Cough Medicine, the new drug?
Yesterday, I went to Target to purchase a bottle of Robitussin. To my surprise, I was asked by the cashier for my year of birth and identification before purchasing. I gladly gave the cashier my id, but was utterly confused. Why would I need to carded to purchase a bottle of cough medicine? I decided to ask the cashier and was informed that minors are not allowed to purchase cough medicine containing Dextromethorphan because many underage people are abusing it to get "high."
This issue has been around for some quite time dating back all the way to the 1950s. So why is it such a big deal now? Well its a huge concern due to that fact that its being used more and more especially young teens in middle school. According to the U.S. poison control centers, it logged nearly 4,000 calls related to abuse of cough medicine a year. Here's an example of one of the 4,000 who decided to take the chance of abusing it and of course posting it on YouTube. He's definitely hardcore especially because he's talking shots of Robitussin
Minors can't purchase cough medicine? Yes that's right. Currently, certain stores such as Walmart and Target have outlawed selling cough medicine to minors. Such states include, Georgia, New York, and Ohio.
I think this is an important issue and I definitely support stores such as Target and Walmart to prohibit the selling to minors. California has already outlawed selling spray paint, etching fluid, glue and dietary supplements containing ephedrine to minors and is cough medicine next? Maybe. If it is, will it really end the drug problem? Nope, because any person can open their parent's medicine cabinet and find some cough medicine. Hey, at least by banning it, we can help the situation.
Labels: Dextromethorphan, Robitussin, Target, Walmart, YouTube
posted by Anngiely S. @ 4:10 PM
2 Comments:
If a law is passed making dextromathorphan a controlled substance that is kept behind the counter, then fine. Until then, the clerk at WalMart (or wherever) has no right to demand your I.D.
I used to work for Longs Drugs and there have been laws passed. I know medicines that contain the ingredient pseudoephedrine can only be purchased one at a time and only twice a month with proper identification because it used to be that people would come buy massive amounts to manufacture methamphetamines. I know before the law was passed, we would have groups of three people come in and buy three packages of Sudafed (or an equivalent) each. Needless to say, it was obviously a huge problem. I'm glad the laws were passed. As far as dextromathorphan, I couldn't say. I know we had to ID for cough medicines as well, but I didn't know it was for a different ingredient. This is a great article and very blogworthy. I'm jealous that I didn't think of it first.
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