Beliefs and social norms about cigarettes or marijuana sticks laced with embalming fluid and phencyclidine (PCP): why youth use "fry".

Recent drug-use monitoring among Houston adolescents has detected a concoction of cigarettes or marijuana sticks laced with embalming fluid and PCP ("fry"). To shed light on this mixture, the current pilot study used a qualitative approach to investigate relevant beliefs and norms associated with fry initiation and perceived addiction among 38 youth who were attending outpatient and inpatient drug-user treatment programs in the spring of 2003. Respondents perceived that addiction to fry could occur as early as initial consumption, and the majority of participants indicated that their second fry event occurred either the same day as their initial use or the next day. In addition, fry use was perceived to have extremely dangerous consequences. Youth stated that users have impaired motor skills, hallucinations, long-term mental health problems, incoherent behavior, paranoia, and aggressive behaviors. Implications for these results are discussed.