Teen pharm parties on the rise

In our continuing investigation into the crazy things teenagers do, we now bring you this special report on "pharm" parties, and how kids today have learned to get their kicks from their parents' medicine cabinet:

And they aren’t just sneaking a pill or two from the medicine cabinet, he said. Teens regularly attend parties where the admission is a bag of pills or other medications that include over-the-counter cough medicines. The drugs are dumped into a bowl and taken randomly by the handful, washed down with alcohol or high-caffeine drinks.

Yikes! Talk about a knockout punch...

Parents have been on the lookout for signs their kids are using marijuana, LSD or other street drugs “but what’s not on the radar for parents is pills,” he said. Often, those pills come from the parents’ own medicine cabinet, unused prescriptions for Vicodin, codeine and other painkillers, sedatives and stimulants.

Bags have even been found with birth control pills and blood pressure and diabetes medications, Brown said, along with some aspirins kids had tried to use to gain access to a party. While it’s bad enough that kids with a credit card can order any prescription drug from shady doctors with Web sites, they can walk into any store and buy cough medicine that can produce the same effects as LSD in large enough quantities. There even are Web sites that describe the various levels of “Robotripping,” named for Robitussin, capped with the highest level that’s potentially fatal.

Cough medicines have long been popular as a legal way to get alcohol but the stronger over-the-counter ones that contain dextromethorphan, or DXM “are the killers,” he said.

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Vicodin is seen most frequently, followed by OxyContin, Percodan and codeine. It’s not unusual to find other drugs like Ritalin, used for hyperactivity and traditional tranquilizers such as Valium and the most abused prescription drug in the country, Xanax.

"Where did you learn to party like that kids?"

"We learned it from you!"

You can get more on this latest fad, including how to gain access to your own local pharm party, by following the link below.