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Teenagers' use of over-the-counter cold and cough medicines to get a cheap high — a practice known as "robotripping" — is rising 50% a year and becoming one of the fastest-growing drug abuse problems in California and around the country.
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As a person who used to have a problem with alcohol, I can tell you: if you feel you need to get drunk at 3:00 in the morning, and you can't buy liquor, NyQuil will do the job.
We tried Prohibition, and that didn't work too well; now, it's up to education...and Darwin.
Silas
Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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I doubt this is a new thing - I recall some idiots in high school that talked about doing it, since (at the time) it was a lot easier for a kid to get their hands on cough syrup than alcohol or actual drugs. Heck, I think at that time (2000 or so) under-18s could buy cough syrup with no trouble but were carded for permanent markers and White-Out.
-------------------- This has been yet another... USELESS POST. Posts: 6105 | From: Mississippi | Registered: Sep 2001
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I don't think it's new either. Taking enough of anything may well cause some kind of altered state, though it may not always give the effects intended. When I was in junior high, Vivarin got pretty popular for a while, until a student overdosed on 17 pills or so, which got the faculty and parents' attention. In high school, there was a faction of band members that swore by Lister-Dew, a concoction of mostly Listerine mouthwash mixed with small amounts of Mountain Dew to make it more palatable. They swore it made them drunk. Word eventually reached the director and Listerine got added to the list of banned substances at band camp. A couple of kids in the church youth group had tried smoking sassafras or corn silk in pursuit of a high, but didn't report anything pleasant.
Combinations can do some strange things as well. NyQuil in conjunction with some of my other meds sent me on a pretty big trip once, not unlike what I would expect LSD would feel like. Lots of pretty colors and trails everywhere, my computer monitor melting before me then reappearing and disappearing periodically, etc. etc. I had just enough remaining sense to keep myself from leaving my property or driving, but I badly wanted to.
The biggest bummer about all of the real and alleged abuse is that the best cough and cold remedies are getting harder and harder to purchase, and I fear they may well eventually just disappear form the market altogether.
-------------------- "If I didn't see it and didn't know it was a real news report, I wouldn't believe it. I mean, how nutty can you get?"-Pat Robertson Oct 26, 2006. Posts: 2936 | From: Mean Streets of West Virginia | Registered: Feb 2003
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My friends went through a phase of this in college. I was too scared to try because it lasts for about 12 hours and I was worried I'd realize 1/2 hour in that I hated it.
I really enjoyed hanging out with my friends while they were on it, though. One time, we rode the campus shuttle around and around, K mumbling to herself all the while. Right when we get off she announces she's made of lots of tiny particles. She's air. Then she grabs me, looks me right in the face and yells, "I'M HYDROGEN!!!" like it's some big secret she's been keeping from me that she can't bear to hide anymore.
-------------------- I can't put my arms down! Posts: 273 | From: California | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:I thought I read at one point, kids were licking frogs for a high...
That's from a Family Guy episode
-------------------- "I find them to be in contradiction of the basic principles of YOUR MOM!!!" -We've Got Mail Posts: 1361 | From: Muncie, IN | Registered: Sep 2005
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Speaking as one who decided to try this once, I can honestly say that it sucks. Not only is it unhealthful (I'm sure), but it's not even fun. My heartrate sped up dramatically, I felt the blood rushing away from my head every time I stood up, I was nauseous but unable to vomit, and altogether disoriented. So if you want to get high, pick something else.
-------------------- "For me, religion is like a rhinoceros: I don't have one, and I'd really prefer not to be trampled by yours. But it is impressive, and even beautiful, and, to be honest, the world would be slightly worse off if there weren't any." -Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 3239 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Sep 2003
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Meh. We were doing it in the '80s. That is until one girl, who did it a lot, did a lovely technicolor yawn in the history hall. Yech.
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I also tried this when I was a teenager (cold medicine, Coricidin to be precise) and I can only explain it as a really super, duper, mega, crazy acid trip (yes, I did that too). It was totally out of control.
