What to Say to Kids About Using OTC Drugs
Drugs that we commonly think of when we tell kids not to use drugs include things like marijuana, cocaine and heroine. But as you may already know, these are not the only substances young people use to get high. If you have been to a pharmacy lately to get certain cold and allergy medications, you may have noticed that in some areas, you have to show a driver’s license and provide a signature to get them. Why? Because these over-the-counter drugs are being taken out of kids’ reach so they cannot use them to escape reality.
Some kids don’t think that they are in danger if they take an OTC medicine. They figure they’ll get a buzz and that will be it. They don’t realize that while the medicine may not cause a physical addiction, they can still become psychologically addicted. They won’t know how to stop even if chemically they are not dependent on it.
One ingredient that kids have found gets them high is dextromethorphan. It is also known as DXM. If you take enough of it, you can hallucinate and have an “out-of-body” experience. You can also lose motor control. In addition to a host of physical symptoms including fever, blurred vision, sweating, nausea, vomiting, numbness, headaches, irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure, DXM interferes with a person’s ability to make sound judgments.
DXM can be extracted from medicines use to calm coughs and alleviate colds, made into a powder and snorted.
Obviously there are many problems with extracting a substance like DXM from OTC medicines, but here is one unexpected issue—sometimes kids unknowingly take large quantities of an OTC medicine not realizing that it does NOT contain DXM or any other substance they are hoping will get them high. Taking too much of any medication causes problems, and a child can take something that leads to death in the effort to get high.
