OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUG ABUSE POPULAR

Palo Alto Police Detective Influenced Nationwide Survey

One of the most striking statistics in the Palo Alto school district's
new drug and alcohol survey is the popularity of over-the-counter
drugs, such as cough medicines among students.

Local school and health administrators are calling the information a
warning about a potentially dangerous trend.

Palo Alto Police Det. Wayne Benitez, who is hoping to get legislation
to restrict the sale of over-the-counter cough suppressants to kids
passed, is well aware of the growing phenomenon.

In Benitez's view, kids are frequently abusing medicines containing
the ingredient dextromethorphan, called "DXM." The detective, along
with fellow Officer Ronald Lawrence, wrote a master's thesis about the
use of the cough-suppressing ingredient, and its negative affects,
while at St. Mary's College.

"It's out there and it's used a lot," Benitez said. The ingredient -
which is found in products like Alka-Selzer Plus, Children's Tylenol,
DayQuil, Vicks 44, Robitussin, Sucrets and Hold DM - effects the
central nervous system at high doses.

When Benitez looked at a draft of the schools' anti-drug survey, he
was concerned: Where was the question asking students about their
abuse of over-the-counter drugs, sometimes known as
"robotripping"?

Palo Alto's new anti-drug task force, the Community Drug and Alcohol
Committee, decided to include the drug in the student Internet survey.
Questions about such drugs will also be included in future surveys
that the schools' consultants conduct nationwide.

Palo Alto's results, released this week, showed the officers' fears
were, to some extent, realized - other than alcohol and marijuana,
over-the-counter drugs were the most popular drug Palo Alto teenagers
admitted using.

In every Palo Alto middle and high school, between 6 to 9 percent of
students said they tried over-the-counter drugs "for the purpose of
getting high" at least once.

Perhaps most remarkably, the survey showed that over-the-counter drugs
are nearly as popular with middle school students as with those in
high school. In middle schools, over-the-counter drugs appeared more
popular than marijuana.

"I was surprised about that," Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School
Principal Joe DiSalvo said.

Detective Benitez first noticed the drug's abuse locally in 2002, when
a female student had seizures after supposedly taking too much of
Coricidin, a medicine containing the drug.

Last Wednesday, a state law that Benitez's research spawned all but
died in the California Assembly's Appropriations Committee. It needed
11 votes to move on, but only received 10.

The bill, sponsored by Palo Alto Assemblyman Joe Simitian, would have
required children under 18 to have a prescription to purchase products
with the chemical.

Assemblyman Joe Nation, from San Rafael, was one of six committee
members who voted against the new law. Nation, a former Palo Alto
resident, said he didn't feel the problem warranted "fairly
restrictive steps."

Nationwide, only one kid's death could be "partially attributed" to
medicine containing dextromethorphan in 2002, according to the state's
official analysis of the bill.

The California Poison Control System reported that calls related to a
misuse of DXM from children under 18 increased from 24 in 1999 to 284
in 2003. That's a jump of 1,083 percent.

Benitez testified at last week's committee hearing, but left "very
disillusioned" with the political process.

Six members of the assembly were absent -- any of them could have
voted in favor of the drug and moved it along, the detective noted.
Lobbyists from drug companies were out in force to fight the measure,
he also reported.

Nation refuted that notion. "Not one person from the pharmaceutical
industry spoke with me about this bill," he said.

Grocers, retailers and healthcare groups were on record as opposing
the bill. No group was on record supporting it.

The bill will have one more shot at passing the committee, on May 23.
Because of the opposition, it is considered a long shot.

[sidebar]

Student's admitted use of "over-the-counter drugs for the purpose of
getting high"

Gunn High School 9 percent

Palo Alto High School 8 percent

Jordan Middle School 7 percent

Terman Middle School 6 percent

JLS Middle School 6 percent