Are the narcs going to be after me now?

March 21, 2012 10:09 PM

Is off-the-shelf cough syrup a controlled substance now?

I recently purchased a brand name cough syrup which contains dextromethorphan and guaifenesin (but not phenylephrine) at the Big Red Box department store. At the checkout register the clerk carded me and scanned my drivers license. Last week I purchased some brand name cold tablets which also contain dextromethorphan (as a second ingredient to acetaminophen) at one of the major chain drug stores and did not get carded.

So now I'm wondering: is this a Big Red Box store thing, the carding and scanning? What are they doing with the drivers license information?

I'm simply fighting an annoying and persistent cold and am certainly not trying to go all Breaking Bad. It surprised me to learn that a "drug" I didn't need to ask a pharmacist for is apparently being tracked by a department store. Odds are both of these items will be expired before I completely use them and need to make new purchases.

Also, after a quick perusal of Urban Dictionary, I have no concern that what I bought could be used to mix up some "purple drank".

posted by fuse theorem to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

LIquid cough syrup has at least 10% alchohol in it and I bet their computer checkout system requires id for anything with alchohol in it. I got carded for rice cooking wine once.
posted by bartonlong at 10:16 PM on March 21, 2012

It could also be some weird state requirement. When I pick up The Good Cold Medicine, I have to do the usual driver's license thing then sign some thing promising I won't use it for nefarious purposes.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 10:25 PM on March 21, 2012

It's the dextromethorphan. States have started to restrict sales in hopes of preventing kids from getting high. Here's Erowid's list by state.
posted by cabingirl at 10:26 PM on March 21, 2012

I should have said, that per the info on that page, it seems like big box stores are being more anal about sales than other stores.
posted by cabingirl at 11:04 PM on March 21, 2012

Dxm sales were recently restricted in CA to ages 18+. The ban was a product of a contest in which citizens propose ideas that they think "oughta be a law"
posted by sanderman at 11:31 PM on March 21, 2012

Well, how about that?

I'm guessing minors will soon be unable to buy nine volt batteries as well.
posted by flabdablet at 1:00 AM on March 22, 2012

Big Red Box store carded me for buying OTC daytime/nighttime cold medicine
posted by amapolaroja at 1:15 AM on March 22, 2012

In Australia, they have restricted the sale of anything containing Pseudoephedrine or Codeine. You don't need a prescription to get it (although it helps, of course), but you need to talk to the pharmacist and explain why you need it, and they may take your ID details down and add it to a database in an effort to identify "chem shoppers". But whether they take your details is at the discretion of the pharmacy chain, at this stage at least. I think it's a "Cover Your Arse" tactic by the pharmacists. I guess it might be a similar thing where you are?
posted by Diag at 2:19 AM on March 22, 2012

As others mentioned, it's the dextromethorphan. If it was pseudoephedrine, chances are you'd have to ask the pharmacist to grab it from behind the counter. There's no cause for concern, though; the store might get a little nervous if it seems you're buying excessive quantities (really excessive, not 2 meds in a week). That's about it.
posted by asciident at 4:40 AM on March 22, 2012

Yeah, Dxm's primary 'street' use is as fake ecstasy. It makes you feel weird and tingly long enough for the guy to unload all his pills and get the hell out.
posted by empath at 5:08 AM on March 22, 2012

I think some employees overzealously do this for any non-prescription meds that are kept behind the counter. I was asked for ID for Prilosec hearburn medication for this reason (it was kept back there because it was very expensive at the time as the patent was still in force) - I told the drugstore employee this wasn't required and he backed down.
posted by exogenous at 5:29 AM on March 22, 2012

Liquid cough syrup has at least 10% alchohol in it and I bet their computer checkout system requires id for anything with alchohol in it. I got carded for rice cooking wine once.

Maybe prescription cough syrup has alcohol in it but what I bought doesn't; I wouldn't have purchased it otherwise. There are easier ways to get drunk, like with that 1 liter bottle of Listerine I have whose purchase didn't require me to be carded.

if it has guaifenesin, you're pretty likely to get sick from any psychoactive amount you drink.

Yep, I should think that vomiting while getting trying to high would be a big deterrent.

I think some employees overzealously do this for any non-prescription meds that are kept behind the counter

That would be understandable and almost expected but what I bought was on the open shelves, not behind the pharmacist's counter. Guess it doesn't matter if there's DXM in it. But now I'm wondering why I didn't get carded for the cold tablets.
posted by fuse theorem at 5:54 AM on March 22, 2012

A few weeks ago they scanned my driver's license at a CVS for Zicam, which is just a zinc supplement. I asked the guy why and he didn't know, it's just what the checkout computer told him to do. It's weird.
posted by misskaz at 5:58 AM on March 22, 2012

The US Department of Justice is quite concerned about dextromethorphan abuse (and honestly I have seen teenagers chugging cough syrup at bus stops, so I don't think this is entirely saber-rattling on the DOJ's part).

I have no idea how people get past the intense repulsiveness of cough syrup to drink a whole bottle of it for fun, but they do. On the other hand, Jaegermeister. In my teenage years, it was blackberry schnapps, which was probably no less objectively repulsive than Robitussin.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:19 AM on March 22, 2012

It's totally the dextromethorphan. You may or may not have heard of "robotripping" (just one of many slang terms describing this), named after Robotussin.

Side note: as I understand it, the guaifenesin is often used not only because of its medical properties, but because of its side-effect of inducing nausea and vomiting in large quantities - a built-in deterrent to attempts to get high by chugging it. Smarter kids would note this and be a little choosier about the particular cough syrup they buy for this purpose. Realize, of course, this is "smart" on the scale of the type of person who thinks it is a good idea to chug cough syrup for fun.
posted by mysterpigg at 8:25 AM on March 22, 2012

An overdose of DXM can be a powerful and frightening trip. Hardly just some tingling. It is a powerful hallucinogenic at higher doses.
posted by Splunge at 9:56 AM on March 22, 2012

Dextromethorphan is an ingredient in Purple Drank, which I only know about because of Ludacris.

Cough syrup is typically mixed with ingredients such as Sprite soft drink or Mountain Dew and pieces of Jolly Rancher candy. The purplish hue of purple drank comes from dyes in the cough syrup.

[...]

Syrup also is made with over-the-counter cough syrups such as Robitussin DM, which contain dextromethorphan as the cough suppressant. Although dextromethorphan is used recreationally, it has dissociative effects as opposed to narcotic. Dextromethorphan is a synthetic morphine analog[citation needed] that has been on the market in the United States since the 1960s. It is a cough suppressant in small doses, but in large doses it can result in a disassociative state, with hallucinations, similar to that produced by PCP or ketamine.[13]

posted by desjardins at 10:05 AM on March 22, 2012

A possible reason you didn't get carded for the pills is because you would overdose on the primary active ingredient before there would be enough dxm in you to get you high.
posted by Night_owl at 10:06 AM on March 22, 2012

Cough syrup is typically mixed with ingredients such as Sprite soft drink or Mountain Dew and pieces of Jolly Rancher candy. The purplish hue of purple drank comes from dyes in the cough syrup.

Yeah, I read that on Wikipedia too. But my understanding from other sources, including Urban Dictionary, is that purple drank needs primarily to contain a prescription-only substance like codeine. Apparently among those in the know (and on this topic I would take UD as a more valid source than a Wiki page), plain ol' DXM from over-the-counter cough syrup is not considered an ingredient of real purple drank. Not that I'm trying to become a connoisseur or anything...
posted by fuse theorem at 6:02 PM on March 22, 2012