Robert and others...
There has been some good discussion on "Triple C" over the past day on the
Student Health Services (SHS) listserve. Your recent posting on what Triple
C is, is actually a little different that what I found which is that Triple
C is actualy the name for just the OTC cough medicine or "C"oricidan "C"ough
and "C"old
I found an interesting article w/ more inf on this...
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/health/articles/2002-02-04/coricidan.asp
Subsequent to my posting that article on the SHS list, several people
replied with more information. The initial post to the list was an inquiry
tied to a student approaching a health professional, at Young College in
Georgia, about Triple C and mentioning that friends were taking 8-12
tablets/day. I'm curious...is this a phenomenon happening at a lot of
colleges?
For the sake of sharing information, here are excepts of other messages that
have been posted to SHS on the topic:
* "Triple C is the street name for a specific Coricidin cold/cough product.
It has higher doses of dextromethorphan (DM) than most other OTC products.
DM at large doses can affect central nervous system neurotransmitters such
as serotonin. It is often mixed with alcohol, marijuana and whatever else
may be at hand to attempt to produce a high that is considered similar to
ecstasy. Here's a bit of documentation:
http://www.injuryboard.com/lvlFourCause.cfm?varFrom=SearchResults&Cause4ID=1
70.
Hope this helps." (Arizona State U)
* "We've seen dextromethorphan abuse here for a number of years, with
various medical complications including paranoia, psychosis, and panic
reactions. Last year there was a student death directly resulting from
paranoia and psychosis from Coridicin-D abuse (12-15 tablet ingestion) in
combination with marijuana, alcohol, and Adderall (prescribed for ADHD).
The student attempted to jump out a dorm window, and was subdued by his two
friends, who also were under the influence, and he was accidently suffocated
while they were trying to hold him down. There is no question that
toxicity, especially in combination with other substances, is a major
problem." (Western Washington University)
* "DXM (dextromethorphan) is also often times put into tablets being sold as
ecstasy, unbeknown to the user. Like MDMA (ecstasy), DXM causes the body's
temperature to rise and to dehydrate dramatically, but this side effect is
stronger with DXM. This can be extremely dangerous when DXM is mixed with
alcohol or when taken at a hot and poorly ventilated club or rave. Deaths
have been reported around the US from MDMA and DXM...often times the user
will begin to feel ill as they experience these side effects and go to lay
down where they may appear to have fallen asleep (friends may think they are
ok, that they are just sleeping it off) when actually they are slipping into
a coma due to hyperthermia. I do a lot of programming around raves and club
drugs, such as ecstasy, and we always address this issue." (Binghamton
University)
* "I have been addressing this issue when doing presentations on
"Pharming" - the use of Rx or OTC drugs for purposes other than
prescribed/recommended. Robotripping is a street name for using DM
based products seeking the "high" and hallucination effects that can
occur. I have also seen reports similar to those posted about the
mixing issue." (Oswego State University of New York)
* "Coricidan used to contain Phenylpropanolamine, the drug taken off the
market
by the FDA. It had properties that caused sleeplessness, restlessness, and
probably counteracted some of the Chlorpheniramine, the antihistamine
component that causes the drowsiness. It was probably replaced with
Dextromethorphan that they spoke of in the article. The drug also contains
acetaminophen, which now contains warnings about mixing with alcohol.
When you read about some kids experiences on EROWID, they trip on this stuff
like LSD, and that is why they like it. EROWID acknowledges this to be
a dangerous substance, but most who have tried it said they would do it
again in spite of the risks."
Finally, for those of you looking for some info to share with students we
recently published an article on DXM and cough syrup for teens/young adults
at http://www.forreal.org/know/syrup.asp. We are looking into writing a
follow-up on Triple C for this or another site and I will keep you posted
when we have this information available.
Thank you, Farra Trompeter
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert J. Chapman" <chapman@LASALLE.EDU>
To: <DRUGHIED@listserv.tamu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 10:37 AM
Subject: "Triple-C"
> A colleague asked me about "Triple-C" today and I thought I would pass
> along some of the info I found FYI.
>
> "Triple-C" appears to refer to "C"oricidin, "C"hlorpheniramine Maleate,
and
> "C"annabis."
>
> Coricidin is the trade name for the pill form of the over-the-counter drug
> 'Dextromethorphan hydrobromide' (active ingredient in many OTC cough
> medicines or "cough and cold" remedies, e.g., Coricidin HPB pills or
> Robatussin cough syrup) see ->
> http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm_info2.shtml -> scroll down to "
> Chlorpheniramine Maleate" to read about this second component of
> "triple-C."
>
> The third "C" being ordinary "weed" of cannabis
>
> Visit http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php3?ID=3860 for a first hand
> experiential account of use
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Robert
>
> Robert J. Chapman, Ph.D.
> Coordinator, AOD Program
> Associate Faculty, Clinical/Counseling Psychology
> La Salle University
> 1900 W. Olney Ave.
> Philadelphia, PA 19141-1199
> Phone: 215-951-1357 Fax: 215-951-1451
>
> mailto:chapman@lasalle.edu
> home page http://www.lasalle.edu/~chapman/
>
> Plan to attend the U.S. Department of Education's 16th Annual National
> Meeting
> on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention in Higher
> Education, 21
> - 24 November 2002--Visit http://www.edc.org/hec/natl/2002/
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