Talk to Your Kids About Over-the-Counter Prescription Drug Abuse: Dextromethorphan
Nowadays abusing pharmaceutical drugs seems to be all the rage among teenage adolescents. This recent phenomenon is called “pharming” in popular street language. Those that cannot get their hands on the hard drugs like marijuanna, cocaine, speed, meth, ecstacy look elsewhere for other highs. Some sniff aerosol cans and markers while others swap prescription painkiller medication. Eitherway, prescription meds or not, taking drugs not prescribed by your physician can be dangerous and transfer of prescription meds to other people is also a federal crime.
But it doesn’t have be be just prescription meds that are used, (ie: hydrocodone, soma, oxytocin). There are also other “legal highs” that can be achieved using drugs bought over the counter (ie: dextromethorphan, salvia). One trend in particular that has been gaining popularity is overdosing on cough medicine, which often uses dextromethorphine as the active ingredient. Dextromethorphine when taken in moderate amounts is effective in relieving cough symptoms but when taken in large amounts users can gain a sense of euphoria or high. In extreme levels users can fall into a catatonic state or even die. The effects are categorized by intensity in “plateaus.” The first plateau involves taking very small doses. The 4th plataeu is essentially entering another dimension. In the personal story I included below I believe I reached the second plateau.
The two most popular methods of ingesting large amounts of dextromethorphan (abbreviated DXM) are drinking lots of Robotussin DM or ingesting orally many cough medicine pills.
Either way, taking drugs like this is dangerous, and sometimes even scary. I would recommend you keep your kids away from stuff like this. Unfortunately, on a gloomy day I once tried DXM recreationally. I regret it and if someone had been there to talk to me in my time of need perhaps I would not have made such a grave mistake. Such stupid actions cost me about a million brain cells. Anyways, below is my personal recollection written in my diary the day I overdosed on DXM. Learn from it and tell your kids about its dangers.
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My Personal Experience with Dextromethorphan Overdose:
Anyone here know about DXM (an abbreviation for Dextromethorphan – the active ingredient in cough medicine)? I had my first trip today. When you take large amounts of DXM it has significant psychoactive effects. You know, in real life im one of those quiet kids who is softspoken and doesnt do to much crazy stuff. Yea, ok people who know me in real life might say otherwise, but seriously, I am a pretty mellow guy. But since college apps, standardize testing, and that girl i liked ditching me for the guy who was supposed to be helping me out I’ve been pretty screwed up.
Anyways, I took some DXM (dextomethorphine) today, available over the counter in cough meds, and overdosed a dose of 210 mg. Normal dosage is 30 mg. I don’t really know why I did it. I’m 88kg, so I had about 3mg/kg of DXM – scariest trip of my life in telling you – because I’ve never tripped before in my life on ANYTHING and I’ve never even gotten drunk before.
Well this was my first experience with drug abuse:
(Highly DO NOT recommend this, in fact I will never do this again, or anything like it. Drugs are worthless. They don’t even make you feel good.)
A friend gave me seven cough suppressant tabs, don’t know what brand, but each had 30 mg DXM and that was the only active ingredient. Took down all of those at circa 1:15 AM in 6th period.
For the next hour I was fine, nothing happened. Free period passed by like nothing. However, I felt a bit hyper and agitated. I couldnt stop jiggling my legs – felt excited, and really happy. At the beginning of 8th period circa 2:30 PM I really started feeling the trip. I noticed when I got up I felt light headed. When I walked on the grass, I felt like I was walking on air almost. Everything was really dizzy and spinning. I started to talk really slowly and walk carefully. This was not too intense, but it only got worse from there. The dizziness got worse and i started to feel nausea from all the motion sickness circa 3:00 PM. I couldn’t stand anymore without stumbling and whenever I stood up my legs would wobble and I would start to lose balance. My mouth was also parched dry. My friends sitting next to me started to ask, “What’s wrong with you? You look white as a ghost.” Apparently the blood had drained from my face, and I must have looked totally wasted. I bought a water bottle, and then I noticed that I couldn’t stop shivering. I was wearing a sweater and it wasn’t even cold. I was also sweating and getting these cold flushes. My hands couldn’t stop trembling. All the girls sitting at the table were starting to freak out and get worried. I went to the bathroom to urinate. It was kind of difficult because my hands were shaking – my whole body was shaking. I leaned over the sink to puke, but nothing came out. I walked with baby steps back to the table I was sitting at and put my head on the table.
Then I think the climax of the high hit me c. 3:05 PM. As I was looking at my shoes, this eerie cold started creeping up from the my forehead. It was a stinging cold, put wasn’t really painful, yet it hurt. And it spread across to the back of my head, down my back. It was the most chilling experience ever. My entire brain was buzzing like hell. It lasted for 15 seconds; I thought i was going to die. It felt like my brain was FREEZE fried. While this was happening I was contemplating calling 911 – I must have fried a lot of brain cells. After that all symptons of nausea subsided and all I had was erratic heartbeat, at like 130 bpm, muscle spasms, physical disorientation, shortness of breath, and maybe arrhythmia.
While my friend was driving me home not soon after I tried to keep awake, scared that if I closed my eyes and fell asleep I would never wake up again. But after 30 minutes or so I couldn’t help but close my eyes. When I closed my eyes I had a series of hallucinations. Pretty much strobing colors synchronized with the turning and accelerating of the car I was in.
After arriving at home I lay in my bed for an hour or so. My head was hot, I wasn’t sure if I had a fever. Even still I felt as if I were still tripping. I tried my best not to look my guardian straight in the eyes or act stoned because my eyes were still dilated. 4 hours later my fingers began to twitch again and went away 2 hrs later. 8 hrs since taking DXM I had a killer headache with still some disorientation. Right now its 9 hrs since i took DXM. I still feel like shit and my heart rate is still high and I have this killer headache.
Oh, and one eye is dilated more than the other, regardless of how much light you shine in both. Someone tells me that’s indication of brain damage.
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That’s my story. Don’t to drugs, guys. Tell your kids to stay away from them. Learn from my mistakes… and remember to always be there for your kids and friends.
