It has a distinctive bitter chemical taste. PCP can be mixed easily with dyes and turns up on the illicit drug market in a variety of tablets, capsules, and colored powders. For smoking, PCP is often applied to a leafy material such as mint, parsley, oregano, or marijuana. The reasons often cited by users as factors in their continued PCP use are feelings of strength, power, and invulnerability and a numbing effect on the mind that often results in anger, rage, and the disappearance of unpleasant memories. At low to moderate doses, physiological effects of PCP include a slight increase in breathing rate and a more pronounced rise in blood pressure and pulse rate.
Respiration becomes shallow, and flushing and profuse sweating occur.
Generalized numbness of the extremities and muscular incoordination also may occur. Psychological effects include distinct changes in body awareness, similar to those associated with alcohol intoxication. Use of PCP among adolescents may interfere with hormones related to normal growth and development as well as with the learning process. At high doses of PCP, there is a drop in blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration. This may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, flicking up and down of the eyes, drooling, loss of balance, and dizziness.