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Yeah, when I saw the article I thought "This isn't new." However, I doubt the actual existence of the term "robotripping".
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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Somebody please tell me why a person would be carded for markers and white out, or whatever it was. Thanks.
Back before I was a lol, I worked for a doctor for a while. One of the lom brought in his sleeping pills and asked for a script for something else. It seems his grandson had been stealing the pills and getting high. I didn't understand how something that put you to sleep would cause you to get high, but it seems that if you take too many of them but not enough, of course, to OD and fight off going to sleep, the result is getting high. Who knew?
-------------------- "This air we're breathing. Oxygen, isn't it?"~I’mNotDedalus, impersonating Vincent D’Onofrio.|"Sometimes trying to communicate can be like walking through a minefield."~wanderwoman "Give people a break. It's not easy doing a life."~Joshua Halberstam Posts: 4020 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Signora Del Drago, G.R.I.T.S.: Somebody please tell me why a person would be carded for markers and white out, or whatever it was. Thanks.
Because kids would sniff them for a high. I used to work at Wal-Mart and spray paint, aerosol products, White-Out, and permanent markers such as Sharpies were all flagged so the register would prompt for ID. It was hell during back-to-school as high school students would be turned down at the register for trying to buy things that their English teachers asked for.
-------------------- This has been yet another... USELESS POST. Posts: 6105 | From: Mississippi | Registered: Sep 2001
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Kids will do just about anything if they think it gets them high/drunk/whatever. Heck, we used to take a good long sniff of the test papers the teacher handed out. The ditto machine left enough residual alcohol that it'd give you a momentary light-headed feeling.
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Silas Sparkhammer: As a person who used to have a problem with alcohol, I can tell you: if you feel you need to get drunk at 3:00 in the morning, and you can't buy liquor, NyQuil will do the job.
We tried Prohibition, and that didn't work too well; now, it's up to education...and Darwin.
Silas
Speaking of Prohibition, my mother told the story that during those years it was impossible to buy flavoring extracts (vanilla, lemon, peppermint, etc) at the local Mom & Pop grocery where most of the neighborhood shopped. Pop drank it all as soon as it came in.
ETA: As a kid I sniffed the ditto papers. More than once I was using Magic Markers to make signs and got so light headed that I had to stop and go to another room for a while.
-------------------- Assume that all my posts will be edited at least once. Dyslexic -- can't spell, can't type, can't proofread. Posts: 8317 | From: Reading, PA | Registered: Mar 2004
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I do recall once helping a teacher in our highschool science class to remove pen graffiti from the wooden desks by rubbing it off with acetone.
It wasn't as a punishment... for some reason he got the "good" students to do it.
The fumes from the acetone made me very light-headed indeed. I think I see why he got the good students to do it rather than the troublesome students... whereas I and the others with me were rather keen for a breath of fresh air to clear our heads, I suspect some of the other students might've stayed in the vapours for a little longer than was needed.
-------------------- "victory thru self-deception" Posts: 2211 | From: Western Australia | Registered: Jun 2005
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I worked in a boat factory in high school, and got to play with buckets of acetone. We used to stick our hands in a gallon of it and wonder at how it made our hands feel cold when exposed to the air. God kids are dumb.
We also were doing fiberglass work with no respirators. I remember one particular day of laminating a 30 ft hull on its side with Jimi Hendrix playing on these big ole speakers that were playing directly into the hull, and seeing swarms of bright green triangles dancing to the music.
So I got my cheap highs trying to earn a buck. I guess OSHA just wasn't all that strick back then.
quote:Originally posted by Signora Del Drago, G.R.I.T.S.: ... Somebody please tell me why a person would be carded for markers ...
Well, there's also the old trick where you tell someone, "hey, this Sharpie smells just like cherries," as you hold the exposed tip out. Then, when the hapless victim leans in to sniff, you draw on his nose.
Nick
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