What do drugs look like anyway? Some examples. Ecstasy (XTC, MDMA, molly) often looks like candy. (I say “often”, because like other drugs, it can be sold in other forms.) To tempt teens especially, the pills often are imprinted with brand logos, symbols, cartoon figures, etc.

Image 1: LSD distributed on blotting paper. There’s even acid blotter paper art. You tear off a tab, put it on your tongue, the stuff dissolves. Image 2: Magic mushrooms. Image 3: Cocaine—blow, crack, coke, sniff, snow, rocks. Image 4: Marijuana/cannabis.

Heroin comes in a white or orange/brown powder, but also black sticky stuff, like liquid liquorice: black tar heroin, seen here in image 1. Image 2: Meth. Meth proves someone can look horribly emaciated and bloated at the same time. It’s on the rise in the US: don’t touch it.

Hash is a cannabis concentrate harvested from—I think—its resin glands. I’d describe it as a powdery brownie. You take a bit, mix it with tobacco, and smoke it. Quite common in Amsterdam, where I live.