Cold medicine calamities

Published Saturday, January 24, 2004
by Ashley Harrell, Boca Raton, FL


The same off-the-shelf medications used to suppress coughing can also be misused to suppress reality, according to a group of local high school students who say they enjoy regular recreational uses of various forms of cough medicine that are readily accessible in grocery and drug stores around the nation.
“It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s legal,” said Peter Hargrove*, a junior at an esteemed private school in the area who has abused cough medicine on several occasions.
Hargrove and friends, all members of their school debate team, say that after they heard you could get high off Robitussin, they decided to see for themselves.
“It tastes like complete crap,” said Hargrove, “But then you feel all crazy and weird for hours.”
The euphoria the students said they felt comes from the active ingredient, dextromethorphan (DXM), a common additive in cough suppressants that can cause hallucinations when used in large amounts, according to addiction counselor Dr. Joseph Dorsey.
Robitussin, NyQuil and Benadryl all contain DXM, and there’s also a lesser known pill that has sent numerous people to the hospital in recent years, according to Poison Control Centers.
Coricidin, known on the street as “triple-C” or “skittles,” can be purchased off the shelves of any drug store for $7.49. Large doses of Coricidin has been known to cause nausea, abdominal pain, irregular heartbeat, vomiting, loss of consciousness, seizure, brain damage, and death.
Even more dangerous than the cough suppressants themselves, is the possibility for mixing them with other drugs, said Dorsey.
One Spanish River junior who did not wish to be named said that a friend of hers was rushed to the hospital several weeks ago after ingesting an entire bottle of Robitussin at a party where alcohol was being served.
“It was extremely scary,” she said.
And it’s not just high school kids that are abusing the cough medicine – local middle school students said they have heard of classmates going “robotripping” or “dexing.”
“I’ve heard of people at Omni doing it,” said Kim, a 14-year-old who declined to give her last name. “It’s mostly a group of guys that do it after school.”
Jasmine Needle, also an eighth grader at Omni Middle School, said she knew “you can get really sick from it,” and that she stayed away from that kind of stuff.
Although other students from Spanish River and Omni Middle School said they had never heard of taking cough suppressants to get high, there were 93 cases reported by hospitals in Dade, Broward Monroe and Palm Beach Counties to the Jackson Health System, the Poison Control Center for South Florida.
“We get these cases a lot – about 8 a month – and it’s mostly teenagers trying to hallucinate,” said Maikal Lopez, a poison specialist at the center.
Lopez also said he believes many other cases go unreported, and that cough medicine overdoses are a growing problem without an easy solution.
Although some parents say the cough medicine should be taken off the shelves and placed behind the counter, the spokesman for Robitussin’s manufacturing company, Fran Sullivan, said that aside from enlarging the packaging to prevent theft, there is very little that can be done to stop anyone from accessing and abusing the pills. Instead, the company is taking a different approach to cutting down on the abuse.
“If you took everything that could be abused, there’s not a counter in the world that would be big enough to put all these things behind it,” said Sullivan, a representative of Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, the manufacturer and marketer of Robitussin in Madison, New Jersey. “We work with a number of different companies and organizations to help communities and parents recognize risks and symptoms, and we also monitor the problems through the media.”
Typically the outbreaks are very episodic, according to Sullivan, who said that when the cold medicine abuse fad comes to the surface with an emergency room visit, Wyeth sends in experts to educate the region where the incident occurred.
Because the users, and not the FDA approved drugs, are the central problem, said Sullivan, placing the pills behind the counter would only punish those who actually need them.
“It’s very difficult to limit access to the medicine without taking away access from the 99.9 percent of legitimate consumers who want and need this product to treat their coughs,” said Sullivan.
And one Boca Raton mom says she agrees.
“The parents need to be in tune,” said Christine Goodman,* who has two children enrolled in Boca schools. “Some parents are too busy on the tennis court or socializing, and you just can’t rely on the school system or your children’s friends to raise them. You have to know your own child.”

[EvS]

Robitussin, NyQuil and Benadryl all contain DXM

It's amazing that not ONE of these fucking articles has gotten everything right.

This is sensasionalist journalism, they don't care what the real facts are, the just want what they consider good type.

[pr0zac]

Wow, they were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off that time...

-zac

Robitussin, NyQuil and Benadryl all contain DXM

WOW! You mean I've been taking dxm to help me sleep after taking dxm? Seriously though, most of the media attention dxm is getting is only sensationalism for media dollars in the guise of true concern for the poor little idiots who haven't yet managed to learn how to use responsibly. This site does FAR more to prevent harm than anything I've seen in the mainstream media. Sure, some of it can be chalked up to youthful inexperience, but if mainstream media really cared, they would put the DV address right at the top of the article. Some of us don't want that attention, but then we have no right to complain about these articles getting things so ridiculously wrong. I'm afraid things are going to get worse before they get better.

I particularly enjoyed the end:

And one Boca Raton mom says she agrees.
“The parents need to be in tune,” said Christine Goodman,* who has two children enrolled in Boca schools. “Some parents are too busy on the tennis court or socializing, and you just can’t rely on the school system or your children’s friends to raise them. You have to know your own child.”

There's one F*****G smart parent.

[Ahuramazda]

The same off-the-shelf medications used to suppress coughing can also be misused to suppress reality

i put that quote on my aim buddy profile, GermanicusDP btw

yeh its just funny to watch these people try, but they will never fully know what they are reporting

These assholes are REALLY pissing me off. they claim Benadryl contains DXM?!?! what the hell?! I mean all you'd have to do is read theback of the damn box to see it only contains diphenhyramine NOT dxm! where do these idiots get there information from?!?

[PeoplesMind]

They could be talking about Benadryl Dry Cough which contain Dextromethorphan and Pseudoephedrine.

peace,
Nitin