Teens Find Over-the-Counter Alternatives to Street Drugs

[The Straight Story]

They should just legalize Pot and let wal mart sell it - new jingle "rollin rollin rollin, keep them papers rolling, roll up!"

Teens Find Over-the-Counter Alternatives to Street Drugs
Written for the web by Elizabeth Bishop, Internet News Producer

Teens looking for a cheap and easy high are searching no further than the medicine cabinet. They're taking large doses of cough medicine for the hallucinogenic effect.

The medicine they're after has the active ingredient dextromethorphan or DXM. It's found in medicines ending in "tuss" or "DM." Kids call it Triple-C (as in Coricidin Cough and Cold), Red Devils, Skittles, DXM, Dex, or Robo (as in Robitussin).

Some teens told News10 they've taken between 12 and 24 Coricidin tablets (12 to 24 times the recommended dosage) in order to experience a hallucinogenic effect. Many kids think over-the-counter medications are a safe alternative to street drugs.

"It's a different mind set," said one student who only wanted to be identified as "Adam." "You feel like you can do anything, you know?"

http://www.kxtv.com/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=15848

[DemInDistress]

1. every thing's that old is new again..why not i did when I was 45 yrs.

younger, robo DM..and morning glory seeds,, and banana peels and pepsi and aspirins (didn't work) and sniffing intoxicants like barge and liquids that remove stains I forget the name but was very potent..government should just allow Hemp (weed,pot,marijuana) to be legal so our kids don't play with these dangerous items..and me too !!!

[Katherine Brengle]

2. Robo-tripping. I had a boyfriend in college who almost died doing

this...

[catnhatnh]

3. In 72' an army buddy...

...spoke of how they would buy cheap cough syrup with large amounts of codeine and then go to the Freedom Bridge to scream obscenities at North Koreans they could actually see...

[Wickerman]

4. Anyone who's read any of Lester Bang's fine work knows about

'tussin. And Lester's been gone for longer than most of them there punks have been alive.

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Dextromethorphan is great stuff.

It's the only thing that works for me when I get a really severe cough. I hope it doesn't get taken off the market just because of the behavior of a few punk kids.

[dweller]

9. yeah, but opium/morphine works better

of course, you won't be finding that on the shelf.

Which is really sad since it's been around since the beginning of time, and is still the safest pain-killer known to humans.

dp

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Actually, when I'm not in pain, and just want a cough knocked out,

Dextromethorphan is what I want. I don't feel comfortable taking opiates when I'm not in pain, but that's just me.

[napi21]

6. These kids think they discovered something new?

The drug sections can't even keep Nyquil on the shelf!

Robo etc has been bought for the high effect for decades!

[democracyindanger]

8. Yep

I knew guys who Roboed 20 years ago.

[ismnotwasm]

7. I remember doing that stupid shit

Turk we called cough syrup with codiene. Never hallucinated though. I did hallucinate off of weed several times. Probably dusted, I don't remember. Took anything that said "May cause drowsiness" or "Do not take without perscription" in anybody's medicine cabinent. We used to do a lot of inhalents, I guess it's called "huffing" now. I suppose I shouldn't say what some of what we used was, were since they are still available. There was nasty shit called Locker room and Rush--supposed to be like amly nitrate.

There is an Indian reservation somewhere where the many of the kids are getting permanent brain damage from huffing gasoline, I think I read it here on DU a while back.

Meanwhile, there are people in prison for selling weed with longer sentences that for those selling crack.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. DXM can be extremely dangerous...

My daughter's ex-boyfriend overdosed on Delsym over a period of days, had a psychotic break, broke into a woman's house, and butchered her dog with her kitchen knives. He held the police off for hours until they finally had to taser him. He ended up being sentenced to three years. What he didn't realize was that Delsym is time-released DXM, so when he didn't feel anything, he just kept taking more. The cumulative effect was devastating.

A lot of people do cheap highs -- I did myself when I was a young adult -- but sometimes it's a very dangerous thing. I agree -- they should just legalize pot and get it over with. It's a much more pleasant experience.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. It's bad for you in general, but coricidin can very likely be deadly.

If you take an overdose of pure DXM, you'll trip, probably puke, kill braincells, but it is unlikely you'll kill yourself. Coricidin can be very easily overdosed on. It kills. A lot of kids don't know this. Personally, I'm pretty much pro-drugs, but I am an adamant believer in harm-reduction. Erowid.org is a lifesaving website in my opinion, along with dancesafe.org. A lot of problems come about from not knowing how the drug works. It you're an educated drug user, you're a safer drug user. I honestly think that no one under 18 or so should be doing anything though.