How Bad Is Cough Medicine Abuse?

Trevor Butterworth

Medpage today reports that “more than three million 12- to 25-year-olds have tried to get high on over-the-counter cough medicines containing dextromethorphan at some point in their lives,” according to data in the 2006 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

But STATS’ Maia Szalavitz counters that “dextromethorphan ‘is not a particularly dangerous drug.’

She criticized the report as continuing a trend to focus on a ‘drug of the moment’ while more important public health threats fade into the background.

‘Compared to alcohol and tobacco, this is small potatoes,’ she said.

She pointed to published statistics showing that only 0.7% of emergency room visits related to drug overdoses in 2004 (the most recent year available) involved dextromethorphan. She asserted that only five deaths have ever been attributed to the drug.