4 girls treated for drug abuse

Four eighth-grade girls at A. MacArthur Barr Middle School were treated at Nyack Hospital yesterday morning, three after apparently abusing over-the-counter cough medication, and the fourth after swallowing prescription pills.

Three of the girls had taken up to 20 cough pills each, while the other took 1 1/2 pills of amphetamine-dextroamphetamine, a drug used to treat hyperactive disorder, police and Nanuet school officials said. It was unclear if the incidents were related.

Middle School PTA President Rhonda Gomez said she heard the girls had been released from the hospital in the afternoon and were "fine." Officials would not comment on the girls' conditions.

Taking an excessive dose of cough medicine is called "robo-tripping," borrowing its name from the over-the-counter cough medicine Robitussin, Clarkstown Sgt. Harry Baumann said. Excessive doses of cough medicine can get people high.

"It's fairly new. It's just starting to show up on the Web sites. This is the first time I've heard of it in Rockland," he said. "Now that it's come to light, we're starting to research it."

Police were sent to the middle school on Church Street at 9:42 a.m. after school officials reported a medical emergency, Clarkstown police Sgt. Joseph Reiter said.

Three girls, ages 13 and 14, were in the nurse's office. They were lethargic with flushed faces and dilated pupils, according to the police report. Paramedics were called and the girls were taken to the hospital about 10:15 a.m.

About 11 a.m., the ambulance was again called to the middle school to take the fourth girl to the hospital.

Reiter said that case was still under investigation and details were unavailable.

"The school staff noticed in each of them some symptoms and got them down to the nurse's office, and they were immediately taken to the hospital," Schools Superintendent Mark McNeill said. "What we don't know is where they got the medication.

At 12:30 p.m., he said: "The kids are OK. We're drafting a letter that will be mailed today to give everybody the facts." The school has 165 students in the eighth grade.

McNeill said Principal Roger Guccione followed the children to the hospital and returned shortly before lunchtime to tell students and staff what happened.

Gomez said information about the incident was sent home from the school with her son. She said that she was shocked to hear the news and that students also appeared to be shocked.

"All the students were made aware of it. They had an assembly to let them know what happened," she said. "I think it's important that the kids have an idea what their peers are up to. I think it shook them up today."


Read Complete Story http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/0306...a0106drugs.html

[SnarkBot]

its good to see little girls goin hard core.. hahahahah sike, wth is up with all the 11-14 year old girls dexen nowdays. i blame the news, damn news. gettin kids to do drugs, fookin t.v. it sure wasnt cuz i shared my tussin with them 8th graders that time, if thats what your thinking..

And why all these idiots take so much that they have to cause a problem at school? If you're going to take drugs when you're going to school, at least keep in control. All of the drugs in the world can't make you look cool when you're staring in space like an idiot and slobbering on your desk.

[4The2Season0]

The thing is for alot of these kids, its there first drug experience(of anything) , and im sure they don't expect some shitty old cold pills to do that. I blame the news too. Kids are interested in drugs for sure. My brother got morphine at the hospital (he's 10) and he was talking for days about how it made him "feel funny". Its human nature to alter ourselves, if they keep writing these fucking stories about cocordrin (sp) then ofcourse more kids who don't understand the risks are gunna do it.

Then again i dont understand how some kids can be so damn stupid to not know anything about it, yet they take a whole bunch of it.

[SnarkBot]

Originally posted by 4The2Season0@Mar 7 2004, 12:55 AM
Then again i dont understand how some kids can be so damn stupid to not know anything about it, yet they take a whole bunch of it.

Ditto that..

the last few months i was in skool i would go dexed all the time, it was fun. i'm sure alot of yall gone dowg gone n done it too. but no one ever said anything to me about being fucked up or acting weird. i allways just tryed to play it cool. i noticed these kids useally make fools of them selves before they get found out. if they had only learned to chill.

heheh there was one time though when i was sittin in the back of the class and the dxm started hittin me and i was all stoned and i started hearing voices, so i kept lookin around makeing sure no one was talkin to me, then i started spacein out a little and accidentally mumbled something out loud about trying to find the voices, and the few people around me were stareing at me. but then one dude i would talk to was like its o.k. guys, hes just on drugs. then they laughed at me and everything was o.k.

Originally posted by SnarkBot@Mar 7 2004, 09:35 AM
but then one dude i would talk to was like its o.k. guys, hes just on drugs. then they laughed at me and everything was o.k.

Hahaha crazy kids.

Maybe its just me but I have the feeling that the assembly is going to have the opposite effect they were looking for. I know if I was still in Middle School and the faculty had an assembly to tell us about some over the counter drug we could get high off of that I and several friends would be at Wal Mat that night.