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A Texas house bill prevents minors from buying products that have Dextromethorphan or DM on the label, ingredients often found in items like NyQuil and Robitussin.
“Teenagers like to call it robotripping, it’s drinking too much Robitussin, things with Dextromethorphan in it,” said Chris Hobart, a pharmacist at Clark’s Hub City Pharmacy. “They’re going to ingest drugs differently than an adult would so in that case the symptoms can be more severe.”
Hobart said, at their pharmacy, they’ll start to keep these medicines behind the counter.
“California, Florida, and Texas have had an increase in Dextromethorphan overdoses and hospital visits,” Hobart said.
Some of the side affects include sweating, rapid heart beat or dilated pupils.
“When people abuse this medication, there are hallucinations, agitation, sometimes leading [to a] coma and sometimes there can be death involved if there’s too much ingested,” Hobart said.
He said taking any more of it than what’s printed on the label is too much.
“The idea is to limit the access to it and therefore limit the number of hospitalizations when used for recreational use,” Hobart said.
Minors can still buy cough suppressants that do not have DM on the label, like cough drops for example. The law will take effect in September. |