The Easy High

Feb 17, 2005 10:00 pm US/Central
CHICAGO (CBS 2) There's a serious drug problem that has medical experts in the Chicago area very worried. It's already claimed at least five lives nationwide and is responsible for dozens of overdoses. As Medical Editor Mary Ann Childers reports, it's the easy high and as close as your family medicine cabinet.

Last May when her 17-year-old son, Michael, overdosed on drugs, one suburban mom got the shock of her life. It wasn't cocaine or any of the drugs she had feared. It was cough and cold medicine.

"I think my son got started with it because this is medication that I can get high with, that is legal, and it's available," Gail said.

In fact, it's right over the counter. It is dextromethorphan, or DXM, a cough suppressant found in more than 120 cold remedies in pill and liquid form. It's perfectly safe when used as directed, but in heavy doses it causes hallucinations and loss of motor control, much like PCP. And it doesn't take a lot to -- as users say -- robo-trip.

"One box is enough to get someone a very good high,” said Dr. Mark Mycyk, an emergency medicine specialist.

Mycyk, who has treated DXM overdoses in children as young as 11 at Northwestern Memorial, says most parents miss it. Most doctors and nurses don't recognize it. And most drug screenings don't pick it up.

"This is a completely unrecognized epidemic,” Mycyk said.

High doses can cause irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, loss of consciousness, brain damage, and more.

“People can have seizures, develop coma, and can throw up when they have a coma, aspirate it and die,” said Dr. Michael Wahl at the Illinois Poison Control Center.

At the Illinois Poison Control Center, calls have increased 55 percent since tracking started in 2001. Many kids, like Gail’s son, learn about DXM on the Internet. You can order it and even find instructions on how to get high.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is preparing a report on DXM abuse. It could lead to new laws restricting sales of these products, like those on pseudoephedrine medications. But for now, it's up to stores to control who buys what and how much.

Walgreens limits sales of Coricidin HBP to three boxes. When we sent 17-year-old Sam Sabovic, he tried to buy four. He was stopped and only allowed to buy the limit.

At CVS Pharmacies, no one under 18 is supposed to buy any Coricidin with DXM. But at the Niles store, Sam bought four DXM products, including one box of Coricidin. CVS says it regrets company policy was not followed and that the situation will be addressed.

Pediatric ER Specialist Dr. Charles Nozicka, who sees four overdoses a week, wants tougher regulation.

"Probably the FDA needs to look at this medication as a controlled substance. And consider controlling it as a controlled substance,” Nozicka said.

Gail doesn't know for sure how long her son abused DXM or how often. And what she doesn't know scares her.

"We don't really know what the long-term effects on his brain are going to be," Gail said.

Gail says now that she may have missed or misread a lot of warning signs. Experts say changes in behavior, drops in grades, disinterest in usual activities, or hanging out with a different group suddenly, all could all be red flags something's going on.

Also, know what's in your medicine cabinet. Keep tabs on internet access and credit card use.
And if you suspect or learn your child has a drug abuse problem, get professional help quickly.

LINK: http://cbs2chicago.com/health/local_story_..._048190457.html

[timothy]

At CVS Pharmacies, no one under 18 is supposed to buy any Coricidin with DXM. But at the Niles store, Sam bought four DXM products, including one box of Coricidin. CVS says it regrets company policy was not followed and that the situation will be addressed.

Reallllllllly?
Coricidin maybe, but I know I've never seen any age restrictions on their world famous generic DXM only cough syrup :chug:

[the ashtar]

I have never seen a CVS adhere to that "policy", even for CCC's. In fact when I was naive and 18 and regularly getting CVS Tuss every week I would bring it to their attention that people were stealing their Coriciden and tried to get them to put it behind the counter.

[Krystena]

Stupid kids will ruin shit for us. If people actually did research it on the internet, they would know better than to be dosing up on fucking CCC's. Ignorant people will make ignorant statements and next thing ya know we're gunna have to stockpile DXM because they will pull it off the market. How stupid, angry moms w/ stupid kids ruin shit.

