The dude hasn't got a cough,
he's getting high

OTC products containing dextromethorphan lead to nausea and theft

By Lucas Rosa

Three boys in their mid teens stand in the shadows behind an old red-brick high school in downtown Montreal. They're passing a bottle back and forth. It's not alcohol, it's a cough suppressant. Funny thing is, these boys don't have coughs. They are, of course, getting high on one of the ingredients in the over-the-counter (OTC) product -- dextromethorphan or, as it's called on the street, dex or DXM. The problem is, it's far worse for teens than alcohol and can lead to products that are more dangerous still. As any ER doc will tell you, there are more admissions for this kind of drug abuse every year.

Dex is found in over 100 OTC products. The normal dose is around 30mg but if you up that to 400mg-plus the effect is hallucinogenic, less so than LSD or PCP but hallucinogenic nonetheless.

That may seem like a lot of fun to young people experimenting with life in the wide world as they come of age. The side effects, though, are far less amusing -- dizziness, nausea and vomiting for starters -- with the potential for seizure. Signposts are elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate and dilated pupils.

With prices running from $8 to $20 a bottle, how can users afford the habit? In many cases they can't, but no matter, often it doesn't cost them a cent -- they shoplift. Some pharmacies now limit the number of units of certain products put out on the shelf to no more than half a dozen. According to a Jean Coutu pharmacist at a drug store not far from the Université de Montreal: "We used to keep about two-dozen cough and cold remedies on the shelves but one day last March we lost 57 in one 24-hour period. Can you imagine? We tried keeping it behind the counter but regular customers couldn't find it and complained. The policy now is to never have more than a dozen bottles out at a time. It costs more to keep refilling the shelves but it helps keep pilfering under control. Also we now have some idea of the times of day when it's most likely things will be stolen so we watch more carefully."