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   ARTICLES : DRUGS : SPECIAL FEATURE
DXM Diaries, Act Six: Beyond the Valley Of The Robo-Heads

Habeas Mentem

Spotlight on the Media, and Big Pharma Speaks Out

Dextromethorphan HBr was first prepared by Grussmer Shnider while working for Hoffmann-LoRoche (US Patent 2,676,177, issued in 1954)... for over 40 years it has remained a unique psychedelic and one of the single best legal ones available.

-Dextroverse.org

---

Dextromethorphan is obviously an easily tolerated cough medicine. It does not feature the usual risks of 'normal' opioids. Nevertheless, one has to emphasize the fact that this drug is hardly documented at all. There is no clarity on the best dose nor on the duration of its effects (much less its action in high risk groups). Whether it can be more than an antitussive [cough-suppressant] agent will have to be demonstrated by clinical research in the coming years.

-Informed.org

---

I would prefer to see talented individuals with large mental capabilities investigate their own minds to the very depths.

- John C Lilly

---

Doering said parents should treat cold medicine the same way they do poison. They should tell their children "that something pharmaceutical in nature doesn't mean it's safe," he said.

They also should watch their children for behavioral changes. Parents should be wary of teens who exhibit bizarre actions, who sleep all the time, become withdrawn or experience a sudden decrease in school performance.

Stephanie, who abused Coricidin, said something may be amiss if a teen develops a wide-eyed stare, stumbles when he walks or has unexplained dry heaves.

"It will grab a hold of you like a tornado and suck your life away," she said. "It's bad news."

-St. Petersberg Times

---

The Hack Journalism That Kills

While reading recent newspaper clippings about fatal cough syrup overdoses and gruesome murders perpetrated while "temporarily insane" on Robotusin and Coricidin cough tablets, you can't help getting a walloping sense of 1950's deja vus. I keep seeing Eddie from Leave it to Beaver, hair greased, leather jacket (collar raised), huffing his model airplane glue. Youth gone awry looks the same in any age. But today's Eddie has no taste for solvents and toluene, and instead opts for the Army private's kick, good ole Robotussin. A few bottles of which are claimed to be more potent than an acid trip, and much easier to come by.

Children Of A Sticky Plateau

Today Eddie sits behind a computer, surfing the internet, where DXM seems to have reached a cult status among shifty, hypertasking reality-benders like himself. However small the community, several personal and community sites are now dedicated solely to DXM. This web of syrup chugging, mind-reading, god-like super geeks have become what people in the future will refer to as the "founding fathers" of the Church of DXM, an organization which transcends religion and science, stretches from big-pharma to the corner retail store, and permeates every facet of our totally wired, cough-free, telepathic planetary conciousness. But I digress...

What becomes crystal clear from examining the latest spate of cough syrup scare-stories, is that teens have a large role to play in the Drug War economy. They give journalists, cops, parents and D.A.R.E. t-shirt manufacturers a reason d'etre. Major media, a huge player in this economy, is ever desperate for sensationalist copy that scapegoats teens for our problems, and are eager to trundle out whatever they can get their hands on. Earlier this year stories about illicit Robotussin and Coricidin use were rampant in the national press. An actual headline from the April 4th 2004(!) edition of The Los Angeles Times is a good example: The Bad Trip That Kills, (Original, isn't it? Stolen from the anti-speed campaign of the late sixties Or was it the anti-glue and solvent campaign of the 1950's?).

The Times article goes into a litany of tabloid-style murders attributed to DXM (usually mixed with other drugs and always committed by teens and young adults i.e. people without largesse to defend themselves in a court of law, perfect drug war fodder). And mentions a current bill (AB 1853) in the California legislature, written by Assemblyman Joe "There Ought To Be A Law" Simitian (D-Palo Alto) mandating pharmacies keep DXM cough preparations behind a magic counter. Available only to adults, but I think they should just ban the fourth plateau...

