Counter temporarily out of order due to NetScrape Server stupidity.
New! Comments, questions, or feedback? Please take a moment to fill out this form.
This document is a FAQ ("fack"), i.e., a series of questions and answers. The term comes from Usenet, and stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are the sorts of questions that people new to Usenet tend to ask frequently. When these questions become frequent enough, the question and its answer may be placed into the FAQ for the newsgroup (or for a topic within the newsgroup). A few people use the term AFAQ (Answers to Frequently Asked Questions), but most use FAQ to refer both to a frequent question and to the document written to answer such questions.
This FAQ covers dextromethorphan (decks-tro-meth-OR-fan), the cough suppressant commonly found in cough medicines available over-the-counter in the USA and other parts of the world. Of course, dextromethorphan (DXM) does more than suppress coughs; otherwise, there wouldn't be so much discussion about it on alt.drugs (the Usenet newsgroup from which this FAQ originated). The bizarre truth about DXM is that it is a very potent psychoactive drug when taken in sufficient quantities. So if you've ever heard about people drinking cough syrup for fun, well, now you know why.
The trouble, however, is that most cough medicines have other ingredients which can make you uncomfortable, sick, or dead, depending on the ingredient and how much you take. This document is primarily intended to combat potentially dangerous misinformation about the recreational use of DXM.
My own interest in DXM came quite by accident; once, while sick with the flu, I misread the instructions on a bottle of cough syrup and drank two shots from the included shotglass instead of two teaspoons. Soon after I noticed that music and motion had become very satisfying experiences. This left me puzzled, and my reaction was to go to the library and research DXM through Medline, medical journals, and books.
Of course at that point I was hooked - not on DXM, but on neuropharmacology. I decided to learn as much as I could about DXM, and found it to be one of the most unique and interesting of all recreational drugs in terms of how it works on the brain.
About this time I noticed a number of incorrect and potentially dangerous posts (articles) about DXM appearing on alt.drugs. So, I decided to gather the information I had and write a FAQ. It eventually became much more than a FAQ, giving explanations and information in addition to answers, but by then the name had stuck. The FAQ took me over 150 hours to complete - I figured if I'm going to do it, I'd better do it right.
After publishing the DXM FAQ, the reports of DXM use started coming in. People who had been using DXM but were uncomfortable talking about "getting high off cough syrup" shared their stories with me. Some were good, some were bad, some indifferent. I've been trying my best to get all of these personal reports together into a coherent whole, but this FAQ is written in my free time and I don't get paid for it (although donations are acceptable :^).
Please note that it is not my intention to get a bunch of people hooked on cough syrup (actually addiction is very rare, but you get my point). It is my intention for people to know the truth so they don't make bad decisions for lack of knowledge. DXM is not safe and harmless; nothing is. Nor is it universally enjoyable; in fact, some find high-dose DXM experiences terrifying. But I believe that people can only make good decisions, or learn from bad decisions, if information is available. So please, use your head!
Since this document was completed, Drixoral Cough Liquid Caps™, one of the most popular forms of DXM for recreational use, have disappeared from the market. The official stance of Schering-Plough (the manufacturer) is that they were simply not popular. I strongly suspect, however, that recreational use was a major factor, if not the only factor, in their decision to pull the product from the market.
Replacing this product is a similar product (Drixoral Cough and Fever, if I remember correctly), which contains acetaminophen. Recreational use of any product containing acetaminophen could easily kill you.
As of this update, the Drixoral Cough Liquid Caps™ are still available in a few stores which have not sold or destroyed their stock. Another brand may come out with a similar product (or it may not; I don't know). If you wish to continue using DXM, I strongly suggest you switch to the extraction processes listed in Section 7.1 and 7.2. These processes will allow you to remove the DXM from cough syrups, using easily available materials, and yielding a pure product. Furthermore, since the DXM formed is the free base, rather than the hydrobromide salt, you can avoid excessive bromide intake (a potential problem with regular use of DXM - see Section 2.7).
If you choose to switch to, or continue using, cough syrups (e.g., Robitussin Maximum Strength Cough™ or Vicks Formula 44™), please be aware that the large amount of glucose, thickeners, etc., may be hard on your kidneys and pancreas. Precipitated DXM is probably safer.
I anticipate that DXM-only products will continue to disappear from the market, as more and more people learn of DXM's psychoactive potential. In response to this I am currently researching methods to extract DXM from DXM+guafenesin and DXM+acetaminophen products, giving high yield of pure DXM, and using easily available materials. I hope to complete these experiments by the end of the year (1995).
This page intentionally left blank
