Væ§ølis
10-25-2003, 06:39 AM
By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ
[email protected]
Last Updated: Oct. 23, 2003
Waukesha - It began years ago with "Robo-tripping" and progressed to "Skittling." Now, Waukesha police fear, teens are morphing another over-the-counter drug, known as DXM, into a new and powerful stage of misuse.
Available through Internet retailers, full-strength dextromethorphan is being purchased locally by teens who dilute it with baking powder, package it in gel caps and sell it for $5 a capsule, police said.
What has alarmed police is the potential for quick and large profits and that it's probably not illegal.
"We want parents to be aware of this, to watch their children if they appear to be intoxicated and don't smell of alcohol," police Capt. Mike Babe said.
The drug is a non-opiate cough suppressant, which is why it's remained an over-the-counter drug, despite its mood-altering abilities and potentially harmful impact on the unknowing user, said Rich Katzenberger, a pharmacist with Medical Center Pharmacy in Waukesha.
Chugging large doses of non-prescription cough syrup, such as Robitussin DM, known as Robo-tripping, or eating Coricidin tablets that mimic the appearance of the popular candy Skittles, known as Skittling, is nothing new for those looking to alter their minds with legal substances.
What's emerged over the past four to five months is homemade pills containing high dosages of DXM, said Peter Jungbluth, the school resource officer for Waukesha West High School.
"In Skittling, some kids would take up to 25 pills and get sick and throw up," Jungbluth said. "They never got a strong dose. I did not know until a few months ago that you could get it (DXM) in pure form."
Jungbluth learned otherwise on Sept. 12, when he got a call from the worried mother of a West student.
"His mother told me he had an adverse reaction and scratched his head until it was almost raw and bleeding," Jungbluth said. "His mom asked him what he was doing, and then he threw up. He became scared and told her he had bought some of the pills."
Police learned he had purchased three capsules from a 15-year-old West student at a bus stop near the school, Babe said.
Investigators visited the Town of Waukesha home of the 15-year-old and learned that his 17-year-old brother had purchased a 50-gram bottle of dextromethorphan on the Internet for little more than $100.
Police figured the older brother stood to net more than $1,800 in potential profit even with the costs of the drug, gel caps and baking powder figured in, Jungbluth said.
"We know there's more of it going on in the community," he said.
On Oct. 2, two Waukesha detectives checked on a parked car with two occupants and found that one of them had a 25-gram bottle of DXM. The other person in the car was the 17-year-old, Babe said.
"Because it's not a prescription substance, they (students) think it's safe," Jungbluth said. "That's where they're getting jazzed up.
"My interpretation is that it's just a matter of time before this takes off. The only thing that screws them up is that they need a credit card to make purchases on the Internet."
Claudia Roska, executive director of the Addiction Resource Council Inc. of Waukesha, said she wasn't surprised to learn of the Internet purchases.
"One of the most widely spread spam on the Internet is the availability of prescription and non-prescription drugs," Roska said.
Limited use locally
Outside Waukesha, the repackaged DXM hasn't shown up elsewhere in the area yet.
Jungbluth said he recently attended a regional conference for local school resource officers and few, if any, knew that DXM could be purchased on the Internet.
Assistant District Attorney Lloyd Carter, who prosecutes drug cases in Waukesha County, said he had not found anything in the controlled substance laws that makes possessing or selling of DXM illegal.
"I'm continuing my research, and I haven't exhausted every avenue to prevent this from reoccurring," he said.
The school district is trying to tighten its rules on mood-altering, over-the-counter drug use based on recent experiences with such drugs, a district document says.
Harlan Stueven, a physician and medical director of the Waukesha Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, said neither he nor the department staff had seen or heard of an increase in use of the drug in the area.
"It's a drug that's been abused nationally for some time, perhaps a decade or more," he said.
Stueven said early signs of DXM abuse include confusion, delusion and hallucinations. More severe cases involve seizures, shock, coma and death.
"The problem we need to underscore for that age group is that anything they buy on the street that's sold as a certain drug is probably not that drug and is probably a variety of things. Whatever they're being sold is not what they're getting. It's garbage can drugs."
