COLD, HARD DRUGS TEEN ABUSE OF OTC MEDICATIONS ON RISE.

Byline: Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - When she got the call three months ago that her 14-year-old daughter had overdosed on an over-the-counter cough medicine known to kids as ``Triple C,'' the Santa Clarita mother reacted like any other parent.

Her head swimming, she drove from her office in the San Fernando Valley area to Santa Clarita in a panic. The drive to the emergency room in Valencia seemed to take an eternity.

``I left the office and, really, I don't even know what I've just heard. All I know is I've got to get to her,'' said the woman, who asked to be identified only as Lori. ``I didn't even know if she'd be alive by the time I got there.''

Despite swallowing 26 Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold pills before class that October morning, Lori's daughter survived the overdose and is now in intensive outpatient drug therapy.

Emergency room workers across the country are reporting a growing trend of Coricidin-related overdoses, and even deaths, with the majority of patients between 12 and 17 years old.

Less than one month before Lori's daughter overdosed, the Detroit office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency issued a warning to parents and schools about teen abuse of the drug.

An Orange County High School warned parents in its newsletter last November about the increase of teens abusing cold and cough medications.

The high, according to experts and abusers, is similar to that attained by using LSD. Dizziness, loss of coordination and hallucinations are common.

The high which teens are after is not achieved by taking the recommended dose listed on the package. Like Lori's daughter, teens start by swallowing six or eight pills but, as their abuse escalates, they need twice as many as that to get high, said Cary Quashen, president of Action, a network of drug clinics in Southern California.

Generations of teens have swilled excessive amounts of cough syrups containing dextromethorphan to reach an euphoric state - teens refer to the practice as ``Robotripping,'' named for the cough syrup Robitussin.

Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold pills are marketed toward people with high blood pressure - hence the HBP - and, in addition to the cough suppressant dextromethorphan, the medication contains an antihistamine called chlorpheniramine. In large doses, these pills have become the drug of choice among teens, authorities said.

Teens refer to the small red pills as ``Skittles,'' after the popular candy. Triple C and DXM are also common names for the drug.

While experience has made many emergency workers immune to the shock of learning a child has ingested more than two dozen pills, Lori said she eventually began to wonder if her daughter had intended to kill herself.

``After I got to the hospital and was able to talk to her - she was conscious but incoherent, her eyes were rolling back in her head and she could barely sit up - I started to think,'' Lori said. ``Twenty-six? I asked her if she was trying to kill herself. That's when we learned that she'd been using the pills for about a year.''

After her daughter's overdose, Lori enrolled the teen in Action, which includes eight drug rehabilitation and counseling centers in Southern California, both residential and outpatient.

Quashen, a native New Yorker, specializes in teen drug abuse and says he has been aware of the Coricidin problem for years. Because the pills are legal, odorless and easily concealed, he said, parents are often oblivious to their child's addiction.

``I've been screaming about this for five years,'' Quashen said. ``Most of these kids take between 8 and 16 pills. But 26? That's probably the most I've seen.

``These kids, they think they're invincible. And because the drugs are legal and easy to get, they don't think it's as dangerous as other illegal drugs. We need to educate the parents, and we need to get the pharmacies to pay attention,'' Quashen said.

While a large drugstore chain in Valencia featured shelves stocked with dozens of boxes of Coricidin Cough and Cold on Friday, a nearby Ralphs grocery store placed a small sign on the shelf space reserved for the medication saying that was Coricidin available at front desk.

In a glass case, nestled between rounds of chewing tobacco and specialty cigarettes, sat a supply of legal cold and cough medication.

New Jersey-based Schering-Plough Healthcare Products, which manufactures Coricidin Cough and Cold, posted a statement on its Web site in response to the swell of publicity involving the drug.

``(We) are tremendously concerned about reports regarding abuse of medications that contain dextromethorphan by teenagers, including Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold,'' the statement reads. ``Unfortunately, dextromethorphan abuse by teens is a long-standing issue.

``While over-the-counter cough and cold medications ... that contain dextromethorphan are safe and effective when used as directed, the abuse of (it) can have serious health implications.''

For information about Coricidin abuse and its effects, call [phone] for a local poison control center.

Amy Raisin Darvish, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com