It’s easy to think “It won’t happen in my family.” That is, until the day your life changes forever. That happened to Christy, whose 18-year-old son Ryan ended up with a 13-year prison sentence for an armed robbery he committed while high on cough medicine. Christy described her family as a “normal” suburban family, and her relationship with her son as a good one. Misty’s son Carl had been getting high with friends at sleepovers…again on high doses of cough medicine. Unfortunately, Carl’s mom, Misty, found Carl dead one day, from a lethal mix of several drugs, including dextromethorphan (DXM), the active ingredient in many over-the-counter cough medicines.
These two moms have joined with others to get the word out about this danger to teens. One in ten teens has gotten high on over-the-counter cough medicine, and one third of teens know someone who has taken cough medicine to get high. Find out more at fivemoms.stopmedicineabuse.org.