From the Oct. 24, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
[email protected]
Last Updated: Oct. 23, 2003
Waukesha - It began years ago with "Robo-tripping" and progressed to "Skittling." Now, Waukesha police fear, teens are morphing another over-the-counter drug, known as DXM, into a new and powerful stage of misuse.
Available through Internet retailers, full-strength dextromethorphan is being purchased locally by teens who dilute it with baking powder, package it in gel caps and sell it for $5 a capsule, police said.
What has alarmed police is the potential for quick and large profits and that it's probably not illegal.
"We want parents to be aware of this, to watch their children if they appear to be intoxicated and don't smell of alcohol," police Capt. Mike Babe said.
The drug is a non-opiate cough suppressant, which is why it's remained an over-the-counter drug, despite its mood-altering abilities and potentially harmful impact on the unknowing user, said Rich Katzenberger, a pharmacist with Medical Center Pharmacy in Waukesha.
Chugging large doses of non-prescription cough syrup, such as Robitussin DM, known as Robo-tripping, or eating Coricidin tablets that mimic the appearance of the popular candy Skittles, known as Skittling, is nothing new for those looking to alter their minds with legal substances.
What's emerged over the past four to five months is homemade pills containing high dosages of DXM, said Peter Jungbluth, the school resource officer for Waukesha West High School.
"In Skittling, some kids would take up to 25 pills and get sick and throw up," Jungbluth said. "They never got a strong dose. I did not know until a few months ago that you could get it (DXM) in pure form."
Jungbluth learned otherwise on Sept. 12, when he got a call from the worried mother of a West student.
"His mother told me he had an adverse reaction and scratched his head until it was almost raw and bleeding," Jungbluth said. "His mom asked him what he was doing, and then he threw up. He became scared and told her he had bought some of the pills."
Police learned he had purchased three capsules from a 15-year-old West student at a bus stop near the school, Babe said.
Investigators visited the Town of Waukesha home of the 15-year-old and learned that his 17-year-old brother had purchased a 50-gram bottle of dextromethorphan on the Internet for little more than $100.
Police figured the older brother stood to net more than $1,800 in potential profit even with the costs of the drug, gel caps and baking powder figured in, Jungbluth said.
"We know there's more of it going on in the community," he said.
On Oct. 2, two Waukesha detectives checked on a parked car with two occupants and found that one of them had a 25-gram bottle of DXM. The other person in the car was the 17-year-old, Babe said.
"Because it's not a prescription substance, they (students) think it's safe," Jungbluth said. "That's where they're getting jazzed up.
"My interpretation is that it's just a matter of time before this takes off. The only thing that screws them up is that they need a credit card to make purchases on the Internet."
Claudia Roska, executive director of the Addiction Resource Council Inc. of Waukesha, said she wasn't surprised to learn of the Internet purchases.
"One of the most widely spread spam on the Internet is the availability of prescription and non-prescription drugs," Roska said.
Limited use locally
Outside Waukesha, the repackaged DXM hasn't shown up elsewhere in the area yet.
Jungbluth said he recently attended a regional conference for local school resource officers and few, if any, knew that DXM could be purchased on the Internet.
Assistant District Attorney Lloyd Carter, who prosecutes drug cases in Waukesha County, said he had not found anything in the controlled substance laws that makes possessing or selling of DXM illegal.
"I'm continuing my research, and I haven't exhausted every avenue to prevent this from reoccurring," he said.
The school district is trying to tighten its rules on mood-altering, over-the-counter drug use based on recent experiences with such drugs, a district document says.
Harlan Stueven, a physician and medical director of the Waukesha Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, said neither he nor the department staff had seen or heard of an increase in use of the drug in the area.
"It's a drug that's been abused nationally for some time, perhaps a decade or more," he said.
Stueven said early signs of DXM abuse include confusion, delusion and hallucinations. More severe cases involve seizures, shock, coma and death.
"The problem we need to underscore for that age group is that anything they buy on the street that's sold as a certain drug is probably not that drug and is probably a variety of things. Whatever they're being sold is not what they're getting. It's garbage can drugs."
From the Oct. 24, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel