COLD MEDICINE CRUSADE

Palo Alto High School resource officer Wayne Benitez is on a one-man mission
to curb an age-old problem.

The police officer is asking one of the nation's largest grocery store
chains, Safeway, to do something about cold medicines that contain
dextromethorphan, or DXM, because teens are scooping up the drugs, gulping
them down and getting high.

``I don't know what the answer is,'' Benitez said. ``But when we're
presented with this and it's doing our children harm, we'd better do
something about it. We need to help our kids.''

Experts say abusing over-the-counter cold medicine -- like sniffing glue and
inhaling paint fumes -- has thrived for decades as a cheap, discreet and
unregulated way to experience hallucinations and a laughing euphoria. But it
has yet to galvanize Palo Alto school administrators and community health
officials, who are focusing on more obvious, illegal substance abuse
problems.

Ingesting too much cold medicine can be just as hazardous as drinking too
much alcohol, experts say. And it's easier for young people to get DXM-rich
syrups than vodka.

Some parents stock cough syrups in the medicine cabinet, and if young people
don't find what they need at home, they can buy it or swipe it from an array
of local stores.

``It's like free drugs,'' said a Palo Alto High sophomore, who didn't want
to be named because he stole and overdosed on cold medicine last semester.
``It's at Albertsons. It's at Safeway. It's at Longs Drugs. It's
everywhere.''

Some teens chug entire bottles of Vicks 44 D, a product that contains DXM.
Others take Coricidin HBP to ``get really stoned,'' the student said.

``I substitute it for alcohol,'' explained the sophomore, who often feels
the urge to escape the stress and angst of teenage life. ``It also helps me
stay awake. Being in high school, you don't get a lot of sleep.''

The student said he stopped abusing cold medicine in December because a
friend had difficulty reading and developed other mental problems after
swallowing 16 pills every day for three months.

Health industry professionals warn much worse could happen.

Carlo Michelotti, chief executive of the California Pharmacists Association,
said large doses can be life-threatening because DXM affects the central
nervous system's control of the heart. Many cough medicines also contain
acetaminophen, which in excessive doses can cause liver damage.

But teens aren't necessarily hearing or heeding those warnings. The messages
may be drowned out by the DXM subculture that has sprung up, complete with
its own lingo and online tipsheets on how to get high.

The deep red-colored cold medicine has gained the nicknames ``velvet'' and
``robo.'' At Palo Alto High, the kids call it ``red paint'' because the
medicine tints the tongue red as it is ingested, Benitez said.

On the Internet

It's easy for teens to delve into the DXM realm. A few clicks on the
Internet opens up Web sites with diaries of a ``first time DXM tripper,''
and recipes for making syrups more palatable by adding it to bread or
muffins.

Youth abuse of DXM has been making headlines across the country in recent
years. But it wasn't until a few months ago that it started stirring up
serious concern for Benitez in Palo Alto.

He embarked on his crusade to make cough medicine less accessible to teens
after a series of startling incidents struck Palo Alto High last semester.

In October, a student tried to commit suicide by overdosing on Coricidin.
The student was rushed to a hospital with a seizure, Benitez said.

Soon after, a student about age 15 drank too much Robitussin and suffered a
mild heart attack outside of school, the resource officer said.

Then parents of a third student discovered a stash of 52 Coricidin tablets.
They notified Benitez, who has working behind the scenes with several
families to find help for substance-abusing students.

Benitez usually refrains from discussing the details of incidents involving
students because he wants to protect their privacy. But when it comes to
DXM, he wants the community to understand what a big problem it's facing and
to be part of the solution.

So far, Benitez has met with the Safeway company, which told him that the
company plans to mention the problem at an upcoming meeting of the Northern
California Grocers Association. Safeway spokesman Alexander Winslow said the
store wanted to study the extent of the problem more before changing its
policy on the placement of the drugs on store shelves.

No Restrictions

Store managers have some discretion about where such drugs are sold in
stores, Winslow said, but the company doesn't have any nationwide
restrictions on it.

``Our pharmacy professionals are aware of the problem, and we're
concerned,'' he said. ``We're trying to gather more information now.''

Benitez hopes that Safeway and other drug and grocery stores will do more to
educate the public and will put products containing DXM behind the counter,
as some Walgreens and Rite Aid stores in Detroit have done.

Gabrielle Antolovich, executive director of the San Jose-based National
Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence in the Silicon Valley, said she has
not yet seen Bay Area drug or grocery stores place cold medicines under lock
and key. When it's done elsewhere, she said, it's because activists rallied
around an overdose death.

Palo Alto school officials hope to solve the problem before it becomes that
tragic.

In October 2002, the school district formed the Drug and Alcohol Advisory
Council, a 19-member community coalition aimed at dealing with substance
abuse in schools.

Most of the advisory council's efforts focus on minors drinking alcohol or
overdosing on prescription drugs. But Terri Stromfeld, the school district's
director of educational support services and the council's leader,
acknowledged over-the-counter medications now need to be dealt with, too.