Recently the Governor of Illinois signed into legislation a bill that’s main goal is to make illegal the sale of DXM (That’s Dextromethorphan for all you non hipsters out there) the main active ingredient in many over the counter cough remedies such as Triaminic or the Robitussin brands. The main danger that concerns all the politicos is access to pure DXM on the Internet. (That damn demon Internet, just what are we going to do with it?) It looks as though the primary concern is kids getting hold of it on the net (As if kids are the only potential abusers) and also it’s abuse from it’s content within cough syrup itself.
Just goes to show you you’re never to old to learn something new. OK maybe I’m just an old fogy, alright, I am one relatively speaking, but back in my day the only cough medicine worth abusing had codeine in it and with the right dose it took you to a happy place, but Tussin? The times I’ve taken it as prescribed (I don’t use it anymore at all) I felt pretty awful. It made me hyper and also made my skin crawl a bit, so the thought of people actually abusing it and deriving some perverse form of pleasure from it’s effect definitely had me scratching my head more than just a little bit.
“Hallucinogenic effects similar to PCP and Ketamine” now there’s a ringing endorsement for all you stoners and date rapists! Some of the DXM buzz highlights: confusion, loss of physical coordination, abdominal pain, and vomiting. That’s the down side, the upside? Numbness of fingers, mild distortions of color and sound, and if you’re really lucky, a possible “Out of body experience!” And yes as with so many other drugs you’re really looking for problems if you want to mix and match when doing this stuff.
Apparently a major motivation for this legislation (Other than just political brownie points and protecting misguided youth) was that Illinois has had at least one overdose death that was due to DXM. Judging from the symptoms and my own personal experience with just a normal dose I really can’t think of a more unpleasant drug to croak on.
I suppose it’s only a matter of time before we have to get not only our Sudafed from the pharmacist but our Robitussin too.
Like so many of the Uber new hipster trends, who knew??
