So after A’cing through three semesters of college, my girlfriend introduced me to a buddy of hers. She likes to go to the club with him and dance. One day, he dropped by my house and asked if he could spend the night. I was unsure at first, and then he pulled out a box of pills from his pocket and showed them to me. I grabbed it and then stared right back at him.
“What the hell is this? I don’t have a cold.”
He replied, “No, man. These will get you high. I take 32 of these at a time. But, if you want to try, you should start with 8.”
“Aight. You can stay the night. What the hell.”
I guess I was just curious that evening. Ever since I got with my girlfriend, all my old habits had started creeping back into my life. The stress of a first relationship for me in life got me smoking and drinking in no time. Her wild habits didn’t help. She smoked weed, drank and was still in HS! Her goal in life was to be a stripper. But hey, I was just happy to finally be in love. It sure beats loneliness and masturbation.
So that night, I popped all eight pills. It made me feel a way I had never felt before. Not even during my HS stoner days did I feel this good. It opened my mind up to a new realm. I was talking to aliens and viewing the universe in a new light. Move along Einstein, Grand Master Hex has entered the building. I say hex because that coricidin became a hex on me. It cost me everything. Even to this day, I have cravings for coricidin. The last time I used it was a few months before Christmas. My goal is to remain coricidin free from 2007 and on.
WHAT IS CORICIDIN?
So, what is coricidin? It’s a cough and cold remedy that can be purchased at any drug or grocery store all across America. It contains a hallucinogenic agent known as dextromethorphan, also known as DXM. Just like I was, most kids aren’t concerned with the potential dangers of abusing such a medication: seizures, blackouts, incredibly fast heart palpitations, or even loss of life. They, again just like me, want the incredible feeling of getting high and feeling euphoric.
HOW DID COLD PILLS CATCH ON?
Within the last few years, cold pill abuse has exploded across the country. DXM is incredibly alluring to teenagers. It is cheap, legal and available everywhere. The Internet is partially to blame because it has allowed fellow DXM users to share their experiences in online forums such as detroverse.org. On the internet, kids can discover new drugs, as well as how to obtain and use them. In fact, DXM can even be purchased in its raw form. I myself use to buy DXM powder and make my own DXM gel caps.
ARE COLD PILLS THAT DANGEROUS?
Unfortunately, young teenagers aren’t taking the time to analyze the risks before they begin using DXM. DXM can lead to insomnia, hearing voices/sounds and even liver and/or brain damage. On my latest DXM trip, I could have sworn my upstairs neighbors were sending negative thoughts to my head. I was flipping out and had to stop myself from going upstairs to hurt them. I am dead serious. It was my latest trip that finally motivated me to cut the cold pill habit completely out of my life. It completely messes with your head and has you thinking absolutely insane thoughts. And, some of the effects stay with you even after you stop using it.
WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE SHORT-TERM EFFECTS?
The short term effects of DXM vary depending on how much DXM is consumed. The effects are typically divided into ‘plateaus’. As you start using DXM more often, it takes more of it to achieve a certain plateau. At my current state, I can only achieve a level 3 plateau with 32 pills. The highest plateau is level 4. The fact that it takes so many pills to reach level 3 is a clear indicator of my past with cold pills.
• The first plateau involves feeling light headed and enjoying music more than before.
* The second plateau has oftentimes been described as being “stoned and drunk” together all at once. Oftentimes, during this plateau, your speech comes out slurred and your short-term memory is quite impaired. Slight hallucinations also begin in this phase.
* The third plateau is associated with extremely strong hallucinations. In addition, your thinking becomes highly confused and you are likely to daze-off in your own head.
* The fourth plateau is not only extremely dangerous, but can lead you to engage in crazy activities. People have been raped and murdered by cold pill abusers on their fourth plateau.
Regardless of plateau, very common effects across all plateaus include: extreme confusion, a lot of dizziness, very blurred vision, a slurring of your speech, abdominal cramps, vomiting, nausea, an extremely fast heart rate, numbness of the body and a very strong disorientation towards your surroundings.
Mixing cold pills with other drugs can make things even worse. Negative reactions have been documented including DXM and: tobacco, alcohol, and SSRI anti-depressants. One particular brand of antidepressants, known as MAOIs, are especially dangerous with cold pills. They can lead to very quick death.
WHAT ABOUT THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS?
Many cold remedies contain a variety of other drugs in them. These drugs can oftentimes be very bad for the body when consumed in a large quantity. For instance, coricidin contains chlorpheniramine maleate, or CM. High doses of CM can permanently damage the liver and the kidney. Cold pills can also contain acetaminophen.
In addition, many reports are beginning to circulate claiming that heavy DXM use causes permanent impairment to memory and learning. As a former DXM user, I concur entirely. I can tell that I am not as smart and quick-spoken as I use to be. Whereas I use to be able to snap back a response during a conversation back in the day, now it takes me a couple seconds to think.
IS IT WORTH IT?
If you want to have fun, I recommend not choosing cold pills. Straight up, they aren’t something you need to cough at, if you catch my drift.
