When taken in large quantities, dextromethorphan can make the heart race and blood pressure rise. Some users become agitated and others lethargic, confused, dizzy or act as if they are inebriated. Life-threatening side-effects include seizures and elevated body temperature, Anderson said.
Users can also have adverse reactions from overdosing on other ingredients in the cold remedies. High quantities of pseudoephedrine and antihistamines, for example, can cause irregular heart beats, high blood pressure and seizures, Anderson said.
"The one that scares me the most is acetaminophen [the medicine in Tylenol] because it can cause liver failure," she said.
State lawmakers in California and elsewhere have tried to ban sales to minors of the hundreds of products that contain dextromethorphan, but those efforts have so far failed. Some drug stores, including Walgreens, Rite Aid and Wal-Mart, have voluntarily restricted access to customers younger than 18.
U.S. consumers spent about $4.5 billion on cold and cough remedies last year, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Assn., a trade group representing manufacturers of over-the-counter medicines. The group is pushing federal legislation to ban online sales of pure dextromethorphan in powdered form and is also working to shut down websites promoting the drug's recreational use, President Linda Suydam said.
Federal legislation that would restrict the sale of dextromethorphan powder to researchers, drug makers and other legitimate users is expected to be voted on this week by the House of Representatives. The legislative effort was prompted by the overdose deaths last year of five teens in Florida, Washington and Virginia.
Teens are continuing to die. One was Lucia Martino, a junior at Canyon High School in Anaheim.
In September, the gregarious soccer player swallowed 20 Coricidin pills in pursuit of a cheap high while the rest of her family slept. Her mother found her vomiting the next morning and took her to the emergency room.
Doctors there were baffled by her malfunctioning liver and struggled to pinpoint the cause. Four days later, after Lucia had fallen into a coma, a friend pulled a nurse aside and told her about the pills.
It was too late. She died less than a day later, on Sept. 17. At the funeral, her parents left the casket open so the hundreds of teens in attendance could see how the pills had swelled Lucia's athletic, 125-pound frame to a bloated 170 pounds.
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karen.kaplan@latimes.com
seema.mehta@latimes.com
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Cheap and dangerous high
Abuse of over-the-counter cold and cough medicines by teens is rising 50% a year, according to the California Poison Control System. A separate survey of 7th to 12th graders found that one in 10 had used medicines containing dextromethorphan to get high.
Types of drugs teenagers have tried
Percent of those surveyed
Marijuana: 37%
Inhalants: 20%
Prescription medicine*: 19%
Cough medicine: 10%
Cocaine/crack: 10%
Methamphetamine: 8%
Ecstasy: 8%
LSD: 6%
Heroin: 5%
Ketamine: 4%
GHB: 4%
*That a doctor did not prescribe for them
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Source: Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Graphics reporting by Seema Mehta
