drdĒv
02-12-2004, 05:02 PM
Sweetly fruity cough syrup, liqui-gels and other over-the-counter cold medications seem so innocuous. They ease coughs and lower fevers. Heck, Mom gives them to you.
But recreational use of massive quantities of Coricidin Cough and Cold reportedly sent two teens at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek to the emergency room two weeks ago. In Lafayette, a Stanley Middle School student ingested 16 Coricidin tablets and had to be hospitalized.
"We've known about (Coricidin) drug-oriented abuse for some time -- it's pretty wild stuff, but kind of sporadic. We see little clusters," said Kent Olson, medical director of California Poison Control's San Francisco division.
One of those clusters hit Walnut Creek high schools last year, and Las Lomas and Lafayette officials are concerned that a trend may be emerging. All three students recovered, but Las Lomas principal Pat Lickiss worries that what may seem like harmless fun could have tragic consequences.
Lickiss contacted parents to warn them "about a troubling trend that some high school students in Walnut Creek and around the country are engaging in." He directed them to a U.S. Department of Justice Web site with information on this kind of drug abuse, and a People Magazine article about students who had died while using dextromethorphan.
Cough and cold medications such as Coricidin and Robitussin contain dextromethorphan -- DXM. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a cough suppressant in 1958, DXM became popular as a recreational drug in the 1980s, particularly among the punk set.
But DXM abuse has moved into the mainstream and, according to a 2001 California Poison Control report, Coricidin abuse is highest among teens, ages 13 to 17.
Medications usually taken to relieve fever and dispel coughs at normal doses are being used for something quite different. Taken in large quantity, DXM causes a euphoric high that Olson says is similar to PCP, although the actual drug is more related to opium-like compounds.
Read the complete story HERE (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/7935606.htm)
But recreational use of massive quantities of Coricidin Cough and Cold reportedly sent two teens at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek to the emergency room two weeks ago. In Lafayette, a Stanley Middle School student ingested 16 Coricidin tablets and had to be hospitalized.
"We've known about (Coricidin) drug-oriented abuse for some time -- it's pretty wild stuff, but kind of sporadic. We see little clusters," said Kent Olson, medical director of California Poison Control's San Francisco division.
One of those clusters hit Walnut Creek high schools last year, and Las Lomas and Lafayette officials are concerned that a trend may be emerging. All three students recovered, but Las Lomas principal Pat Lickiss worries that what may seem like harmless fun could have tragic consequences.
Lickiss contacted parents to warn them "about a troubling trend that some high school students in Walnut Creek and around the country are engaging in." He directed them to a U.S. Department of Justice Web site with information on this kind of drug abuse, and a People Magazine article about students who had died while using dextromethorphan.
Cough and cold medications such as Coricidin and Robitussin contain dextromethorphan -- DXM. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a cough suppressant in 1958, DXM became popular as a recreational drug in the 1980s, particularly among the punk set.
But DXM abuse has moved into the mainstream and, according to a 2001 California Poison Control report, Coricidin abuse is highest among teens, ages 13 to 17.
Medications usually taken to relieve fever and dispel coughs at normal doses are being used for something quite different. Taken in large quantity, DXM causes a euphoric high that Olson says is similar to PCP, although the actual drug is more related to opium-like compounds.
Read the complete story HERE (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/7935606.htm)