The Dark Reign Of Scagman Mektoub

But what do paid mouthpieces - er, I mean, company spokespersons for the big companies that manufacture Robitussin and Coricidin actually think about the recreational use of their medical syrups and pills by packs of lazy, reckless, murdering, good-for-nothing, punk teenagers? What is their official party line on that?

Well, funny you should want to know.

Over a span of many months while working for Trip magazine and tripzine.com, I tried repeatedly to contact Shering-Plough Corporation (manufacturer of the deadly Coricidin Hbp), but for some odd reason they were less than enthusiastic to actually come to the phone i.e. they put me on hold endlessly with nightmarish Muzak intercut with in-house ads for nasal spray and aromatic footpads.

So trying a different tack, I assumed the psuedonym "Scagman Mektoub," fashion correspondant from the redoubtable People Magazine. And to make my credentials even more baroque, I mentioned that I was from the Japanese Edition of that celebrity trash tabloid. With the heavy clout of People backing me, I finally managed to reach a timid exec in the public elations department ever-ready to pass the buck and barrage me with robotoid corporate speak. Hurray! My incisve questions were met with a phalanx of patronizing swill. But oh what swill! What follows comes from on high....

---

Tripzine: Yeah, Hi, My name is Scagman Mektoub, I'm from the Japanese edition of People Magazine and we're doing an article on Dextromethorphan and teens and uh... models in the fashion industry... I'm wondering if you had any information or had...

Exec: There have been a lot of reports of abuse of Dextromethorphan, particularly among teenagers. I'm really not aware of models but I know there has been media stories regarding teenagers. This is an issue that is more than just Shering-Plough -- we do manufacture a brand that contains Dextromethorphan, but there are more than one-hundred-twenty-five different over-the-counter medications that contain Dextromethorphan. So it is really more of an industry issue rather than simply something that affects our particular company and I wouldn't feel comfortable speaking as far as the entire industry is concerned. So can I send you to the Consummer Health Care Products Association?

Yeah, well, I just wanted to get some type of reaction from someone in the industry... How they view the use of Dextromethorphan by teens... Some teens report they experience a certain insight from the unothrodox use of an over-the-counter-medication --

Exec: -- That's why I really would prefer that you speak with someone with The Association because I work with one pharmaceutical company and this is really an industry issue, because Dextromethorphan, as I said, is contained in more than one-hundered-and-twenty-five different over-the-counter medications.

What's your product again?

Exec: We manufacture Coricidin HbP.

That's the dangerous one, right?

Exec: It contains the same compound Dextromethorphan as any of the other... they all contain Dextromethorphan... There's no particular medication that you could say is worse or classified as better, it's simply different methods of [garbled]. It's like anything else. It can be abused if taken in greater quantities than indicated. That's why, as I say, I really don't feel, considering the type of story that your writing, it would be appropriate for me to speak for The Industry--

Right. Do you feel that it's a good thing to have the Dextromethorphan medications age-restricted?

Exec: Again, uh, that's a policy issue. That's not something I can really address...

How do you personally feel about that?

Exec: It would not be appropriate for me to make that comment...

Would you mind if I quoted you in The Japanese Edition Of People Magazine?

Exec: I really haven't said anything. I haven't commented on anything. You can say that Shering-Plough is concerned about teen-agers abusing Dextromethorphan and we have participated with consummer eduction for teens and parents and educators... But it is an industry issue--

Yeah, you've mentioned that. I understand that. It's a point well taken by me.

Exec: Okay.

What I'm interested to know is do you make any distinction between abuse and use? If this chemical is being used for, say, spiritual purposes? For instance if it's not producing any phyically untoward effects--

Exec: --the product is safe and effective. What is a concern is that people are taking significantly higher doses than indicated.

So taking higher-than-indicated doses would be considered abuse?

Exec: I'm not an expert in that area. It would really be more appropriate if you were to speak with an industry representative.

Okay, thanks!

Exec: Before you go, could I get the correct spelling of your name?

