Students abuse cold medicine

Four Gulf Coast High School students were hospitalized Friday after taking large amounts of an over-the-counter cold and cough medicine, a type of substance abuse the Collier County School District — like many schools nationwide — is seeing more often.

Three of the students were in stable condition at North Collier Hospital and one was released.

The students — two 16-year-old females, a 16-year-old male and a 14-year-old female — took several Coricidin pills, an over-the-counter medication that contains dextromethorphan, which produces an “extreme state of drunkenness,” Collier County sheriff’s spokeswoman Sheri Mausen said.

“This seems to be the trendy thing right now amongst teens and even preteens,” she said.

Authorities said that at about 9:25 a.m., a female student in the gymnasium appeared lethargic and said she was not feeling well. She told school officials she had taken Coricidin, also known as Triple C, and that another female student had been distributing the drug.

Mausen said the drugs are not illegal, and therefore no criminal investigation would be started.

“One student did say she was supposed to pay for them (the pills) at the end of the day, but we don’t know if money was exchanged,” she said.

District Assistant Superintendent Michele Lugo said school officials would meet with the students next week to determine what disciplinary action would be taken.

She said that at the very least the students would be suspended. Neither the school nor law enforcement authorities would release their names.

“There definitely was a violation. Students are not allowed to carry medication on the campus,” said Lugo, who added that parents of students who need medication must drop it off at the office. “If a kid has a pill, we don’t know what it is.”

Friday’s incident was the Collier district’s third case in eight months.

The first case of Coricidin abuse occurred in September, when seven students at Pine Ridge Middle School were caught with the substance. A second case occurred at Immokalee High School in November.

In December, USA Today published a story about these first two Coricidin incidents in Collier County.

According to USA Today, a 13-year-old Pine Ridge Middle School girl brought about 80 Coricidin pills to campus and gave six of her friends at least five pills each. The recommended dosage for adults is no more than one pill every six hours. Two students lost consciousness in their first-period classes and were later hospitalized. In November at Immokalee High School, a 15-year-old girl was airlifted to a nearby hospital after taking five Coricidin pills before school, USA Today reported.

The abuse of Coricidin has gained nationwide notoriety in recent months.

In January, the ABC television show “20/20” aired a report focusing on the increasing problem of teens abusing Coricidin. During the show, several youths spoke about how easy it was to get the drug and described the high they felt after taking several pills.

Some students at Gulf Coast High School worried that abuse of Coricidin could get out of control at their school.

“It’s easy to get,” 16-year-old Yaremi Fariñas said. She said school authorities went to her class and took away one of the students suspected of using the drug.

“People like that in our school, why do we want it?” Fariñas said, and added that most students were aware of the incident. But 15-year old J.R. McDonald, a freshman, said it’s all being blown out of proportion.

“People do it, but it’s not as big of a problem as it seems like,” he said.

Sophomore Gaby Arciniega disagreed. She said students are remaining tight-lipped about the abuse.

“There’s people that sell it, but they keep it between themselves,” the 16-year-old said.

Story Here; http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state...7drugabuse.html

selling otc products to each other.. tsk tsk.. thats some grade-a american ignorance baby.




-rudine-

[_Swey_]

Its going to happen dxm will be banned for sale to minors all because kids are retarted and think ccc is safe.

[LuSiD]

Whats sad is even the famed DXM Faq says Coricidan is safe up to a certain dosage of I think 10! The fewest I have ever heard of a death from CCC is 10!

[DXmethorphan420]

Originally posted by LuSiD@Apr 19 2004, 07:06 PM
Whats sad is even the famed DXM Faq says Coricidan is safe up to a certain dosage of I think 10! The fewest I have ever heard of a death from CCC is 10!

Where on the DXM FAQ does it say that any CPM overdose (10 ccc's even) is safe?

[LuSiD]

4.8.3

Again, remember that the antihistamine in these tablets will change the character of the DXM trip (not necessarily in a good way), potentially increasing the degree confusion. Do not use this product except at first and second plateau dosage! An overdose of antihistamine, while not typically fatal, can be extremely unpleasant and has been reported to be a frequent cause of "bad trips" from Coricidin. Most DXM users have recommended not taking more than eight Coricidin tablets; some say not to use this product at all.

It may have been an older version of the FAQ that said 10.

[SpiralDarkSeraphim]

It is scary that the FAQ does indeed basically approve the use of up to 8 CCCs for recreational DXM use. There are a lot of flaws in the FAQ. Granted, nothing is perfect, but shouldnt somebody make an even newer, totally revised FAQ sometime soon?

It totally infuriates me that all this bad DXM media attention is raging on. I tripped off robogels with a group of teens from my area a couple weeks ago. One of them, who was 15, said he liked CCCs better because they "make the trip insane" or some bullshit. I had to say something, because non dexers were around too, and I had to clear things up. I told the boy who said that, that CCCs do indeed kill people, yet DXM itself is highly unlikely to, in reasonable doses. I then basically got kinda grumpy, because he seemed to love CCC and that scared me a lot. I told him to please give up CCC and just do Robogels if he didnt like drinking syrup. I doubt he will heed my warning however.

-The Darkspyral