The Downside of Getting High on Cough Syrup

[Amide]

A recent article in the Journal of Emergency Medicine tells the story of a 20-year-old kid from Portland, Oregon that extracted the active ingredient, dextromethorphan, from some cough syrup and tried to get high with it. Thanks to the doctors that treated him, their patient did not earn a Darwin Award.

Case reports written by doctors are often far more exciting than an episode of House or any other hospital drama. They tend to include a lot of fun facts.

As a bonus for their readers, the authors included two recipes for the drug that nearly killed their patient. Those recipes came from the infamous Vaults of Erowid website. It is an encyclopedia of sometimes detailed and usually dangerous instructions for making drugs with improvised methods that would make MacGyver cringe.

When a chemist wants to extract something from a complicated mixture, they often use extremely pure solvents and a device called a separatory funnel. Proprietors of the finest meth labs often steal them from college campuses. Without access to these supplies, rogue chemists must resort to using chemicals from the grocery store and kitchen. Combined with a lack of scientific knowledge, the results are what you would expect -- terribly impure drugs that are in no way fit for human consumption.

In the improvised recipe, the drug is extracted from the cough syrup with ammonia and then from the pungent household cleaner with cigarette lighter fluid. When teaching an organic chemistry class, my rather sharp students often had a hard time getting rid of every last bit of the solvents they were working with. Keep in mind that they had all of the proper equipment and adequate instructions. Imagine how much lighter fluid could have been left over in the cocktail that this young pillar of society prepared for himself. In this case, it appeared to be an overdose of the active ingredient that did most of the damage. The doctors commented that some, but not all of his symptoms were in line with a dextromethorphan overdose.

Both the paper and some recent news stories claim that the abuse of dextromethorphan is on the rise. As a regular consumer of organic produce, I fall into the category of individuals that are appalled by the notion of tainting my food with anything that may be remotely toxic. The thought that consuming something that is prepared with ammonia and tainted with lighter fluid and who knows what else could be a popular pastime terrifies me.

Source

[Unnamed]

Isn't overdosing a downside of most drugs?

Sure am glad I was worried about killing myself with an extraction for all these years though (if it isn't just propaganda I mean).

[lund]

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[Scynne]

Originally posted by lund@Jun 27 2007, 08:10 PM
It doesn't seem like a typical "liek omg cough syrup is teh evil behind counter now!" propaganda article so I'd take it seriously, at least to some extent.

I take it full seriously. Someone failed at properly extracting DXM, and paid for it. Quite a reasonable scenario. People are bound to suck at chemistry every now and then.

[Amide]

Another Mention

And decide for yourself: What drug is the narrator on, anyway? (I'm voting a Robitussin mega-gulp.)

[Cool Cherry]

LOL at this article making the front page of Digg.

http://digg.com/health/The_Downside_of_Get..._on_Cough_Syrup

[Jim Lahey]

I've never had enough faith in myself to attempt an extraction. :thumbsup: I would be the one who fucked it up and died.

[Unnamed]

Originally posted by Scynne@Jun 27 2007, 11:42 PM
I take it full seriously. Someone failed at properly extracting DXM, and paid for it. Quite a reasonable scenario. People are bound to suck at chemistry every now and then.

Well that wasn't really what they implied, but that any and all of us(not using professional equipment), even those who don't suck at chemistry, are hurting ourselves by trying to extract (even though they admit most of the damage came from the DXM overdose itself).

[Cool Cherry]

Yay! My comment got +5 diggs!

[Thomas Jefferson Monk]

OMG DXM USE IS ON TEH RISE!!!

It sure seems that every article I read, I see that statement. I say, "Well, fuck. We'd better do something to stem the rising tide my friends."

So I say, ban all DXM containing products from the hands of idiots everywhere. They don't get them back until they can prove they've graduated high school and taken a chemistry class if they're going to do extractions.

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In reality, the knowledge that it's hard to get all solvents out even with proper equipment, let alone a few Zip Lock baggies has kept me from attempting extractions. I mean, for those who do, I hope they know that no matter what they do, they're chugging naptha along with their DXM. As long as they're ok with that fact, I've got no trouble supporting them.