During the cold and flu season, when I had my 'flu', I was at a few different places shopping, and went down the Cold and Flu Aisle and noticed a lot of teenagers in that aisle, huddled together, laughing and joking, and looking very ready to steal.

Then I went to another store, and noticed it again. Week later, yet another store, and noticed it again.

Then I was watching one of these TV Mags and they had a show about Coricidin and kids hooked on cold remedies. Now the shelves are bare and some of the cold remedies are locked up.

Last week I was in SavOn, and the schools had just let out, and the high schoolers were going in, in packs. I watched where they went...down the Cold aisle..

Have you seen these things in your area?

Full Source Title:
American Journal of Emergency Medicine 01-OCT-2003; 21(6): 473-5

Severe manifestations of coricidin intoxication.

CoricidinHBP (Schering-Plough Health Care Products, Inc, Memphis, TN) is a popular over-the-counter product abused by teenagers for its potent euphoric properties. The recreational user might refer to Coricidin products as “Triple C” or “Red Hots” because of the 3 Cs on the red tablet. These products are popular because of the euphoric and stimulant effects obtained when ingesting more than the manufacturer’s recommended dose.[2] [3] Each ingredient in the CoricidinHBP products can result in significant toxicity when used in inappropriate doses.

Just last night, I had to shove four stoned cheerleaders and a geek with broken glasses out of the way to get to the Astroglide, which is in the same aisle as the cold remedies in the Walgreen's near where I live.

Seriously, it's been mentioned by drug counselors in a couple parent meetings I've attended.  Something to watch out for.

Remember Whip-its?  

Some things never change.

Yoda

We must alter our consciousness to culturally evolve.

TET

Coricidin and Robitussin, and other cold medications contain dextromethorphan which is a cough suppressant. That is what the kids are after. dextromethorphan (referred to as DXM) is also a fairly strong psychadelic drug when taken in large doses. The typical medical dose is about 10-50mg. Most capsules contain 20-30mg. Common recreational use is about 200-400mg, and sometimes more. There have been deaths related to recreational use.

While I don't disagree with your sentiment, I do feel that most people explore their mind without preparing themselves properly. I've never experimented with any drug, legal or illegal, without doing my research first. Most deaths occur, because people push limits that they shouldn't push. This is one case, where what you don't know CAN kill you.

but it wasn't very effective (for anything) and not good for those with HBP either. Just my .02.

Sedona,

It's called "skittling."  The Coricidin pills look like Skittles candy. They take big doses to get a LSD like high. The ingredient that does it is dextromathoraphan.

read this short link

TET

PS.  Are you all recovered yet?

You may not be old enough to remember when people smoked banana peels.

TET

I remember it:  It was when they ran out of pot!

I'm pretty sure that the Zen master who originally said that had other, non-chemical means in mind.

I'm halfway through, thank you. Five more weeks to go..

I was home sick a few weeks ago, and watch Maury (I know I should be doing more productive things), and there was a pretty stoned kid there talking about how he takes robitussin cough medicine (with DXM in it), and using some chemical process, extracts the DXM out of it, then dries it with a torch.

He then either snorts or ingests the dried mixture for a pretty significant "high".

The funny thing is that the three 20 somethings who admitted to taking the stuff all had the "glazed over in the eye look", and were pretty much unable to carry on a conversation.  This of course could have been done by the producers to show how bad the stuff is..

donovan "invented" it while hanging out with members of the dead and god knows who else...dry the peel, scrape the brown stuff into the pipe and smoke it... supposedly produced a "mellow yellow" high. however, i heard him talking about it years later on a radio interview. he said that they were never able to duplicate the high and came to the conclusion that it required a significant amount of hash residue in the pipe in the first place

"Have you seen these things in your area?"

Not lately, but getting high off codeine-laden medicine or antihistimines was a fad when I was in junior high back in the early 70s, and I imagine it wasn't uncommon before that. Heck, I used to get high off Allerest.

--b.