Teens abusing cold medicine containing DXM

Teens found a new drug to abuse. Users are buying over-the-counter cold and cough medicine to get high. They are mainly buying Coricidin Cold and Cough; the users call it “skittles”, “red devils”, “crazy eights”, “triple c”, or “c”, which contains 30mg of Dextromethorphan HBr and 4mg of Chlorpheniramine Maleate. There are over 80 different brands of cold medicine that contain this drug, Dextromethorphan, or as abusers call it, DXM.
These users are taking this drug in very high doses, such as anywhere from 8-30 pills or three to five times the recommended dose, depending on how often they use it and their tolerance level. “I built a tolerance to the eight pills I took very fast, so I decided to take more and I kept doing that until I found myself taking 16-20 pills just to feel the craziness of ‘c’,” said an anonymous 16 year old. The back of the box states not to exceed four pills in 24 hours.

The effects of this drug are known to be psychedelic and very random, similar to LSD and/or PCP. Users sometimes become either overly happy and excited or very anger and violent. These abusers also say that these “trips” are different every single time they use DXM. “The best part is never knowing how your trip is going to turn out!” says an ex-user, Melissa Carter. These trips usually last anywhere from 6-12 hours.

What some users do not know is how dangerous this drug really is. The Chlorpheniramine Maleate, that is an active ingredient in Coricidin, is an antihistamine that, at high doses, can cause heart failure, coma, and possibly death. There have been hundreds of overdose cases just this year all over the country and too many to count in the past.

There are many negative effects from this drug being abused, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, dizziness, schizophrenic thoughts and acts, depression, confusion, emotional complications, major and minor metal illnesses, addiction, mental and physical flashbacks, kidney failure, and liver damage.

Users have been choosing to do this drug over any other because it is hard to detect. Parents can not look at the eyes to see redness; the only difference in the eyes is the pupils become very large. There is also no scent to Coricidin. The user will become very moody and emotional. They will also have bouts of rage and anger. They become very aggressive at times as if they were using PCP or heroin.

Katie Lee, a local girl who abused this drug and was hospitalized a year ago said, “we all just kept taking it thinking we were just having fun, having no clue we were on the verge of killing ourselves. We just got so addicted to it that we would almost do anything just to get our hands on it. No one had told us about the dangers or warned us, we just thought we were getting high.”

Other users and doctors have said that it is like rolling the dice every time a person uses this drug. These abusers put their life on the line every single time they use this. Another local girl who asked to remain anonymous said, “The high was like none other. You felt so content and that nothing could ever go wrong. You had no worries and nothing mattered. Your whole body becomes numb and your vision is totally messed up and you hallucinate a lot.

The users are mainly teenagers ages 13-18 because it is cheap, legal, and easy to get. All the abusers have to do is walk or drive up to the grocery store and buy their drugs. Doctors and government officials have passed a bill that as of January 2005, ALL medicines containing the drug Dextromethorphan will be only sold behind the counter and you must be eighteen or older to purchase it. The users are mainly teenagers ages 13-18 because it is cheap, legal, and easy to get. All the abusers have to do is walk or drive up to the grocery store and buy their drugs.

Story Here: http://www.my.highschooljournalism.org/ca/...=1968&aid=25139

[neko]

what a load of bollocks

[i dex alone]

I thought it was a good article. It focuses mainly on CPM and the dangers of such an easily accessible and potent combination of drugs in the form of CCC.

[neko]

Originally posted by i dex alone@Jun 8 2004, 01:08 PM
I thought it was a good article. It focuses mainly on CPM and the dangers of such an easily accessible and potent combination of drugs in the form of CCC.

if the article was any good it would have told them that there's other ways to dex without using ccc

[Ubiquitous]

Doctors and government officials have passed a bill that as of January 2005, ALL medicines containing the drug Dextromethorphan will be only sold behind the counter and you must be eighteen or older to purchase it.

FUCK, thats really gonna happen?

better stock up soon...

[Midknight]

haha By then I will be 18, so it's all good, Just gonna have to buy 2 or 3 8 oz bottles every few weeks instead of 2 4 oz, everytime I trip for a day :P

[neko]

ironically enough its already behind the counter in the UK, even though dexing has never made the news here and practically nobody does it. dexing is so expensive that it's a LOT cheaper to just get drunk, smoke some weed or take pills.