DXM

(Dextromethorphan)

as sampled by Matthew Gorman

I'm sure you've done it. You had a bad cold with a serious cough and you pounded down a few swallows of cough syrup to suppress that irritating hacking. And maybe, just maybe, you took one or two gulps too many and not long after, you began to experience a strange euphoria perhaps accompanied by fuzzy thoughts, feelings of dizziness and even auditory and visual hallucinations. Well, that "high" that you felt was caused by a drug found in over 120 cough medicines called dextromethorphan, more commonly known by the acrostic DXM.

Approved for use as an antitussive (cough suppressant) by the FDA in 1958, dextromethorphan was heralded as a non-addictive alternative to the codeine phosphate that was commonly used in cough syrups before that time. In its pure form dextromethorphan occurs as an odorless white to semi-yellow crystalline powder. In addition to being found in cough syrups, lozenges, tablets, and gel caps, there exist Internet sites that sell the drug in this unadulterated powder form. Buying the pure DXM powder from these sites is still perfectly legal, as is purchasing any product containing DXM, although the DEA is currently looking into putting the drug under some kind of controlled status due to its persistent abuse by teens and young adults.

Dextromethorphan is a stereoisomer of the opioid analgesic levomethorpan, but does not act on the body in the way that an opioid generally does. In fact, taken at medically recommended doses (around 15-30mg as an adult dose 3-4 times daily) dextromethorphan produces very few side effects and acts as an effective cough suppressant by elevating the threshold for coughing within the brain itself rather than working directly upon the respiratory system as is most commonly assumed. But when the drug is ingested in higher doses, however, it takes on the properties of a dissociative hallucinogen with extreme effects similar to those produced by such drugs as ketamine and PCP.

Taken at such high dose levels (some habitual users take in excess of 1500mg of the drug at a time in their efforts to "disconnect" with reality!) dextromethorphan affects a user's perception of time and their awareness of what's around them as they enter into what many describe as a "dream-like" state of being. The drug is extremely dangerous at these high levels of consumption and deaths have occurred particularly when dextromethorphan is used in conjunction with alcohol or sedatives. Continued use of the drug at the elevated dose levels needed to produce the effects desired by recreational users also leads to liver, heart, and permanent brain damage as well as a whole slew of other maladies.

Street names for dextromethorphan include Triple C or CCC (in reference to the imprint on the little red pills of the cough medicine Coricidin HBP), little red devils or skittles (referencing the same), Robo (in reference to another popular vehicle for consuming the drug, the cough syrup Robitussin), and Poor Man's PCP. Doing the drug is often called "Robo-tripping" or "skittling". I highly recommend you stay the fuck away from doing this drug in large amounts as all the people I have seen really high on it, while they may claim to feel relaxed, creative, and uninhibited, look like total fucking douchebag morons, and they're fucking up their bodies irreparably for a cheap and sloppy high. I mean, come on, fucking cough syrup, really? So kids, this month's vice is most definitely wrong. Go find some heroin instead!