Hey, Mom, Where's the Cough Syrup?

Jackie Luckey, coordinator of Project Under 21 at Green Country Mental Health, spoke to my S.A.D.D. students today. He had a startling fact about underage drinking unique to this generation. Everyone has heard of Snoop Dogg's gin and juice, and you've probably heard a song called Purple Stuff, but did you know that the purple stuff was cough syrup?

Kids are buying mass quantities of cough syrup and drinking it straight. 3 bottles of cough syrup containing dextromethorphan equals the same high as PCP. Have you ever seen people on PCP? They are crazy. And sometimes they die. This is a far cry from the innocuous effects of an aspirin dropped in a Dr. Pepper bottle (for you youngsters, that was an ancient urban legend about the intoxicating properties of that concoction).

So far only cough syrups and pills containing pseudoephedrine are under control. You have to be 18 to buy it and have a valid ID, as it is behind the counter with your allergy pills and the NyQuil. Project U 21 is pushing for legislation that will remove the cough syrups containing DXM also, but until then, it remains out on the shelf and it's cheap. Some places do not even question a young person (say, around 15 years old) buying as many as 30 bottles at one time. Who buys 30 bottles of cough syrup? Even the most naive person would know something's up!

But, in case you are one of the naive people who has never heard of this, now you know. It has been going on since the '90's, but despite media coverage of cough syrup abuse, hospital emergency rooms have not seen a change in the number of teen overdoses on the stuff. Suspect something if your healthy child wants to know where you keep the cough syrup. Monitor the cough syrups in your medicine cabinet. DXM can come in pill form in various shapes and colors, or even in your Coricidin.

And if you hear the words, "Hey, Mom, where's the cough syrup," you might want to reply, "I don't know, honey, I don't think we have any, let me check..."