Be aware of cough syrup abuse

Be aware of cough syrup abuse, parents told

Porter Creek Secondary School’s drug awareness co-ordinator is warning parents to watch for any over-the-counter medications their kids are bringing home.
Doug Green began his three-year contract for the Canines for Safer Schools program in September.
During an interview Tuesday, he said it’s become clear there are students who are using high doses of what’s known as DXM, or dextromthorphan (the active ingredient in many cough syrups and cold medications), to get high.
“It was one of the first things that hit my radar when I came up here and it wasn’t exclusive to this school,” he said.
Already, he’s spoken to two students about using DXM, but Green stressed it’s not exclusive to Porter Creek Secondary School or even Whitehorse.
It’s an issue in many regions as Internet forums and web pages have sprung up on the subject.
Many of the pro-use sites include suggestions on how much to use to get high given a person’s weight, but don’t point to the negative effects which come with the drug use.
One such forum includes a discussion on how to extract the DXM from cold medication, for example.
Green noted DXM dosing can come with “some serious consequences fairly quickly,” including brain damage.
Nausea, dizziness and confusion are also listed among some of the effects of DXM dosing.
The appeal of the drug comes from the price and availability and it’s not an illegal method to get high, he explained.
“It’s cheap. You can get it at Wal-Mart or at Shoppers Drug Mart. I hate to say it, but it can also be obtained through other criminal activities like shoplifting,” Green noted.
If parents are seeing their kids with cold medications they haven’t bought, it may be an indication the kids are using DXM to get high.
It’s important, he said, for guardians to be aware of what their kids have and how they got it.
“If you’re not buying it for them and it’s $10 a bottle, they’re not spending their allowance because they’ve got a cough,” he said.
Green, who has worked at schools in Edmonton, said last year the school found one student who had a “pharmacy” in his locker, selling medications that were packaged together.
Cough syrup containing DXM would be sold with muscle relaxants and Tylenol, for example.
“The other thing parents have to be really, really critically aware of is to make sure if they have narcotic prescriptions like oxycontin and vicodin, that they’re keeping track of them,” he said.
The street value of oxycontin is significant because many use it as what’s known as “hillbilly heroin”, he pointed out.
The history of web pages visited on a computer can also provide a clue as to whether someone could be using DXM.
While it may be that a student hears something about it and wants to learn more about the consequences, Green stressed the importance of looking at what exact sites are visited.
“That’s the problem with the Internet, right? It’s created a ton of pro-drug sites where kids on a Google search will land there,” he said.
Another drug that makes use of DXM is known as cheese, a mix of low-grade heroin and cold medication.
While there hasn’t been a lot of it found to be in Canada yet, Green argued it’s something people should be aware of.
Darrell Pasloski, the two local Shoppers Drug Marts’ owner and a pharmacist himself, said this morning the use of DXM as an intoxicant has been cyclical in North America since the 1960s.
While it’s nothing new, he noted, in the information age, there may be a heightened awareness of it thanks to advancements like the Internet.
The number of purchases made of products containing DXM has remained fairly consistent at both his stores over the past year, he said.
Staff are instructed to look for people buying an inappropriate amount of such products, Pasloski added. Anything more than one or two bottles or packages of such a product would seem out of place, he said.
“That would be the first clue,” he said, adding there’s usually no reason to buy more than that to treat common ailments like a cold.
A pharmacist at the store would likely be called out to deal with such a customer, he said.
He hasn’t seen such a case in his own stores.
Where there are concerns though about products available in stores, pharmacies have acted in the past, Pasloski pointed out.
A couple of years ago, pharmacies across the country moved products containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter because it’s used in the production of crystal meth.
Large quantities of pseudoephedrine are required to make the drug, with customers now required to speak to a pharmacist before they can purchase even a package of a psudoephedrine product.

http://www.whitehorsestar.com/auth.php?r=48812

[````Moil]

Originally posted by drdªv€@Oct 13 2007, 02:22 AM
Another drug that makes use of DXM is known as cheese, a mix of low-grade heroin and cold medication.

why in the heck would someone want to ruin things with a combination like this

[dersoldat]

Parents if you want to raise your kids in the goddamn Yukon you gotta at least be a little lenient on their drug use. I mean the fucking Yukon? There is a reason no one wants to live there. Let your kids have a little fun. DXM is better for your kids then getting drunk on bootlegged reservation rye, and passing out and freezing to death in a snowdrift.

[drkkain]

Cheese Isn't Heroin+DXM

Its Heroin+Diphenhydramine

Fucking idiots!

[newfie22]

This is a bit one sided.

[infinite]

Originally posted by newfie22@Oct 13 2007, 07:39 PM
This is a bit one sided.

always is man....You can't let both sides come out when you're fighting for your side...(unless you're open minded)


and um

Another drug that makes use of DXM is known as cheese, a mix of low-grade heroin and cold medication.


I've never heard of this shit. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TAKE THIS!!!?!?!?!? Sounds like a mindfuck and not even a little bit good.

[drkkain]

Like I said, Cheese = Heroin+ Diphenhydramine


Nothing to do with dxm...
Its just misinformation

[dextromancer]

ive taken dxm with percocets before.. and that was great.. heroin and dxm would prolly be better.

[Shameful]

DXM + Heroin is actually a very enjoyable combination in my book. Amazing synergy. Just be careful of respiratory depression.

[infinite]

i passed out with dxm + percocets...

well... is heroin + anything even smart?