Teenage DXM Heads

The pharmacy where I work is forced to keep several products behind the pharmacy counter do to the high theft of these products. Some of these products include Coricidin HBP and Delsym cough syrup. You may be wondering why we need to keep a cough and cold medication for patients with high blood pressure behind the counter. The answer is one word - dextromethorphan. Thanks to the internet, teenagers (or anyone for that matter) can log on and find out how to get high from drinking cough syrup or popping cold pills. These products are not cheap. One package of Coricidin HBP contains about 6 pills and costs about $6. One 4 ounce bottle of Delsym costs $12.98. As with all illicit drugs, the costs of these products directly result in their high theft. Every day I work in my field, I become more and more aware that being a professional isn't just book smarts - it's also an ability to read people. When an individual comes to the counter with an Oxycontin prescription, most of the time I can tell if the prescription is truly legit. I can tell by their body language, their aggressiveness, their desire for brand name medications, and sometimes just by the physician that writes the script. The same holds true for these cough and cold products. When a 16-year-old saunters up to my counter and asks for the Coricidin HBP, that usually sets off my internal alarm. Granted there may be some 16 year olds with high blood pressure and there may be some that are purchasing the product for a family member; but trust me, on the whole they aren't legitimate customers. When my internal radar alerts me that the situation isn't kosher, I have found the quickest and easiest way to deal with these kids is to ask for an ID. I then take their ID and copy their name, address, and date of birth in our narcotic and poison ledger. Nothing says "oh shit" like a narcotic and poison ledger. I also write down what they purchased and the date purchased. It is my personal experience that all drug addicts hate having their personal information recorded.

Last week, an 18 year old individual from the state of Maryland showed up at our pharmacy window to purchase, you guessed it, Delsym cough syrup. I took his ID - which royally shocked him and then sold him the Delsym. I remember him because he complained about the cost the entire time I was at the window with him. Today he appeared at the window again asking for more Delsym. MN sold it to him before I could get his attention. He didn't look in the narcotic ledger - nor did he write anything down in it. After the boy left, I explained the situation to MN. SF, the other pharmacy student, got off work at 7. He called back to the pharmacy at 7:15 to inform us that he saw the boy in his car with a girl passing the Delsym bottle back and forth drinking. GREAT! Not only were they getting high, but they were also getting high and then driving! It's a pretty sad situation when you have to drink 120mL of cough syrup on a Friday night for a good time.