Latest drug of choice is over-the-counter

Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold medication is the one cough and cold medication sold over-the-counter that's safe for people with high blood pressure to use.

A few parents are learning, however, that it's also a drug their children are using in large doses to get high.
Last month, three Queens Lake Middle School students ended up in the hospital after abusing Coricidin. School officials learned they had taken the drug, often referred to as "Triple C" or "Skittles," because teachers noticed they were acting strange.

Dextromethorphan or DXM is a safe ingredient when used correctly and has few side effects, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. In high doses, though, it gives people a high similar to LSD or other hallucinogenic drugs.

"People take a multitude of tablets like five or six or 10 to 15 or 20 or 30," said Mark Medford, DARE coordinator for the York County Sheriff's Department. "It all depends on what kind of high they want. But when they do this, the risk involved is not just overdosing."

It's overdosing and dying, said Medford, who also serves on the York County School Board. There have been reports of children dying from dextromethorphan abuse in New Jersey, Ohio, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Washington and Florida. In the Kansas case, a 19-year-old man stabbed a 22-year-old man to death in April 2003 after taking between eight and 16 Coricidin tablets with alcohol and cocaine.

School officials refused to release information about the York students' conditions that day, citing privacy laws. When taken in high doses, however, Coricidin can induce a spaced-out or glazed look, slur their speech and cause them to lose coordination, Medford said.

Coricidin contains both chlorpheniramine maleate - an antihistamine - and dextromethorphan hydrobromide - a cough suppressant. The recommended dose is one tablet every six hours for adults and children age 12 and older. No more than four should be taken taken in a 24-hour period and children under 12 shouldn't use it at all.

High doses of dextromethorphan make it hard for a person to talk or move their arms or legs or to talk. It also slows down their breathing or stops it altogether, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Cold medicine abuse concerns drug companies like the New Jersey-based Schering-Plough Corp., which makes Coricidin, said Julie Lux, a company spokeswoman. The industry has been aware of the problem for some time, Lux said, because more than 125 over-the-counter medications contain DXM.

"Knowing that we have a brand that's being abused, we're trying to do what we can," she said. "It's a brand that's very important for a lot of people, but we want people to know there's the possibility of abuse."

Working with Community Health Care Products Association, Schering-Plough helped develop Web sites that alert parents to cold medicine abuse by teenagers and help them recognize the symptoms. The company also works with retail stores because Coricidin, which comes in a box, can be easy to steal, she said.

"Some of the options stores have taken is to put electronic theft tags on the product or they've moved it to the pharmacy counter or behind it," she said. "There's also signage directing patients that it's available at the pharmacy."

Some Wal-Mart stores have opted to store Coricidin behind the pharmacy counter, but the retail giant does not mandate it, said company spokeswoman Danette Thompson. Instead, it sells the product only to those over 18, and then no more than three boxes at a time, she said.

This policy went into effect three years ago in April, she said.

"We did it mainly because we began hearing that Coricidin is one of the over-the-counter drugs that was being abused," Thompson said. "We're trying to do our part to lessen the incidences of abuse."

Hidenwood Pharmacy in Newport News hasn't taken any special steps for Coricidin because it does not want to draw special attention to it, said pharmacist Anne Hutchens. The staff is on alert, however, to be aware of customers acting suspiciously around the product, she said.

"Abusing cold medicine is a cultural phenomenon. It's nothing new," Hutchens said. "And the more you draw attention to it, the more people will want to try it.

Coricidin first became available for use in 1957, and the Community Health Care Products Association has been reporting on dextromethorphan abuse since 1994. The Drug Enforcement Administration, however, considers the abuse to be sporadic.

David Holzsager, a pediatrician with Hampton Roads Pediatrics in Hampton, said he hasn't seen any cases of Coricidin abuse, but knows there is a problem.

Kids using large quantities get drowsy, have problems moving their upper body and hallucinate, Holzsager said.

Side effects also include dry-mouth, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, hypersensitivity and, in rare cases, liver damage, he said.

"The problem is that they're never taking just one thing," Holzsager said. The medication, he said, is often abused with other drugs like Ecstasy or alcohol, which only increase the dangerous physiological effects.

"So it's tough to see where you're having a problem."

Story Here; http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-97...ews-local-final

[AlexArchie]

Originally posted by drdªv€@Apr 24 2004, 07:35 PM
In high doses, though, it gives people a high similar to LSD or other hallucinogenic drugs.

I don't see how DXM is like acid at all.

[Walkaway]

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> I don't see how DXM is like acid at all.
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It makes you trip. The general public does not care at all about the subtle (and not-so-sublte) distinctons made between different psychedelic substances by psychonauts. If it makes you think bizarre thoughts and see shit that isn't there, it's like acid - the archetypal substance (in our culture) that makes you think bizarre thoughts and see shit that isn't there.
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Namaste,
Cliff

I think he was addressing the ignorance of the media, not whether or not Acid is like DXM.