Certainly. It's Scagman Mektoub: S-C-A-G-M-A-N M-E-K-T-O-U-B...

---

Taking the advice of the noncommital exec at Shering Plough (always a bad idea), I called up the Consumer Health Care Products Association, a rubber stamp organization for Corporate America, which offers PR damage control to multinationals, and bogus assisstance to consumers jilked by corporate machinations of every stripe. I was connected to a talking head at the CHCP named Virginia Cox, who boldly met my challenging inquiries...

---

Exec: Well, I can tell you a little bit about our association and what we are doing and our concerns about the abuse. I don't know if you have specific questions on this?

Tripzine: Yeah, I did: Are you drawing a line between abuse and use on this? Is there a certain dosage level that would indicate abuse versus just plain use?

Exec: I don't think we draw a distinction. Essentially, anyone who dosen't take these medications as the label indicates ... As indicated on the label... so misuse and abuse obviously would exceed that.

What's the motivation to exceed it? Is there a state of intoxication--

Exec: [confused and flustered] I mean as far as kids?!

Well, anyone, really...

Exec: [Really pissed off] You know! Have you talked to anyone? I mean, basically, I can't speak for the motivations...

Why not?

Exec: For children?!

Or for anyone...

Exec: [Outraged] To overdose on cough cold?...

Right, or to take a larger dose than indicated.

Exec: Well... I... I'm assuming the motivation is... a bunch of kids who are raving about it on the internet and how this is a good way to get high, right?

To get high?

Exec: Right? You obviously know that if you're writing the story on it.

Well, I'm just trying to get the official version of it.

Exec: We don't have an official version as to why...

Just conjecturing as to what the problem is with Dextromethorphan. Do you think the age restriction will help the situation? I think they are trying to pass a law in California right now or some kind of bill.

Exec: The legislation in California actually is effectively dead. The sponsor of that legislation has pulled the bill or he shelfed it. So those proposed regulations aren't going to move forward. We feel that all the consumers suffer whenever legitimate products aren't completely accessible. There has been talk about subjecting the retail establishment, the sales clerks, to penalties for sales of these products which end up in childrens' hands. I think that basically what the DEA, what the People Magazine story in the U.S. was on last year... the media reports are often on DXM abusers who purchased the ingredient in powdered form via the internet. [editor's note: very few stories actually focus on this. Most news reports on DXM focus on over-the-counter preparations].

Do you think DXM is just a fad?

Exec: What we're doing right now is working with the Partnership For A Drug Free America. I would encourage you to speak to them. We're reaching out to them to ensure that parents, educators, health proffesionals are aware that kids are considering abuse. We found that a lot of parents don't even know that this is going on. And if it is they are not aware obviously the serious problems... the health problems that can arise.

Do you think that the PDFA can help America's youth become drug free with regard to Dextromethorphan?

Exec: I think the PDFA has a record of success in encouraging parents to talk to their teens. They have many studies about speaking to teens and that bringing down abusing these products that children are finding out about through their friends via the internet, without finding about the problems associated...

Do you think that use will go down or increase as far as for recreational purposes?

Exec: We hope that it will go down, based on our education campaign but--

Have you ever tried it yourself?

Exec: [Shocked] The product? To get high?!

Yeah.

Exec: No.

Okay. That's pretty much everything I wanted to know... Just in passing... We're doing an informal poll today... What's, ah, your favorite celebrity wedding?

Exec: What?

Your favorite celebrity wedding... We're just doing an informal poll today...

Exec: I don't know.

You don't know....Who's your favorite character on NBC's hit comedy series Friends?

Exec: Um, I don't really watch that much TV.

Alrighty. Well, thanks for your help.

Exec: What's your name?

Scagman Mektoub.

Exec: Where are you located?

I'm in Kyoto.

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Brought to you by DXM: Enjoyed by Alien Overlords Everywhere!


Tags : psychedelic
Rating : Teen - Drugs
Posted on: 2004-09-13 00:00:00