LATEST DRUG OF CHOICE IS OVER-THE-COUNTER

Some Children Are Using Easy-To-Get Cold Remedies to Get
High.

Several Local Stores Have Made It Harder for Certain Brands To
Be Bought or Stolen.

Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold medication is the one cough and cold
medication sold over-the-counter that's safe for people with high
blood pressure to use.

A few parents are learning, however, that it's also a drug their
children are using in large doses to get high.

Last month, three Queens Lake Middle School students ended up in the
hospital after abusing Coricidin. School officials learned they had
taken the drug, often referred to as "Triple C" or "Skittles," because
teachers noticed they were acting strange.

Dextromethorphan or DXM is a safe ingredient when used correctly and
has few side effects, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America. In high doses, though, it gives people a high similar to LSD
or other hallucinogenic drugs.

"People take a multitude of tablets like five or six or 10 to 15 or 20
or 30," said Mark Medford, DARE coordinator for the York County
Sheriff's Department. "It all depends on what kind of high they want.
But when they do this, the risk involved is not just
overdosing."

It's overdosing and dying, said Medford, who also serves on the York
County School Board. There have been reports of children dying from
dextromethorphan abuse in New Jersey, Ohio, Colorado, Kansas,
Michigan, Washington and Florida. In the Kansas case, a 19-year-old
man stabbed a 22-year-old man to death in April 2003 after taking
between eight and 16 Coricidin tablets with alcohol and cocaine.

School officials refused to release information about the York
students' conditions that day, citing privacy laws. When taken in high
doses, however, Coricidin can induce a spaced-out or glazed look, slur
their speech and cause them to lose coordination, Medford said.

Coricidin contains both chlorpheniramine maleate - an antihistamine -
and dextromethorphan hydrobromide - a cough suppressant. The
recommended dose is one tablet every six hours for adults and children
age 12 and older. No more than four should be taken taken in a 24-hour
period and children under 12 shouldn't use it at all.

High doses of dextromethorphan make it hard for a person to talk or
move their arms or legs or to talk. It also slows down their breathing
or stops it altogether, according to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse.

Cold medicine abuse concerns drug companies like the New Jersey-based
Schering-Plough Corp., which makes Coricidin, said Julie Lux, a
company spokeswoman. The industry has been aware of the problem for
some time, Lux said, because more than 125 over-the-counter
medications contain DXM.

"Knowing that we have a brand that's being abused, we're trying to do
what we can," she said. "It's a brand that's very important for a lot
of people, but we want people to know there's the possibility of abuse."

Working with Community Health Care Products Association,
Schering-Plough helped develop Web sites that alert parents to cold
medicine abuse by teenagers and help them recognize the symptoms. The
company also works with retail stores because Coricidin, which comes
in a box, can be easy to steal, she said.

"Some of the options stores have taken is to put electronic theft tags
on the product or they've moved it to the pharmacy counter or behind
it," she said. "There's also signage directing patients that it's
available at the pharmacy."

Some Wal-Mart stores have opted to store Coricidin behind the pharmacy
counter, but the retail giant does not mandate it, said company
spokeswoman Danette Thompson. Instead, it sells the product only to
those over 18, and then no more than three boxes at a time, she said.

This policy went into effect three years ago in April, she
said.

"We did it mainly because we began hearing that Coricidin is one of
the over-the-counter drugs that was being abused," Thompson said.
"We're trying to do our part to lessen the incidences of abuse."

Hidenwood Pharmacy in Newport News hasn't taken any special steps for
Coricidin because it does not want to draw special attention to it,
said pharmacist Anne Hutchens. The staff is on alert, however, to be
aware of customers acting suspiciously around the product, she said.

"Abusing cold medicine is a cultural phenomenon. It's nothing new,"
Hutchens said. "And the more you draw attention to it, the more people
will want to try it.

Coricidin first became available for use in 1957, and the Community
Health Care Products Association has been reporting on
dextromethorphan abuse since 1994. The Drug Enforcement
Administration, however, considers the abuse to be sporadic.

David Holzsager, a pediatrician with Hampton Roads Pediatrics in
Hampton, said he hasn't seen any cases of Coricidin abuse, but knows
there is a problem.

Kids using large quantities get drowsy, have problems moving their
upper body and hallucinate, Holzsager said.

Side effects also include dry-mouth, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness,
hypersensitivity and, in rare cases, liver damage, he said.

"The problem is that they're never taking just one thing," Holzsager
said. The medication, he said, is often abused with other drugs like
Ecstasy or alcohol, which only increase the dangerous physiological
effects.

"So it's tough to see where you're having a problem."