Teens getting drugs from stores' shelves

Karina Bland
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 25, 2004 12:00 AM

As parents, we don't want our children anywhere near drugs, but kids only have to open the bathroom medicine cabinet to find drugs that could get them high.
We're in the midst of cough and cold season, and parents should watch for children who take an unhealthful interest in the medications, school officials, doctors and drug experts warn.
Abuse of over-the-counter cold medicines by teenagers has doubled in the past four years, according to the American Association of Poison Control. Locally, calls to poison control have held steady.
Still, more kids are swallowing handfuls of cold tablets like they were candy. Abusers even call them "Skittles."
At $7 a box, kids favor Coricidin HBP because it has the highest concentration of dextromethorphan, 30 milligrams per tablet, compared with 10 or 15mg in other products. Dextromethorphan, or DXM, is a narcotic, making abusers feel drowsy and euphoric. DXM also slows breathing.
At schools, children fall asleep at their desks and can't be roused. Taken in higher dosages, kids experience delusions and hallucinations.
DXM abuse can cause other problems: high blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, seizures and brain damage. Coricidin abuse has been linked to at least 14 deaths nationwide in the past two years.
The emergency room at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix treats about one kid a month for overdosing on the drug.
"We all need to be vigilant about this issue," said Nicole Greason of the Tempe Union High School District. "For our kids, it can be a matter of life and death."
Kids abuse cold medicine because it's easy to get, said Dr. Paul Wax, a medical toxicologist and director of Banner Good Samaritan Poison Center. "You don't have to know a drug dealer or a pusher or even know a friend who gets high. You get it from home. Or, you just . . . buy it."
Staying a step ahead
This fall, in school districts across the Valley, staffs are being trained in drug trends among teenagers, including DXM abuse, and workshops are being offered for parents.
Schools are taking other precautions, as in the Washington Elementary School District, where Web sites about Coricidin are blocked on classroom computers.
"As parents and school personnel, it's up to us to stay one step ahead of the kids," said Nedda Shafir of the Washington district.
Wax attributes the upswing in abuse of DXM, which has been available since the 1970s, to the Internet, where teenagers expertly surf.
The Web sites offer advice on what products contain DXM and how much to take: "Take from 6 to 10 of these your first time. It's like being drunk and tripping at the same time"; and "WARNING. This drug is like over-the-counter acid."
Taken correctly, DXM is effective for colds and coughs.
Kids can legally buy DXM, but they often steal it, sometimes punching the tablets out of packages in the store.
"They're getting high right off the store shelves," said Eleanor Andersen of Scottsdale, whose son may have abused Coricidin for at least two years. He's 18 now.
Andersen had had the requisite parental talks with her son about drugs, but she didn't know to warn him about over-the-counter drugs, first offered to him by friends.
Her son has overdosed on Coricidin. He survived, but it damaged his liver.
Be suspicious
Stephanie Siete-Kreiling of Community Bridges, a Mesa non-profit drug prevention agency, trains school personnel about drug abuse and talks to children about the dangers.
She warns parents to be suspicious if children request a particular brand of medicine. Parents should keep note of what's in their medicine chest, she recommends.
Siete-Kreiling said parents usually don't suspect kids are abusing cold medicine. There are no telltale signs: no smell, no red eyes.
Andersen wants stores to put products containing DXM behind the counter to make it harder to steal.
She is working with Scottsdale school officials, police and prevention specialists to create a drug prevention program that will include warnings about over-the-counter medications.

[ZenRaver]

Originally posted by drdªv€@Jan 25 2004, 05:04 PM
Dextromethorphan, or DXM, is a narcotic, making abusers feel drowsy and euphoric. DXM also slows breathing.

Wow. And to think I thought all this time that DXM was used as an OTC cough suppressant precisely because it is not a narcotic.

Someone should e-mail them threatening a lawsuit for publishing that inaccurate information. It's a viable case (though, I believe to actually persue it, you'd have to be in the industry). Maybe I will.

dxm doesn't make you drowsy, WTF i never get to sleep if i'm tripping, these inaccurate articles piss me off

[levomethorphan]

DXM actually has a stimulant effect due to its dopamine reuptake inhibiting ability, especially in the lower plateaus.

Its funny because i did 520mg and during the come down i could bench 90lbs then i could usually. Also its true, its is used to supressed coughs because it is NOT A NARCOTIC. Due to serious concusions i was given narcotics to releive pain, i didn't abuse them. Narcotics are nothing like DXM. I read a lot of this shit on that site, and if anyone on here is a lawyer take up the case, or a h4X0r then go 1337 on thats sites ass.

[iconoclast]

blatant ignorance is not going to stop us from doing what we want.

DXM abuse can cause other problems: high blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, seizures and brain damage. Coricidin abuse has been linked to at least 14 deaths nationwide in the past two years.
The emergency room at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix treats about one kid a month for overdosing on the drug.

And how many GROWN MEN go in for liver damage, heart problems cancers and drinking too much and getting violent, car crashes bla bla from alchahol and tobacco?

[MR_AK]

I think people are getting the wrong idea about DXM and its effects.

and I think they should be tell the kids how to do DXM, because they will do CCC and CCC IS BAD, they need to be telling kids these things... before they kill themselves.

EDIT: and one more thing DXM IS NOT COLD MEDICNE!!!!!!! YOU DUMB FUCXS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!