In decades past parents had, by today’s standards, little to worry about with what substances their kids may be experimenting. In the world wars era it was only really alcohol and cigarettes, the latter being commonly used by virtually the whole population. Then came the hippy era with a focus on marijuana and other mind altering, hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, upping the ante as to what drugs parents needed to be aware of. Cocaine hit the market in the seventies and became popular in the eighties; around the dawn of the new millennium new drugs like ecstasy and meth burst into the main stream.

While all of these drugs are still being used, they are still all illegal, expensive (to varying degrees), can be somewhat difficult to acquire, and are all harmful in one way or another. Today, however, young adults are becoming more resourceful with what drug they experiment and through the decades have begun experimenting a younger ages. Today, parents need to not only worry about what drugs are on the street, but, also, what drugs are in their medicine cabinets.

In the United States, around 3.1 million youth and young adults ages 12 to 25, or five percent of that age group, have experimented with an over-the-counter cough and cold medication to get high at one point or another, a U.S. government survey said.

Today’s young people are abusing cold pills and cough syrups in significant doses to experience hallucinations, "out-of-body" events and other ‘trips’, officials said.

The survey, released in 2006, gave a glimpse into the abuse of these over the counter drugs among young adults, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, said in a report. The survey was conducted through almost 45,000 interviews with people ages 12 to 25.

The results of the survey should be a cautionary notice to parents to mind what they keep in their medicine cabinets and what measures they will take to prevent their child from misusing over-the-counter drugs. Also, young adults, themselves, should be aware of what effects over-the-counter drug abuse can have on their mental and physical functioning.

Adolescents and young adults are thought to have the highest rates of abuse of such medications, the officials said. Nearly 1 million -- or 1.7 percent of them -- had done so in the past year, according to the survey.

Abuse of over-the-counter medicines, like cough syrups, has long been known, but the number of young adults experimenting with them wasn’t well quantified until this survey. The survey results, however, do not conclude whether this kind of substance abuse is increasing, decreasing, or remaining constant.

NyQuil, Robitussin, and Coricidin products were the top three OTC of choice for young adults. The chemical that is present in cold and cough medicines that induces the ‘high’ sought after by the youths is dextromethorphan, also known as DXM. This cough suppressant is prevalent in over 140 cough and cold brand products that are available in the United States without a prescription. DXM is considered safe when used in the suggested doses. Too much of DXM, however, results in hallucinations or out-of-body ‘trips’ similar to those experienced when using PCP and Ketamine. An overdose can cause uncontrollable muscle spasms, vomiting, delirium, irregular heartbeat, and sometimes death.