BEDFORD YOUTHS TREATED FOR COLD PILL OVERDOSE

BEDFORD - Four Bedford youths were taken to a hospital last weekend after
overdosing on an over-the-counter decongestant, police said.

The 12- and 13-year-olds told police that they had taken up to 16
30-milligram pills of Coricidin or Coricidin-D. The latter contains the
stimulant pseudoephedrine, which often is used in the manufacture of
methamphetamine, said Michael Lewis, Dallas diversion program manager for
the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Taken in high doses, pseudoephedrine can cause nausea, nervousness,
seizures, an irregular heartbeat and heart attacks, experts said. The three
girls and one boy who were treated Friday night at Harris Methodist H.E.B.
hospital were nervous, shaking and twitching, Bedford Deputy Police Chief
Les Hawkins said. They were released from the hospital after they were treated.

Two girls, 12 and 13, were taken to the hospital by Bedford paramedics
after the girls called 911. When they arrived, officials learned that
another 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy had been taken to the
hospital by their parents, Hawkins said.

The youths had met earlier that night at an apartment in the 2900 block of
Harwood Road, Hawkins said. They told police that they bought a box of cold
medicine at a local store and had obtained another box from a friend the
previous night, Hawkins said.

The youths' purchase of the cold remedy was legal, Hawkins said. But he
said he is worried.

"I don't know if it's something that the kids are doing or if it's
something they are starting to do," he said. "It's certainly something
parents ought to be aware of."

According to the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Rockville, Md., an
estimated 1,123 people were treated last year in emergency rooms nationwide
after overdosing on pseudoephedrine. Twenty percent were younger than 20,
center director H. Westley Clark said. The center is an agency of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.

"For that age, that represents a move from inhalants to other drugs," he
said. "Usually it's marijuana ... but it's possible one of them discovered
they started to speed up when they took it, and thought maybe if you take a
lot, it makes you speed up a lot more. Wrong."

No statistics are available for pseudoephedrine abuse in Northeast Tarrant
County.

The recommended adult dosage of Coricidin-D is up to eight 30-milligram
pills a day. Four 30-milligram pills are recommended for those 12 and younger.

When taken properly, the medicine reduces congestion and other cold
symptoms, said Dr. Piper Gordon, who reviews medications for the federal
government from his St. Louis office.

"At nontherapeutic doses, all bets are off," he said. "This is nothing to
play with. I never understood why kids and even adults are prone to do
this. It doesn't work that way. Take it as directed."

Pseudoephedrine is found in nearly every over-the-counter cold medicine.
The medicine is often sold as 30-, 60-, 120-, or 240-milligram tablets.
When taken properly, the medications are safe, Clark said.

"They're not safe because they're over-the-counter," he said. "They're safe
when they are used appropriately. And when they are used appropriately,
they treat the problem."