Percentage of Teens and Young Adults Who Use Cough Syrup to get High
Dextromethorphan, or DXM, is the ingredient in over 140 over-the-counter cold and cough medicines that people use to get high. Over 3.1 million people between the ages of 12 to 25 have misused cough syrup in order to escape reality. Statistics also show that white youths are three times more likely than black youths to abuse this OTC drug. The effects of this drug include but are not limited to overdosing, loss of physical coordination, blurred vision, intense abominable pain, muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat, delirium and death. The number of people in this age bracket that have tried LSD is also 3.1, leading many to demand clearer labels and identification for the purchase of such OTC drugs.
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March 27th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
When I was on probation and informal house arrest, my favorite thing to do was manipulate my Mom into taking me with her to the grocery store so I could steal bottles of cough syrup to get high on when I went home. One thing that should have stuck out to me about how sick I was is that I was drinking 2 bottles of cough syrup to get high! There are a lot of the products that you can get over the counter to get high with, Nodoze, any type of extract bought in a grocery store, etc. There are a lot of them out there that have begun to be used in an irresponsible way. I dont know if any of those products will ever be put behind a counter, or put in a more regulated part of the store, but hopefully people will be educated about how dangerous those products are if used in excess. I was risking brain damage everytime I ever drank over two bottles of cough syrup, as well as the danger of being alone while doing it. I was able to maintain a caffeine overdose from the pills but if I had overshot just once I could have seriously damaged myself. No matter what the form a drug comes in it’s dangerous, it’s a bummer to know that kids can find such an easy way to get high in the grocery store.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I used to abuse DXM. I found out at a young age that I could drink a whole bottle of cough syrup and get similar results as using other halucigens. Using DXM was cheap legal to buy and readily available. Over the course of a summer I found myself using DXM to escape reality and get high. While using DXM I rapidly excelled in my addiction and began to be more and more depressed. All the while getting more psychotic in my thinking. Using over the counter drugs to get high are very dangerous and can cause permanent brain and body damage. Having an awareness of these potentially harmful OTC drugs can greatly reduce the abuse of these drugs in youth in the future.