Now at Your Drugstore: A Cheap and Dangerous High

[void]

New York Times:

Tammy Quist, principal of Fairview High School in Boulder, was not surprised when she learned in April that a student was in a coma after overdosing on an over-the-counter cold medicine.

"It's out there, and you know kids do it," Ms. Quist said. "It's cheap, accessible and it's not illegal if kids get caught. And it usually goes unnoticed until a kid takes too much or combines it with something to get a horrible reaction and overdoses."

Cough and cold medications containing dextromethorphan, or DXM, are becoming increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults looking for a cheap high, experts say.

There are no national statistics that track fatalities from cough and cold medications. But reports of overdoses of the drugs have doubled in the last four years, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure Surveillance System. In 2000, poison-control centers across the country had 2,523 calls about the abuse and misuse of DXM, and 1,623 of those calls involved teenagers. By last year, that total had risen, to 4,382, with 3,271 involving teenagers.

These figures, said Dr. Alvin C. Bronstein, medical director for the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center in Denver, are probably an underestimate.

"There is lack of awareness and easy access to these medications," Dr. Bronstein said. "Parents need to be more aware because a box of cough preparation wouldn't look that sinister."

The problem has caused some drugstores to put cough and cold medications that contain DXM behind the counter, where they are less accessible. Three states - California, New York and New Jersey - introduced legislation this year to prohibit sales to minors of products containing DXM, or to restrict the quantities that are sold. The issue of banning bulk sales will be taken up by the American Medical Association at a meeting in Chicago this week.

At the same time, some manufacturers have increased the package size of products with DXM to make them harder to shoplift.

"We have undertaken a variety of steps to educate parents, teens and schools," said Julie Lux, a spokeswoman for the Schering-Plough Corporation in Berkeley Heights, N.J., which manufactures Coricidin and other products that contain DXM.

Dextromethorphan is an ingredient in more than 125 nonprescription cough and cold medications, including forms of Robitussin, Coricidin and Vicks. It suppresses coughs by reducing sensitivity in the part of the brain that controls the cough reflex.

Officials at the Consumer Healthcare Products Association in Washington, the trade group that represents Schering-Plough and other manufacturers of over-the-counter medications, say dextromethorphan is not an addictive substance and does not produce a chemical dependence.

Experts say DXM is safe in the 15- to 30-milligram doses recommended for treating coughs or colds. But in the large doses, 100 milligrams or more, typically taken by recreational users, it can cause hallucinations and feelings of unreality. It also carries a risk of high fever, seizures and other serious adverse reactions. Teenagers sometimes refer to dextromethorphan products as Skittles, Red Devils, Robo or Triple C's. The high that the drugs produce is called "robotripping" or "skittling."

Alex M., a 17-year-old high school student, said DXM gave him a feeling of being outside his body. "I like to use it with meditations," he said. "It's just interesting for self-discovery."

He has also used the drugs at parties, where, he said, "It's more something to end the evening."

But Alex's experimentation was halted when his father, John, discovered a stash of pure DXM he had purchased online. "We have had long discussions about the side effects," his father said.

No one is sure what lies behind the recent jump in overdoses from DXM. One theory is that people who abuse it are mixing it, either inadvertently or intentionally, with other drugs, like antidepressants and antihistamines, the interaction increasing the risk of overdose and death.

The Internet may also have a role. A quick search on Google brings up dozens of sites describing how to get high on dextromethorphan. "Some of these sites will tell kids exactly how many drops of something they need to take in order to get high," said Ms. Quist, the principal.

Other Web sites warn about the risks of DXM; some include first-person accounts by former users, with photographs of teenagers vomiting the cough syrup before the high kicks in.

Some experts believe the current enthusiasm for abusing cold and cough medicines will not last.

"DXM had some experimentation in the 1960's and it died out," said Dr. Andrea G. Barthwell, deputy director for demand reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This seems to be another blip on the radar screen. It's unlikely it will catch on in a significant way."

Ms. Quist sent a letter to parents outlining the signs of DXM abuse, which include confusion, impaired judgment, blurred vision, dizziness, paranoia, excessive sweating, slurred speech, nausea and vomiting. Most parents, she added, said they were unaware of the problem.

In the letter, Ms. Quist recommended that parents keep medications containing the ingredient in places that are not easily accessible and avoid keeping large quantities of such medications in the house.

The boy who overdosed in April, Ms. Quist said, has emerged from his coma, but she refused to comment further on his condition. Also this spring, a 20-year-old man from Arvada died from a Coricidin overdose.

In some cases, overdoses and deaths have occurred when parents or guardians have given cough or cold medications to very small children in inappropriate doses.

In May, a Colorado man pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide for causing the deaths of his two children after giving them adult cherry-flavored cough and cold medicine.

"The labels clearly state how you shouldn't use these products, and that's the first line of defense," said Tom Sanford, a spokesman for Pfizer's consumer health care unit in Morris Plains, N.J. Pfizer makes Benadryl and many other cough and cold medicines. "People need to understand this is serious medicine."

Read Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/health/1...&partner=GOOGLE

[libel]

Alex M., a 17-year-old high school student, said DXM gave him a feeling of being outside his body. "I like to use it with meditations," he said. "It's just interesting for self-discovery."

He has also used the drugs at parties, where, he said, "It's more something to end the evening."

But Alex's experimentation was halted when his father, John, discovered a stash of pure DXM he had purchased online. "We have had long discussions about the side effects," his father said.

No one is sure what lies behind the recent jump in overdoses from DXM. One theory is that people who abuse it are mixing it, either inadvertently or intentionally, with other drugs, like antidepressants and antihistamines, the interaction increasing the risk of overdose and death.

The Internet may also have a role. A quick search on Google brings up dozens of sites describing how to get high on dextromethorphan. "Some of these sites will tell kids exactly how many drops of something they need to take in order to get high," said Ms. Quist, the principal.

[libel]

Same old story, different day. Sorry I can add anything usefull.

[Rexedgeltoe]

It sounds like that 17 year old knew what he was doing, they didn't say anywhere that he had abused the drug at all.

[ihatejacknjills]

Who is void? I thought peoplesmind was the admin/creator of DV!

[molly]

Gaah, the name Tammy Quist definitely caught my eye when I read that.. She's a bitch! I graduated from that high school last year, and I never heard about any boy in a coma. Oh well, at least I missed the letter to parents by a year.

[molly]

The kid was also on AMT, which is apparently also known as DMT and widely available on the internet... *blah*

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/schools/art...2856151,00.html

[boulderguitarist]

Originally posted by DextroGeek@Jun 15 2004, 03:48 PM
It sounds like that 17 year old knew what he was doing, they didn't say anywhere that he had abused the drug at all.

Yeah, that was me, they called me to interview me cause I was quoted in an article in a local paper about the kid in the coma. I'm pissed that they misquoted me about using it to end an evening, but oh well, it's still cool. It just annoys me how they can't ever get an article correct.

[cindowsxp]

But dude, CCC's OWN!!!! notice how every name they came up with was based primarilly off CCC's with the exception of robotripping which it is NOT! CCC's are the devil. I think that any cough syrup containing more than just DXM should be put behind the counter. Thus the people who want to trip can safely. How about that?