SCHOOLS FORCED TO DEAL WITH LATEST DRUG CRAZE

Phone calls in the morning hours seldom signal good tidings for parents.

It could simply be an inconvenient call from a stranded child looking for a
ride home. Or it could be worse.

For Doreen, a recent telephone call from Stratford High School officials
indeed meant the worst.

The phone call shortly after 9 a.m. informed Doreen that her 14-year-old
daughter was vomiting profusely and had almost blacked out. Her daughter,
officials said, had taken 16 Coricidin Cough and Cold pills an
over-the-counter cold medication that, in high doses, can be fatal.

It might have seemed like a suicide attempt, a cry for help from a
despondent teen. But guess again: Doreen's daughter was trying to get high
and she nearly paid the ultimate price. The Connecticut Post has chosen to
withhold Doreen's last name.

Coricidin Cough and Cold medicine, known to students as "Triple C," is part
of a slowly emerging trend in the teenage drug culture, taking its place
behind Ecstasy and other narcotics that are increasingly turning up in the
hands of reckless youth.

"I am not going to let this happen to anyone else," Doreen said.

The medicine contains dextromethorphan, known as DXM, or Dex, which is a
relative of opiates. It creates an LSD-type hallucinogenic effect when
taken in excess, and because of this, it is often abused.

Doreen's daughter was transported to Bridgeport Hospital, where her stomach
was pumped. Doreen said hospital personnel told her that if her daughter
had not vomited, she could have died.

According to Shawn Farmer, the high school's resource officer, there have
been few reported incidences of Coricidin abuse there. Bunnell High School
Resource Officer Byron Smith reports the same.

"Most of the kids are scared of it," Farmer said. "They don't know too much
about it. In order for them to get high they have to take a ton of it. That
scares the kids away."

Both officers and the schools' faculty have been made aware of the drug's
potential for abuse. Rampant usage "is not anything that is currently a
concern," Farmer said.

But Doreen wants to make sure that school officials are vigilant in
policing students who may think the drug is a harmless way to get high.

The health risks involved with the ingestion of an excess of the drug,
intended to clear nasal drip, are extreme.

Tylenol is an active ingredient in Coricidin. If it is taken in too high a
quantity, the liver shuts down, according to Dr. John Cacace, an attending
Bridgeport Hospital emergency room physician.

Often, Cacace said, doctors find evidence of Coricidin abuse after a
terrible accident or tragedy. Some people under the drug's influence have
been known to jump in front of a bus or dive off a bridge, for example.

In rare instances, cardiac arrhythmia occurs, causing the heart to fail,
Cacace said.

Not withstanding the drug's psychedelic effects, doctors say long-term
abuse of Coricidin can cause irreversible organ damage. "The repercussion
of taking excessive amounts of any kind of drug comes later in life," said
Smith.

Simply studying the facts about the dangers of the drug are not enough,
Smith said. Parents have to be in tune to what is going on in their
children's lives.

For example, Doreen acknowledges that she purchased the Coricidin for her
daughter because she thought she simply was ill. "I believed her when she
said it was for a cold," Doreen said.

If there is a drastic change in friends, or a slip in academic performance,
it could be a signal of depression or drug use, Smith said. A week after
the overdose, Doreen said her daughter was home from the hospital and
coming along well.

The girl was scared by her experience and promised her mother that she
would never do it again.