The next time you have a cough or the sniffles, it could be a little harder to get your hands on your favorite over-the- counter cold remedy. Federal regulators are considering moving certain cough and cold medicines behind the counter, to stop young people from abusing them.
The Food and Drug Administration is worried about an ingredient found in more than a hundred over-the-counter medications. It is called dextromethorphan. It helps you feel better when you are under the weather. But the FDA says some teens are abusing it to get high.
It is called "robotripping." Teens are getting high by chugging bottles of cough medicine containing DXM. Most folks we talked to had never heard of it. Vicky Osburn says, "I don't think it's right. I think it's just crazy what they're doing these days." Esteban Espinosa, a local student notes, "I think it's sad that kids are stooping so low just to get like a temporary high."
Doctors say kids are doing it because it is easy to get. Dr. Kaye Sykes, a local pediatrician says, "You can buy it at any drugstore. Any grocery store will have it. And nobody is monitoring it so they're finding out this is an easy source of something that they can get a buzz out of, without it being illegal, without being in trouble."
The effects include increased blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature. According to the FDA, robotripping resulted in 8,000 trips to the ER in 2008, which is up more than 70 percent from reports in 2004. Breanna Pasqua, a local student says, "I think it's a pathetic attempt to try and find something to do with your time."
The FDA is thinking about taking medicines that contain DXM off store shelves and moving them behind the counter or requiring a prescription. "I think that would be a really big inconvenience especially since I don't think the majority of people that actually buy these drugs use it for those reasons," says Pasqua. "It's going to be inconvenient but if you have to do it, you have to do it," says Ariana Velasquez."
The FDA will meet on September 14th to decide whether to restrict access to medicines that contain DXM.
