Kid's Drug Secrets

[torque]

Kids' Drug Secrets
Reporting
Jim Osman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― It is a legal drug that might be found in your medicine cabinet. You use it to alleviate cough and cold symptoms but some teens are abusing it and getting high.

Our I-Team Investigative Reporter Jim Osman discovered this teen drug secret after an impassioned plea from one Bucks County mother.

The videos are all over YouTube showing teens acting goofy. At first it may look like they are just fooling around, but the more you watch, the more bizarre it gets.

Even in their deluded state teens know what their parents don't. They know about a common drug that could be in your medicine cabinet. The active ingredient in some common cold and cough medications is dextromethorphan or DXM. That's what makes kids high.

It's hard for Bucks County mom Lynn Chrupalyk as she looks at photos of her daughter teenaged Hillary.

"My daughter has always been a happy kid, very creative," said Lynn.

Her little girl who used to play with stuffed animals and sit on Santa's lap grew into a teen harboring a dark secret.

When I asked her, "What happened to that little girl," Lynn become emotional.

"I don't know, I think getting involved with the wrong crowd of children," she said.

Lynn, who waits tables at a Bristol restaurant, got a startling phone call recently. Her daughter Hillary had been arrested for stealing a Robitussin, a cough medication, at a Croydon pharmacy.

"Even the police at the police station were scratching their heads like what's the sense of Robitussin," said Lynn trying to understand how a cough medicine could get kids high.

But Hillary was hooked on it says her mom. Cough medicines with DXM when taken in large enough doses can produce hallucinations.

Lynn, who is a single mom, feared for her daughter's safety and put her in drug rehab.

"It just made me think if I didn't have her put away, she could've died if I waited another day or two, you know she could have overdosed."

18-year-old Derrick has been in DayTop's drug rehab facility in Mendham, New Jersey for eight months. He too got addicted to DXM.

"I started involuntary muscle control, I couldn't control what I was saying, blacked out," that's how Derrick describes the high.

"It turned me into like a monster," said Derrick.

"I thought that only it was hurting myself, I realize it was hurting everybody around me," he said.

He said his cough medicine addiction tore his father and mother apart.

"He having to see his son all tripped out, all doped up and everything. I'm sure it made him sad," said Derrick.

Ian Gershman is a drug counselor at DayTop. He says those YouTube videos show obvious signs there's an addiction problem. But there may be other signs that may not be as obvious.

"Sometimes we see stealing money or articles that the kids own like the iPods, or the Gameboys may start to disappear. They may start to sell them," said Gershman.

For Hillary, her DXM drug craze came to a head on Valentine's Day. That's when Lynn had to show her daughter just how much she loved her, by forcefully committing her to drug rehab.

"She broke my heart and I told her that. Now she understands", says Lynn.

There are more than 100 'over the counter medications' that contain DXM. And unlike some drugs that are placed behind the counter in pharmacies, cough medications containing DXM are placed on shelves for teens to freely purchase.

If you have any of these products in your house, a good piece of advice: Don't store them in the medicine cabinet.

[agentlemon]

I really wish we could take all those stupid video's of youtube. And seriously, people grow up, just because she "used to play with stuff animal" has absolutely no bearing on who she is now. Her mom needs to let got of who she wants her daughter to be and start dealing with who her daughter is.

[jaytown]

I think they should take some of the dxm videos off of youtube. Just some of them, it gives people the wrong impression.

[§əāИ ΜĉĐə√îŧŦ]

i dont get how dxm turn someone into a monster. its not that addicting also. rehab? for dxm? i think the girl just needs something to do rather then nothing and so she does dxm.

[WMW]

You cant really blame her mom for freaking out. I have to blame the daughter for not researching it and not just bull shitting the police on its use. why not just say she has a cold and didnt have money or ID for it.

And I dont think i would ever sell any of my shit for cough syrup. cokes a different story lol.


Stupid teenagers

[anarKhan]

Originally posted by jaytown@Apr 30 2008, 11:06 AM
I think they should take some of the dxm videos off of youtube. Just some of them, it gives people the wrong impression.

Who should? The corporation behind YouTube? You're saying that one of the few major open-source DIY sites out there should start censoring content that doesn't reflect well on your nasty habit?

[Bhikku]

"It turned me into like a monster," said Derrick.

RAWRZZ!1! I iz monster!!!1! Me doez Extractionz, RAWR!!!1

[tsolless]

"trying to understand how a cough medicine could get kids high."

It's a drug you dumbass. That's how. Just like your coffee. (Yes, I know coffee can't make you "high")

[dianne]

Originally posted by Bhikku@Apr 30 2008, 02:37 PM

RAWRZZ!1! I iz monster!!!1! Me doez Extractionz, RAWR!!!1

This has to be an ending in the (someday) choose our own adventure (which I haven't worked on yet).


I wouldn't sell my fucking ipod to get dxm. I've been using for what like 7+ years, I'm not addicted. I use it when I feel like it, usually a few months in between.

I mean right now it's been a while, I've wanted to but just holding off until it feels right.


These kids don't need REHAB, they need PARENTS who PAY ATTENTION.

[dextromancer]

Originally posted by Bhikku@Apr 30 2008, 03:37 PM

RAWRZZ!1! I iz monster!!!1! Me doez Extractionz, RAWR!!!1

eat them up yum yum o_0

I wouldn't sell my fucking ipod to get dxm.

i got rid of two morphine pills for an ipod once... they cost me two dollars each. was totally worth the trade ( ((d-_-b)) )