[xadrith]

I watched this on TV last night. Man, that reporter bitch, she was a robot, just squawkin' away over shit in which she only bothered to skim the surface of.

I'm tired of all these journalists claiming objective reporting and then turning around and totally lambasting their topic of choice.

When it came down to pointing the finger, Dextromethorphan was the only culprit in that news report last night. And so I found it not surprising that they were attributing ailments such as brain damage to the roster of all the other 'bad things' that can happen to you if you take DXM. (Whereas everyone knows CCC's and other OTC's that contain stuff other than dex are the real culprit)

Obviously they didn't bother looking at Dextromethorphan from all angles, as in the way real, true objective reporting is supposed to unfold. Oh, sure, they mentioned that you could find all sorts of stuff on 'DXM highs' over the internet, but naturally, they did it in that 10 O'clock-news- cliched-bullshit-way with the black and white text flashing on a monitor with the refresh rate turned way down and words like DAMAGE and DUDE and STONED and BLAH BLAH BLAH practically strobing out at whatever parent happened to be watching the program, infecting their already easily malleable minds.

No, no, if they did, they would've found the drug to have spawned a whole, enthralling and somewhat enlightening subculture. Filled with some of the most interesting minds I have the pleasure of meeting, and also some of the most artistic places to be found on the internet.

The saddest part of this is, it just goes to show what the media really represents, to our society, and what the individual tax-paper supposedly wants. The media doesn't care about originality, or creativity. The media doesn't care about improvement, social or otherwise. The media, just like everything else in this capital-lusting, new-age, techno-driven bullshit pseudo-society only cares about one thing, and that's the green baby, The Franklin's and the Jackson's.

And what better way to draw the masses and the ratings then to promote fear. To stoke the fires of worry and grief in parents without a clue as to how to raise their own children. To falsely inspire them to take action against an invisible foe that they are told will take hold of 'your child' and refuse to let go until his last remnants of life cling to nothing but the sheer abomination the media has all warned us about.

They wag their fingers at us every night and say, "We told you so."

Bullshit, I say! Bullshit comes from the mouth of the mother that lost her son! If she was wise, she would've stayed home and never campaigned something so silly and transparent as the 'dangers of DXM'. This was nobody's fault but her own son's. If he would've DONE his homework, and proceeded cautiously, she would, without a doubt, still have him, alive and well, and perhaps all the better for the experience he may have had.

But no, she sold out for the green. She had a story to tell, cause somebody told her to tell it, somebody with a wad of cash between their thumb and forefinger. Well lady, as George Carlin infamously says, "The kid who eats too many marbles on the playground DOESN'T get to grow up to have kids of his own."

God I love this country. The internet, I mean...

wow! thats about the most bs-ridden article i've read in awhile. GG press!

[vapor]

"Probably the FDA needs to look at this medication as a controlled substance. And consider controlling it as a controlled substance,” Nozicka said.

Try it bitch :P

[libel]

lol @ cough syrup chugging being an easy high

[Katatonic]

When we sent 17-year-old Sam Sabovic, he tried to buy four. He was stopped and only allowed to buy the limit.

the image of a news reporter van pulling up at wallgreens and letting a teenager out to go buy CCC's, then returning with the solemn fact that Bob the camera guy was going to be left out on this one unless everyone gave up four pills.

[Midknight]

"One box is enough to get someone a very good high,” said Dr. Mark Mycyk, an emergency medicine specialist.

hahaha, he says getting a good high like it's a bad thing.

sorry just thought this particular line was funny. He gives a dose for kids to take, and says it's good. How does that help stop kids from doing it?


5 lives huh?

wow, and prescription meds (not abused) take thousands of lives every year....and they are worried about this that much?

shows the drug laws are a little backwards.