  • Gold Dust
  • Golf Ball
  • Goofball (Cocaine and Heroin)
  • Gravel
  • Greek (Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Face
  • Famous Dimes
  • Fast White Lady
  • Fat Bags
  • Fire (Crack and Methamphetamine)
  • Fish Scales
  • Butter
  • C & M (Cocaine and Morphine)
  • C-Dust
  • C-Game
  • Cadillac
  • Caine
  • Cakes
  • California Cornflakes
  • Came
  • Candy
  • Candy C
  • Candy Flipping on a String—Cocaine, LSD, and MDMA
  • Candy Sugar
  • Caps
  • Capsula
  • Carnie
  • Carrie
  • Carrie Nation
  • Casper
  • Casper the Ghost
  • Caviar (Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Ccane
  • CDS
  • Cecil
  • Chalk
  • Champagne (Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Chang
  • Charlie
  • Chasing the Dragon (Crack and Heroin)
  • Cheap Basing
  • Chemical
  • Chewies
  • Ching
  • Chippy
  • Chocolate Ecstasy (Crack with Chocolate Milk)
  • Chocolate Rock (Crack and Heroin)
  • Choe
  • Cholly
  • Chowder
  • Chronic (Crack and Marijuana)
  • Cigamos (Crack and Tobacco)
  • Clicker (PCP and Crack)
  • Climax
  • Cloud
  • Cloud 9
  • Coca
  • Coco Rocks (Crack made with chocolate pudding)
  • Coco Snow (Crack cut with Benzocaine)
  • Cocoa Puffs (Cocaine and Marijuana)
  • Cocktail (Crack and Marijuana)
  • Coconut
  • Coke
  • Cola
  • Combol
  • Conie
  • Cookies
  • Coolie (Cocaine-laced tobacco cigarette)
  • Corrine
  • Cory
  • Cotton Brothers (Cocaine, Heroin, and Morphine)
  • Crack
  • Crack Cooler (Crack soaked in wine cooler)
  • Eightball (Crack and Heroin)
  • El Diablito (Cocaine, Marijuana, Heroin, and PCP)
  • El Diablo (Cocaine, Marijuana, and Heroin) but
  • El Perico
  • Electric Kool-Aid
  • Esnortiar
  • Ethan (Cocaine and LSD)
  • Everclear
  • Eye-Opener

Designer drugs

Often sold openly online or in convenience stores and head shops and mislabeled as such innocuous problems as “incense”, “fish tank cleaner”, or “deodorize”, these products are marketed as being “safe and legal” alternatives to drugs such as marijuana or methamphetamine. They are neither.  These unregulated products contain hundreds of dangerous chemicals, and their use and possession are prohibited by law. 

Because the formulation of these products is constantly changed to circumvent existing drug laws, there are currently over 1000 “brand names” being sold. However, some of these brand names are so popular that they have also become generic nicknames for all similarly-acting designer drugs. Designer drugs often go by these drug slang and street names:

Drug Slang
Designer drugs often go by these drug slang and street names: Bath Salts, Black Mamba, Caps, Cherry Meth.
  • Bath Salts
  • Black Mamba
  • Caps
  • Cherry Meth
  • Everclear
  • Fake Weed
  • Fantasy
  • Firewater
  • G
  • G-rrific
  • Gamma Oh
  • Genie

Heroin

Between 2001 and 2014, the number of overdose deaths involving heroin addiction increased sixfold.  In fact, for young adults between the ages of 20 and 29, heroin is the most common cause of accidental overdose. Significantly, 80% of heroin addicts started by misusing prescription painkillers. Heroin often goes by these drug slang and street names:

  • 8-Ball (Heroin and Cocaine)
  • Aip (Heroin from Afghanistan, Iran, or Pakistan)
  • Al Capone
  • Antifreeze
  • Aries
  • Aunt Hazel
  • Bad Bundle (Poor quality heroin)
  • Ball
  • Ballot
  • Bars (Heroin and Alprazolam)
  • Bart Simpson
  • Batman (Heroin and Cocaine)
  • Beast (Heroin and LSD)
  • Belushi (Heroin and Cocaine)
  • Big Doodig

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide is a powerful hallucinogen with consciousness-altering effects that can last up to 12 hours. It is estimated that 10% of people have used LSD at some point. Some drug slang and street names for LSD are:

  • Acid
  • Acid Cube (LSD on a sugar cube)
  • Acido
  • Aeon Flux
  • Animal
  • Backbreakers (LSD and Strychnine)
  • Banana Split (LSD and 2C-B)
  • Barrels
  • Battery Acid
  • Beast (LSD and Heroin)
  • Beavis and Butthead
  • Big D
  • Birdhead
  • Black Acid (LSD and PCP)
  • Black Star
  • Black Sunshine
  • Black Tabs
  • Blotter

By recognizing the drug slang and street names for drugs, you can save someone from addiction

When you familiarize yourself with the drug slang and street names for drugs, you will be in a better position to help your addicted loved one. Substance use disorders are serious conditions that can cause major health, social, and economic problems that should not be taken lightly. We Level Up California can provide to you, or someone you love, the tools to recover from addiction with professional and safe treatment. Feel free to call us to speak with one of our counselors. Our specialists know what you are going through. Please know that each call is private and confidential.

Drug Slang
When you familiarize yourself with the drug slang and street names for drugs, you will be in a better position to help your addicted loved one.
Sources

[1] National Institutes of Health. (2017). Street & Commercial Names. https://www.nihlibrary.nih.gov/resources/subject-guides/opioids/street-commercial-names

[2] National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2011). Commonly Abused Prescription Drugs. https://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/rx_drugs_placemat_508c_10052011.pdf

[3] National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Commonly Abused Drugs Charts. Retrieved on November 6, 2018 at https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/commonly-abused-drugs-charts

[4] National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Hallucinogens. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/hallucinogens

[5] National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Synthetic Cathinones (“Bath Salts”). https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/synthetic-cathinones-bath-salts