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03-19-2007, 04:46 PM
'Stay alert,' advises mother of 2 who abused shelf medicine
Published: Mar 19, 2007 2:31 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - At first Mary Ries didn't see her sons' drug abuse.
As teens, her boys, now in their 20s, abused over-the-counter medicine.
One had a penchant for Robitussin DM; the youngest was addicted to Dramamine. Both went to rehab.
"My older son would act silly, and he was always with his friends, but I didn't see it as there was something going on there," the Lancaster mother said. "My younger son, you could see; he couldn't hide that. He had no concept of what was real."
For years, teens have downed bottles of cough medicine to get high.
The cough-suppressing ingredient used nowadays, dextromethorphan, when taken in large amounts, transforms into a disassociative drug. Teens call it "robotrippin," after Robitussin.
While alcohol and marijuana still reign supreme, abuse of over-the-counter medicine is not going away, research shows.
A Partnerships for a Drug Free America report reveals that at least one in 10 teenagers has abused cough medicine to get high.
"Dextramorphan in the cough medicine is a particular concern," said Lisa Starr, prevention specialist with the Lancaster Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. It's readily available; it's also inexpensive.
Also, as kids consume these medicines, they may be unaware that many contain acetaminophen, the key ingredient in Tylenol.
"That can be deadly in large doses," Starr said.
Dextramorphan is found in dozens of non-prescription cough and cold medications such as Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold tablets, a popular way to swallow the drug because it doesn't involve unpleasant-tasting syrup. It's dubbed "Skittles" or "Triple C."
Parents and teens don't think it's as big as a deal or as harmful as taking street drugs, recent research shows.
"I think it's an invisible problem for the most part," Ries said. "A lot of parents don't know about these over-the-counter medicines and what they can do."
Ries' sons, who were students at Hempfield and Warwick High schools, due to custody arrangements with their father, nearly ruined their lives with it, she says.
Her younger son was a good student and a wrestler.
He overdosed on Dramamine twice. Once his friends dumped him in the street in front of a hospital.
Ries admonishes parents to stay alert.
"Look for empty packages of pills, cough bottles, anything that might be in their kids' rooms," Ries said. "It got to where I had to start looking in their things ... of course teenagers hate that, but that's too bad."
She's not sure what she and their father could have done differently, however.
But who would have thought of Dramamine? Abuse of the motion sickness pill, which causes severe hallucinations, is not that common, experts said.
"It was terrible," she said. "You think, 'my child might have killed themselves over something like that.'"
In recent years, pharmacies have pulled many cold and cough medicines off the shelves and put them behind the counter. The law requires customers to show some identification and limits the amount they can buy.
But that is meant to prevent people from extracting the pseudoephedrine in some medicines to create methamphetamine.
That has nothing to do with the abuse of the other ingredients.
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/201883
Published: Mar 19, 2007 2:31 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - At first Mary Ries didn't see her sons' drug abuse.
As teens, her boys, now in their 20s, abused over-the-counter medicine.
One had a penchant for Robitussin DM; the youngest was addicted to Dramamine. Both went to rehab.
"My older son would act silly, and he was always with his friends, but I didn't see it as there was something going on there," the Lancaster mother said. "My younger son, you could see; he couldn't hide that. He had no concept of what was real."
For years, teens have downed bottles of cough medicine to get high.
The cough-suppressing ingredient used nowadays, dextromethorphan, when taken in large amounts, transforms into a disassociative drug. Teens call it "robotrippin," after Robitussin.
While alcohol and marijuana still reign supreme, abuse of over-the-counter medicine is not going away, research shows.
A Partnerships for a Drug Free America report reveals that at least one in 10 teenagers has abused cough medicine to get high.
"Dextramorphan in the cough medicine is a particular concern," said Lisa Starr, prevention specialist with the Lancaster Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. It's readily available; it's also inexpensive.
Also, as kids consume these medicines, they may be unaware that many contain acetaminophen, the key ingredient in Tylenol.
"That can be deadly in large doses," Starr said.
Dextramorphan is found in dozens of non-prescription cough and cold medications such as Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold tablets, a popular way to swallow the drug because it doesn't involve unpleasant-tasting syrup. It's dubbed "Skittles" or "Triple C."
Parents and teens don't think it's as big as a deal or as harmful as taking street drugs, recent research shows.
"I think it's an invisible problem for the most part," Ries said. "A lot of parents don't know about these over-the-counter medicines and what they can do."
Ries' sons, who were students at Hempfield and Warwick High schools, due to custody arrangements with their father, nearly ruined their lives with it, she says.
Her younger son was a good student and a wrestler.
He overdosed on Dramamine twice. Once his friends dumped him in the street in front of a hospital.
Ries admonishes parents to stay alert.
"Look for empty packages of pills, cough bottles, anything that might be in their kids' rooms," Ries said. "It got to where I had to start looking in their things ... of course teenagers hate that, but that's too bad."
She's not sure what she and their father could have done differently, however.
But who would have thought of Dramamine? Abuse of the motion sickness pill, which causes severe hallucinations, is not that common, experts said.
"It was terrible," she said. "You think, 'my child might have killed themselves over something like that.'"
In recent years, pharmacies have pulled many cold and cough medicines off the shelves and put them behind the counter. The law requires customers to show some identification and limits the amount they can buy.
But that is meant to prevent people from extracting the pseudoephedrine in some medicines to create methamphetamine.
That has nothing to do with the abuse of the other ingredients.
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/201883