ELLSWORTH — Three Ellsworth High School students ended up in the emergency room at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital last week after overdosing on cough syrup in an effort to get high.

Ellsworth Police Sgt. Glenn Moshier said the students had taken the over-the-counter drugs Zycam, Robitussin and Coricidin.

The three overdoses occurred in separate incidents.

One boy was placed in the intensive care unit after his overdose on Zicam and a motion sickness medicine.

In that incident, several young people were out for a drive in Lamoine when the boy began convulsing. His friends took him to the Ellsworth hospital, Moshier said. When they arrived, the boy was unconscious.

The boy has been released from the hospital and appears to have suffered no permanent damage, Moshier said, who spoke with his mother Tuesday evening.

One of the boy’s friends had taken an overdose of Robitussin and motion sickness medicine and was also treated at the emergency room and released. Getting high on Robitussin is called “robotripping.”

Maine State Police Trooper Cliff Peterson interviewed the girlfriend of the unconscious boy and the conscious boy as well as their parents at the emergency room to get enough information to brief the District Attorney’s Office. The state police were called because the young people were in Lamoine when they ingested the drugs.

In another incident last week, a girl was taken to the ER after overdosing on Coricidin, which is reportedly a favorite medicine to abuse because the red pills are small and sweet-tasting.

The medicines the students took all contained a synthetic drug called Dextromethorphan, also known as DXM.

DXM acts as a depressant and is a mild hallucinogen, which is why teenagers are abusing it.

“What they’re shooting for is hallucinations,” Moshier said.

DXM is found in more than 140 over-the-counter cough and cold remedies for children and adults, Moshier said. The drug replaced codeine in cough suppressants during the 1970s.

Abuse of DXM has been ongoing nationwide but “it’s relatively new for this area,” said Moshier, who is certified in Maine as a drug recognition expert.

Peterson, who has worked in law enforcement in this area for several years, said last week was the first time he had encountered an overdose with an over-the-counter medicine.

Moshier said that because it’s legal and it’s sold on the shelves of the grocery stores, people looking to get high view over-the-counter medicine as a safe bet. They don’t understand the dangers or even think that there are dangers.

DXM is found in Robitussin, Nyquil, Pediacare, Theraflu, Delsym, Tylenol, Vicks, Comtrex and Coricidin, among others. Any medicine with “tuss” in its name contains DXM.

Another common ingredient in cough and cold medicine, pseudophredrine, was put behind pharmacy counters nearly nationwide a few years ago when its role in drug manufacture was discovered. The same restrictions on products containing DXM have yet to be applied.

The products are all available on store shelves.

“With the exception of Walmart, none of the stores have any real safeguards,” Moshier said.

Walmart sells products containing DXM only to customers age 18 and over. When a clerk rings up an item containing DXM, the computer system requires that the clerk check a driver’s license and enter a birth date.

“My hope is that some of the other stores will at least take some step to prevent teenagers from buying it,” he said.

Moshier said a couple of pharmacies don’t allow someone to purchase more than three boxes of medicine containing DXM but he notes that it only takes one box for an overdose.

The recommended medicinal dose of cough syrup is 15 to 30 milligrams, Moshier said. Abusers may ingest 100 to 150 milligrams. This leads to other problems because cough and cold medicines contain multiple drugs that can cause additional side effects if taken in large doses.

For example, if a young person is taking a large dose of a cough medicine, he or she is also getting a large dose of acetaminophen, which can cause liver damage.

Parents and caregivers should be alert to cough or cold medicine packaging in backpacks or vehicles, Moshier said.

Users experience a “mild buzz” leading to euphoria and a complete, outer body disassociative state, Moshier said. Abusers can lose the ability to move their limbs.

Abuse of DXM may cause hot flashes, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dizziness, blurred vision, difficulty breathing and rapid heart rate, Moshier said.

Before the overdoses, Ellsworth High School had already planned a seminar on Feb. 24 where local pediatrician Sheena Whittaker will speak about prescription and over the counter drug abuse.

Moshier said there have been a few reports of “skittle parties” where students bring in prescription or over-the-counter pills and mix them up in a glass bowl. Party-goers take a few and wait to see what kind of reaction they get. They are called “skittle parties,” because the pills are all different colors, like Skittles candy.

At the Feb. 24 seminar, Moshier will speak to the students about legal issues with distributing those drugs and driving while under the influence of them. A counselor will also speak.

For more health news, pick up a copy of The Ellsworth American.

Comments (1)