XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs, alt.drugs.rfg   
   XPost: rec.drugs.psychedelic   
   From: rfgdxm@KILLSPAMMERSmochamail.com   
      
   Cold pills latest drug trend among teens, officials warn   
      
   By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmomalley@naplesnews.com   
   December 8, 2003   
      
   In the woods behind a shopping center off Immokalee Road, sheriff's   
   deputies found the evidence: seven empty cold pill boxes surrounded by   
   beer cans.   
      
   Coricidin cold medication pills -- either purchased for around $7 from   
   stores, shoplifted from drugstore shelves or snared from home medicine   
   cabinets -- are one of the new, cheap, easy-to-obtain highs that   
   teenagers are using.   
      
   Kids from ages 11 to 16 are the most common users, popping four, five or   
   six cold medication pills at a time to get high and putting their lives   
   in danger. Some are tripling or even quadrupling the recommended   
   dosages.   
      
   It's part of a national trend that is replacing the long-known practice   
   of cough syrup sipping, drug experts say.   
      
   And law enforcement officers want parents to know that the new drug of   
   choice could be camouflaged in foil packs of cold pills.   
      
   The Coricidin pills, or "Triple C," or "Dex" as the drug is known, has   
   been said to cause an almost LSD-like high, including hallucinations.   
      
   "The kids are talking about it, about doing it at home or on the   
   weekends," said sheriff's Cpl. Joe Scott, a youth relations deputy. "So   
   it's out there."   
      
   This year, there were two incidents of intoxicated middle and high   
   school students at two Collier County schools. At least four of the kids   
   had to be hospitalized.   
      
   Local drug counselors say they see about 24 cases each year, but the   
   numbers are rising of kids "tripping on Triple C."   
      
   The dextromethorphan or DXM in the Coricidin cold and cough medicine is   
   what gives users the high, often more than double what a bottle of cough   
   syrup can produce.   
      
   "They're easy to get. Nobody stops them. But they're never going to   
   replace marijuana or alcohol," said Michael D'Amico, the director of   
   children's services at the David Lawrence Center in Naples.   
      
   Parents now have to look for more than pipes, pot and pills such as   
   Ecstasy or Xanax. What they might be looking for is in a much less   
   obviously dangerous-looking package.   
      
   Mixing the Coricidin with heroin or other hard drugs has led to death in   
   a handful of cases throughout the United States. Use of the drug also   
   has led to brain, kidney and liver damage and seizures.   
      
   The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says that 65 of 100 cases of   
   teens admitted for problems related to Coricidin were abusing the drug.   
   And most of them were between 13 and 16 years old.   
      
   Deputies have seen the effects at local schools.   
      
   "We've had them collapsing in classrooms," Scott said.   
      
   In September at Pine Ridge Middle School, two girls and five boys were   
   found to have taken Coricidin. Three had exceeded the adult dosage,   
   deputies said, and had to be taken to Naples Community Hospital. One of   
   the girls admitted she had shoplifted the drugs from the Wal-Mart in   
   North Naples. Deputies confiscated 41 Coricidin pills.   
      
   Last month at Immokalee High School, deputies said a girl had taken   
   Coricidin and was very disoriented. She could hardly speak and couldn't   
   stand on her own, deputies said. She had to be rushed to the hospital   
   with an irregular heartbeat and elevated blood pressure. Deputies later   
   learned that she had mixed the cold pill with a prescription antibiotic.   
      
   "It's a cheap way for them to feel good," D'Amico said.   
      
   He said hardcore drug users aren't Coricidin users.   
      
   "It's more of an experimental kind of drug," he said. "It usually drops   
   off at about 16."   
      
   But someone who is being monitored for other drug use, such as cocaine,   
   could be using the cold medicine for a high. Users have to admit to   
   using the cold pills.   
      
   "What scares me is that it's not detectable in drug screens," D'Amico   
   said. "We can't find it."   
      
   While some kids mix the pills with alcohol, others have been known to   
   take as many as a dozen at a time, he said.   
      
   Deputies are hoping local stores will voluntarily move the pills to a   
   more visible spot in the store so it can be monitored. One Publix store   
   nearby the remnants of the Coricidin party in the woods has moved the   
   pills, Scott said. Or perhaps they could put them behind the counter or   
   deny sales to kids younger than 18, he said.   
      
   Since the pills are legal substances, deputies can't make arrests. But   
   students need a parent's permission to bring any medication to school,   
   so the young people can face discipline for that infraction.   
      
   "In a way, they're kind of flaunting it around us," Scott said.   
      
   Scott said he bought his own package of Coricidin to take photos for a   
   brochure he wants to get out to parents so they know what to be looking   
   out for.   
      
   "Parents need to know what's out there," he said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)