Aunt Mary, Aunt Emma and Aunt Hazel – Three Ladies You Should Know

If you have a sister or a sister-in-law or a close relative named Mary, Emma or Hazel, there may be nothing strange about hearing your kids talk about their Aunt Mary, Aunt Hazel or Aunt Emma. But if you do not have any such relatives or friends and you find your children mentioning these names every so often, you should be on the lookout. After all, Aunt Mary, Aunt Hazel and Aunt Emma are all common drug slangs.

Substituting Names

It is not unusual at all to find common names substituting for drug names. Given the stance that society in general has taken to drugs and the legal status that these drugs enjoy, their users will always try to find ways to mask them and their own usage of them in order to avoid trouble. Often, the substitute names given are those that sound like or have the same initial letter as the name being hidden.

Aunt Mary, Aunt Hazel and Aunt Emma are three such drug slangs that substitute for drug names. Respectively, they stand for marijuana, heroin and morphine.

Aunt Mary

Aunt Mary, as mentioned above, is a drug slang for marijuana. Marijuana is derived from the Cannabis sativa plant. There are records that show that marijuana usage has been done since prehistory, both for recreational and religious purposes. The active compound found in Cannabis sativa is tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC.

The THC compounds extracted from marijuana can result in many psychoactive effects, such as euphoria, relaxation, lethargy, distortion of the sense of time and space, among other things. It can also increase the rate of heartbeat, increase the risk for depression and impair the memory.

Aunt Hazel

Aunt Hazel is a slang for heroin. It is a drug derived from the opium poppy, a plant that is native in Asia. What heroin does is to bind to the receptors of the brain that regulates the perception of pain and the perception of pleasure. They induce a rush of euphoria for the user. The drug can also make the user lethargic and cloud his or her thinking.

Because many of these pain and pleasure receptors are located in the brain stem, heroin can interfere with many of the body’s vital functions, such as breathing and regulating blood pressure. Long-term usage can lead to failure of various body organs, such as the heart, liver and kidneys.

Aunt Emma

Aunt Emma stands for morphine. Morphine is used medically as a painkiller because it blocks the brain’s perception of pain. Just like with heroin, morphine is also created from the Asian opium poppy. Heroin is actually derived from morphine.

Morphine, although used for treating pain in hospitals, can have dangerous side effects. These side effects include slowing of heartbeat, convulsions, severe weakness, dizziness and confusion as well as memory loss.

You should always give your children the benefit of the doubt. However, when you start hearing them speak of an Aunt Mary, an Aunt Emma or an Aunt Hazel without any obvious reason for, you should be on the alert.