DXM News: Calif. man confirmed dead of DXM...

[rfgdxm]

This post is a follow-up to the news report I posted here from a
California newspaper that stated the death of Erick Myrman was due to DXM. I
have contacted the coroner's office via telephone, and confirmed that he is
indeed dead. I will not be able to do a proper news report on this case
until the coroner sends me a copy of the coroner's report that I requested.
and I have evaluated it. However, I was able to find out that 3 different
drugs were involved in his death:

DXM
diphenhydramine (commonly sold under the brand name Benadryl)
alcohol

I did get over the phone the blood and liver levels of DXM and
diphenhydramine. However, at this time I want to make sure I got those right
before I publicly reveal them. I likely will also have to have those levels
reviewed by others to determine exactly how high they are. Suffice it to say
after doing a quick check the DXM blood levels appear quite substantial. The
alcohol level I will reveal, and that was a .15% BAC. This is at the falling
down drunk level. With him also taking diphenhydramine (which is an
anticholinergic drug, just like the chlorpheniramine in Coricidin), let's
say I am hardly surprised that he ended up dead.

Free hint folks: DON'T repeat the same mistake he did.

[libel]

amazing they would leave out the fact that sleeping pills and alcohol kill more people each year than dxm ever will.

[Walkaway]

It's not terribly amazing, but then, I'm old and cynical.

I repeat that the initial story was in fact pretty worthless.

[the ashtar]

This might be a silly question but why report DXM deaths at all? Its not like its a really impactful form of harm reduction or whatever.

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by GARBAGECANJUNKIE@Aug 31 2004, 07:01 PM
It's not terribly amazing, but then, I'm old and cynical.

I repeat that the initial story was in fact pretty worthless.
You aren't the only one cynical, mon ami. There IS a reason rather than just accepting that news report as gospel truth I actually verified the facts. What I think happened is the reporter was covering the animal shelter aspect, and didn't consider exactly what drugs killed him important. A friend of the family just said it was DXM, and the reporter didn't question it. Not exactly stellar reporting that what was left out is that he washed down a lot of diphenhydramine pills with booze along with the DXM he took, but why sweat about little details like this?

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by the ashtar@Aug 31 2004, 07:05 PM
This might be a silly question but why report DXM deaths at all? Its not like its a really impactful form of harm reduction or whatever.
How do you know? Just dextromethorphan.ws gets a few hundred unique visitors on a slow day. It may be that when I add this news report to my website, at least a few DXMers will get the hint that taking it at the same time as a lot of Benadryl washed down with booze is NOT a good idea. There are some trippers who consider if they end up in the morgue that is a decidedly BAD trip. :(

[dawhiterabbit]

i knew alcohol was the devil!!!!!

[Southwick]

why do you always put these in dxm discussion then tell mods to move it. Why don't you move them yourself, by putting them in their rightful place? You obviously know that they don't belong there so wtf?

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by Orphan's Ghost@Aug 31 2004, 09:39 PM
why do you always put these in dxm discussion then tell mods to move it. Why don't you move them yourself, by putting them in their rightful place? You obviously know that they don't belong there so wtf?
Try making a post yourself in that DXM News forum.

"Sorry, you do not have permission to start a topic in this forum"

The software here isn't like a Usenet moderated NG, where you can post to a moderated forum and the post will wait in the queue for a moderator to check it. Thus the only way to get a post in the DXM News forum is to post it here first, and wait for a mod to move it.

[Paralysis]

I like rfg's reports. :P

:sly:

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by Paralysis@Sep 1 2004, 07:01 AM
I like rfg's reports. :P

:sly:
Thanks. :) This is an unusual case, and may end up with me doing 2 reports. The first would be a news report about the death aimed at the general public. Given the commercial media got it wrong and failed to mention the diphenhydramine and alcohol, someone should set the record straight. And, as a journalist I really shouldn't be adding to my site news reports about DXM deaths that I know are factually wrong. Only way to do this here likely will be to do my own independent news report.

The second I am considering is a scientific paper as a case report. With the coroner's report I'll have hard data about the detail of the death. I may also need to get the full autopsy report if it exists. (For those who don't know the difference, the coroner's report basically is a summary of the autopsy report, with conclusions about the cause of death. If a full autopsy was done, some details that may be scientifically relevant may be left out.) Given that I was told how much DXM and diphenhydrinate were found in the liver, my guess is a full autopsy was done. The autopsy report can be particularly useful when it comes to the actual mechanism of death. IOW, not only will that say what drugs killed him, but exactly how they killed him. While it might seem more than necessary to report anything other than this is a death due to "acute combined drug and alcohol toxicity", given this is such an unusual case those scientifically minded might be interested in more details if someone cares enough to want to look deeper.

[frank325]

i'm curious how much he took

[vapor]

Originally posted by the ashtar@Aug 31 2004, 06:05 PM
This might be a silly question but why report DXM deaths at all? Its not like its a really impactful form of harm reduction or whatever.
Because its dxm related news.

Part of getting a general scope on the dxm scene is to look at it from all perspectives, even the negative ones.

[neko]

hey, at least he died doing something he loved.

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by frank325@Sep 1 2004, 06:13 PM
i'm curious how much he took
This may not be knowable. If he had a stash of powder, there is just no way we could know how much he had, even if we know how much was left. However, if a certain number of Robo Max bottles were found near his body... I don't yet know his weight. From what I was told on the phone, plasma levels of DXM were about 2/3 of a fatal amount reported in one case that appeared in medical literature. Note he also took diphenhydramine, which is metabolized by the 2D6 enzyme the same as DXM. Thus if all we can know is how much he had in his blood, it may be hard to guess how much he took.

[House]

I, for one, have no problem moving threads for rfgdxm and am glad that he, as well as others, is keeping tabs on these DXM incidents.

It would be interesting to know how much the guy took of all of the substances... It's too bad it will be a mystery.

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by harMony@Sep 1 2004, 11:35 PM
It would be interesting to know how much the guy took of all of the substances... It's too bad it will be a mystery.
There is a chance that at least how much he took of at least some of these drugs will be knowable. For example, if he was drinking Robo Max and had thrown out all old bottles, if the number of empty bottles found in the home seems consistent with the blood levels, it's a good guess that is how much DXM he took. And if there is just one empty pint of liquor around, and we know the proof, likely that's how much alcohol he took. The Benadryl may be more tricky unless he bought a small bottle/box and took all. It's even possible he kept a trip log, and always wrote down the doses he would take before he took them. Odds on the latter being the case here are low.