'Skittling' New Drug Of Choice For Some Teens

[Wonk]

MILWAUKEE -- There's a new and dangerous way that teenagers are getting high. Two Milwaukee mothers said "skittling" almost took the lives of their daughters.

(snip)

Kids call it "skittling" because Coricidin HBP, a popular over-the-counter cold medication, looks like candy.

"They were literally just tearing at the package with their teeth trying to get the last one open. They couldn't get it open. That's what saved them," Terri said.

more...

Health / Education / Social Policy thread on this

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. And I bet Skittles would like to....

KICK THEIR ASSES!!

[WilliamPitt]

2. Speed?

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Not a stimulant..a dissassociative.

Sort of like ketamine. Chemical name for it is dextromethorphan hydrobromide, or "DXM". Makes you feel floaty and disconnected and alters sensory perception. In Coricidin it's in combination with an anticholinergic agent called chlorpheniramine maleate, which makes it much more dangerous than if it were DXM alone.

Pharmaceutical companies started dding other substances to their DXM cough preparations in hopes of curbing recreational use, after a spike in such use in the mid-nineties (owing largely to the availability of information on legal psychoactives on the WWW).

[Katarina]

3. Scary stuff...

I have 4 boys, one in high school, one in middle school, one in ele. school and one starting next year (whew!) and I have never heard of this. It's getting harder and harder to keep up with these things.

[noonwitch]

4. You can get off on a lot of different cold medicine

Benadryl will make you drowsy, Nyquil can knock you out for 7 hours, Comtrex can make you feel high, etc.
Not to mention the fun that can be found inhaling the nitrous out of whipped creme cans.

[Loonman]

5. This is what happens

When you don't have access to quality marijuana.


Thank you War on Drugs!

[nuxvomica]

7. Exactly

Every pro-drug war person in this country has blood on his hands from the deaths of huffing, sniffing and boozing kids. Press a pro-drug war politician on why marijuana is so dangerous and he may admit that it's because it's too safe a high. This OTC intoxicant will probably stay legal because it is a self-limiting.

[gully]

18. Ok guys, I'm all for legalizing maryj but...

it does cause lung cancer. I hate to push it as a 'safe' alternative KWIM?

[VermontDem2004]

6. skittling?

I must be getting old. (I'm 16)

[brainshrub]

9. Cryed wolf once to often

Skittleing? Yeah, yeah...whatever.

Is this like when they said dealers were giving kids LSD on Mickey Mouse paper? Or when they called Roofies a "Date Rape" drug? Or when reports came out that said 9 year-olds were whoreing themselves for crack?

I'm not saying that the youth aren't experimenting with drugs. But this sounds like another attempt at a drug scare.
After 9/11, the general public doesn't fear drugs that much...so they are trying to rattle the cage.

[jmowreader]

11. The best one...

Remember Blue Star Acid? The temporary tattoos that were supposed to be impregnated with LSD?

About once a year, the Army sends out an All Army Activities message to tell leaders to watch out for the blue star acid because it's making a comeback.

The real problem is that LSD isn't detectable on a piss test, and the troops know it.

[thebigidea]

10. back in my day, we used to just stick heroin in our eyeballs

what's with the kids these days with their hula hoops, transistor radios, and charleston dances?

Imperial Role Model:

[JohnKleeb]

12. No one told me

:cry: I am such a loser heh.

[KG]

13. just stick to medical marijuana, JK

:)

[JohnKleeb]

15. No No being old fashion

:) I am gonna stick to booze
:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer::beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:
*groans* Alcohol poisoning sucks but the beer is good.

[Dr Fate]

14. These youngsters obviously listen to too much Rush Limbaugh,,,

... these conservatives today, tsk..tsk...

[Clete]

16. Gee, little did I know when I took it for colds

that I missed out on the joys of getting higher than a kite. :shrug:

[carrowsboy]

17. Bush Twins/Noelle/Rush

Have they tried this yet?

[sendero]

19. dextromethorphan...

... has been around a long time, people have been abusing it since at least the 70s. Why someone would prefer pills to the easily available syrup I don't know.

I do know that being no stranger to "drug experimentation", reading about that stuff was enough for me. Take enough of that crap you will be out of it in more ways than one.

And, there are long term usage studies of "dissassociatives", such as dxm and ketamine, that show brain damage. Supposedly. You never really know how much if the "information" that is published is real or is not, which is a shame because if kids could believe it they might think twice before abusing such junk. But, thanks to lies upon lies, that credibility is gone.

[LizW]

21. The syrup

tastes HORRIBLE! Kids would have to really, really want to get high to drink enough of that stuff to achieve it. My kids used to refuse it, even if they were about to cough up a lung. I was happy when pills and gelcaps came out, cause the battle to get cough medicine down ended. I never thought about the abuse potential of tiny, tasteless pills.

I asked my 11 year old, who just finished a drug awareness and prevention program, about "skittling" and he had never heard of it.

[Wapsie B]

20. If anyone

watches Discovery Health Channel, there's a show called Paramedics. In one episode they showed a kid high on this stuff. The ER doc asked the kid if he was on Coricidin like it's something that's commonplace among drug users.