[Dextro]

Originally posted by drdªv€@Apr 24 2004, 05:35 PM
High doses of dextromethorphan make it hard for a person to talk or move their arms or legs or to talk.

So I guess the point here is that its hard to talk on dxm. Boy, am I glad they cleared that up.

[Walkaway]

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> I think he was addressing the ignorance of the
> media, not whether or not Acid is like DXM
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On this issue, the media isn't so ignorant. Both DXM and LSD are psychedelics.
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Namaste,
Cliff

Originally posted by Walkaway@Apr 27 2004, 02:14 PM
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> I think he was addressing the ignorance of the
> media, not whether or not Acid is like DXM
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On this issue, the media isn't so ignorant. Both DXM and LSD are psychedelics.
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Namaste,
Cliff

Only to the inexperienced and biased, and therefor ignorant media.

Tell me Walkaway, do YOU or anyone else YOU personally know, refer to DXM as "like" Acid? Have you ever told a new-comer to expect acid like effects?

Then why is it excusable for a news reporter who spent 30 minutes on erowid, to make such a claim, while dodging the term "ignorant". Yet a seasoned psychedlia-lover woulden't possibly get away with it.

What I'm trying to say is this. While LSD and DXM share psychedelic properties, classifying them in such a manner of relation is a direct reflection on both their knowledge of the drug culture and experience. They therefor should not be attempting to inform the public until able to properly reference substances in an advanced hierarchy.

You may now, at this time, bend down and kiss my feet.

[Walkaway]

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> Only to the inexperienced and biased, and therefor
> ignorant media.
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No. DXM and LSD both share psychedelic properties. Whatever other subjective differences they may share, the essential point has been communicated to the average reader - they both make you see shit that isn't typically there and think bizarre thoughts.
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> Tell me Walkaway, do YOU ... refer to DXM as "like" Acid?
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Not typically, no. I don't typically refer to cannabis as being "like" acid, but consider cannabis and LSD to both be psychedelics.
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> or anyone else YOU personally know, refer to DXM as "like" Acid?
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Actually, I have known several people (both on- and off-line) who reported that DXM was "like" acid.
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> Have you ever told a new-comer to expect acid like effects?
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That depends on what one would classify as "acid-like effects." I would consider potentially life-changing shifts in spiritual and intellectual perspectives, out of body experiences, and closed (and more rarely, open) eye visual phenomena to be "acid-like effects." On the other hand, DXM doesn't give me an "acid body fry." The visuals are also of a distinctly different character. On the other hand, I've known people who have never used DXM (but who have used LSD, 2C-B, and other 'psychedelics') who told me that the mental effects I get from the DXM doses I typically use sound like LSD effects to them.
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Dan Perrine's The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs lists the following as "common features" of psychedelic experience:
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* a heightened sensitivity to sensory perception.
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* a sense that these perceptual heightenings have some profound import.
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* the sense of profound meaning attaches both to the perceived and the perceiver
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* changes in body feeling ranging from the impression that an arm or leg is dissolving to an out of body experience of viewing one's body from above and outside. There can be a sense of loss of ego...
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* More perceptive - or more metaphysically inclined - obsevrers such as Alan Watts, who was both a scholar of Zen Buddhism and an Episcopal priest, find the 'occasional and incidental bizarre alterations of sense perception' of marginal significance compared to the 'cosmic' or 'mystical' dimensions of the experience.
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All of these are typical features of my DXM experiences. In this sense, it would indeed be accurate for me to state that DXM is like LSD.
> Then why is it excusable...
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LOL. You asked me a series of questions and then assumed that I would provide the answers you expected. Which I did not.
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> for a news reporter who spent 30 minutes on erowid, to
> make such a claim, while dodging the term "ignorant". Yet
> a seasoned psychedlia-lover woulden't possibly get away
> with it.
---
That's dependent on context. A penis, a finger, a tongue, and a dildo are alike in that all four can stimulate the clitoris, but only one can urinate.
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> What I'm trying to say is this. While LSD and DXM share
> psychedelic properties
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Thank you for admitting that, and thus, conceding this entire pseudo-argument.
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> classifying them in such a manner of relation is a direct
> reflection on both their knowledge of the drug culture
> and experience.
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They're both psychedelics. If someone said ibogaine was a psychedelic drug "like LSD" that wouldn't imply that they're the same in all respects, but that they both make you see shit that isn't typically there and think bizarre thoughts.
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> They therefor should not be attempting to inform the public
> until able to properly reference substances in an advanced
> hierarchy.
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When did this article claim that DXM's effects are in all respects similar to LSD?
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> You may now, at this time, bend down and kiss my feet.
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Nah, my mouth's sore from eating out your mom.
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Namaste,
Cliff

Even though you answered out of my context, lets just say we both have defendable positions.

[Walkaway]

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Your position is defensible insofar as you maintain that DXM and LSD are not identical. I grant that. As regards context, you answered out of MY context, and I think the context I'm using is closer to what the reporter intended in this case.
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Namaste,
Cliff