drdĒv
11-24-2005, 08:05 AM
Some teens getting high on cold medications
By LAURA CLARK/The Daily Journal
Sunday, November 20, 2005 -
Booze, "bud" and "meth" are the drugs of choice for most teens, according to health officials, but apparently some youth prefer large quantities of cold medicine.
"Some kids have been taking cold tablets ... if they take enough of them what happens is they get what is described as an out-of-body experience, as if they were doing heroine," said a Ukiah mother who recently witnessed the ordeal with her high school-aged son.
She said she learned from her son that "maybe 40 or 50" other students at Ukiah High School are abusing cold medication.
"They can get them over the counter; the kids are going in and getting them," she said. "When you see your child like that it is the most horrifying thing ever. ... I was hysterical. He was falling down, he had no motor skills whatsoever ... his speech was so impaired. ... His eyes were all glassy.
"These kids could die from this. It can cause respiratory failure. I stayed up all night while he slept just to make sure he was breathing. It was horrible to watch," she said, noting she will be monitoring him more closely from now on.
"We also need to address the stores in this town. They took all the sudaphedrine off the shelves and now we have to deal with this. ...We don't need to have another child in this community die before we pay attention to this.
"When he told me he had a cough I went and bought cold medicine without thinking anything about it. ... I just want to make sure other parents are aware of this," she said.
Ukiah High School Assistant Principal Jerry Garcia is.
"I have had one incident, a couple weeks ago, with two youngsters and they used a product called Thera Flu Thin Strips; they melt in your mouth. (The strips) are long-acting cough suppressants," Garcia said.
"What we found when we had a kid in school, he was basically intoxicated. We breathalyzed him and there was nothing, so we thought he was on a narcotic," Garcia said referring to one of the two students.
"He said no' and he brought out a pocket full of these Thera Flus. We asked him how many he had used and he said he had taken about 12 of them prior to coming to school. They don't recommend using these more than four times a day, or once every six-to-eight hours," Garcia said.
The administration contacted the school resource officer, but "there was nothing illegal about these," Garcia said. The boy's parents were also called, as were the paramedics, he said.
The other boy wasn't in the same condition, he said, but his parents were also called and he, too, was taken home.
Not long after this incident occurred, Garcia said he found eight empty Thera Flu wrappers outside of his school window. "It caught my attention because I just dealt with this. ... Apparently they come in packs of 12 or 24, and you can just buy them off the shelf," he said.
Polly Palecek, clinical services coordinator for adolescent treatment at the county Public Health Alcohol and Other Drug Programs, said that "while dependency on cold or cough medicine in this area is fairly rare, the use of over-the-counter medications is generally opportunistic and/or cyclical.
"The use of this type of drug is also a matter of convenience or availability as it can be pocketed or shoplifted easily. Since these drugs are easier to obtain than marijuana, they can be used when alcohol or marijuana are not available," she said.
Margot Cybulska, director of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs at Public Health, agreed "this is not a significant issue with youth. The significant issues in this population are marijuana, alcohol and methamphetamine. The cold remedy is more of an opportunist experimental issue that comes up periodically."
However, while cold medicines may not be the drug of choice among most teens, their abuse can cause serious health problems.
"The abuse of cold medicine is particularly dangerous as there is a higher likelihood of overdose as well as dehydration and long-term liver damage," Cybulska said, noting the dangers are typically discussed in AODP prevention/education presentations and talks at various schools.
Dextromethorphan, known to many as "DXM" -- the ingredient that, when abused, gets users high -- is in more than 100 cold medicines, according to an online article on the Drug Prevention Network of the Americas Web site. The same article, written in 2004, states that "the American Association of Poison Control reported teen abuse of these types of over-the-counter cold medications has doubled in the last four years."
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0...3137642,00.html (http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0,1413,91~3089~3137642,00.html)
By LAURA CLARK/The Daily Journal
Sunday, November 20, 2005 -
Booze, "bud" and "meth" are the drugs of choice for most teens, according to health officials, but apparently some youth prefer large quantities of cold medicine.
"Some kids have been taking cold tablets ... if they take enough of them what happens is they get what is described as an out-of-body experience, as if they were doing heroine," said a Ukiah mother who recently witnessed the ordeal with her high school-aged son.
She said she learned from her son that "maybe 40 or 50" other students at Ukiah High School are abusing cold medication.
"They can get them over the counter; the kids are going in and getting them," she said. "When you see your child like that it is the most horrifying thing ever. ... I was hysterical. He was falling down, he had no motor skills whatsoever ... his speech was so impaired. ... His eyes were all glassy.
"These kids could die from this. It can cause respiratory failure. I stayed up all night while he slept just to make sure he was breathing. It was horrible to watch," she said, noting she will be monitoring him more closely from now on.
"We also need to address the stores in this town. They took all the sudaphedrine off the shelves and now we have to deal with this. ...We don't need to have another child in this community die before we pay attention to this.
"When he told me he had a cough I went and bought cold medicine without thinking anything about it. ... I just want to make sure other parents are aware of this," she said.
Ukiah High School Assistant Principal Jerry Garcia is.
"I have had one incident, a couple weeks ago, with two youngsters and they used a product called Thera Flu Thin Strips; they melt in your mouth. (The strips) are long-acting cough suppressants," Garcia said.
"What we found when we had a kid in school, he was basically intoxicated. We breathalyzed him and there was nothing, so we thought he was on a narcotic," Garcia said referring to one of the two students.
"He said no' and he brought out a pocket full of these Thera Flus. We asked him how many he had used and he said he had taken about 12 of them prior to coming to school. They don't recommend using these more than four times a day, or once every six-to-eight hours," Garcia said.
The administration contacted the school resource officer, but "there was nothing illegal about these," Garcia said. The boy's parents were also called, as were the paramedics, he said.
The other boy wasn't in the same condition, he said, but his parents were also called and he, too, was taken home.
Not long after this incident occurred, Garcia said he found eight empty Thera Flu wrappers outside of his school window. "It caught my attention because I just dealt with this. ... Apparently they come in packs of 12 or 24, and you can just buy them off the shelf," he said.
Polly Palecek, clinical services coordinator for adolescent treatment at the county Public Health Alcohol and Other Drug Programs, said that "while dependency on cold or cough medicine in this area is fairly rare, the use of over-the-counter medications is generally opportunistic and/or cyclical.
"The use of this type of drug is also a matter of convenience or availability as it can be pocketed or shoplifted easily. Since these drugs are easier to obtain than marijuana, they can be used when alcohol or marijuana are not available," she said.
Margot Cybulska, director of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs at Public Health, agreed "this is not a significant issue with youth. The significant issues in this population are marijuana, alcohol and methamphetamine. The cold remedy is more of an opportunist experimental issue that comes up periodically."
However, while cold medicines may not be the drug of choice among most teens, their abuse can cause serious health problems.
"The abuse of cold medicine is particularly dangerous as there is a higher likelihood of overdose as well as dehydration and long-term liver damage," Cybulska said, noting the dangers are typically discussed in AODP prevention/education presentations and talks at various schools.
Dextromethorphan, known to many as "DXM" -- the ingredient that, when abused, gets users high -- is in more than 100 cold medicines, according to an online article on the Drug Prevention Network of the Americas Web site. The same article, written in 2004, states that "the American Association of Poison Control reported teen abuse of these types of over-the-counter cold medications has doubled in the last four years."
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0...3137642,00.html (http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0,1413,91~3089~3137642,00.html)