MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury schools’ School Resource Officer Jeremy Shotts said last week that reports of a few Middlebury Jr. High School students getting together earlier in January for a “cough syrup party” were unconfirmed.

Whatever the details of that situation, though, Shotts said parents should know that some teens do experiment with getting high from cough syrup.

“They’ll drink a whole bottle of cough syrup...to try to get high, a euphoric feeling,” Shotts said.

Parents should talk to their kids about those kinds of activities, he said, and, while kids should be able to hang out with friends, a parent should always be nearby to supervise.

Sgt. Michael McHenry of the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department said that young people most who abuse cough medicine most often use cough syrup, not pills or other cough medicines, gathered with friends to each drink a bottle.

“It is not common in Elkhart County, maybe 4-6 reported case’s a year, but it does happen in our county,” he wrote in an email.

It’s not illegal, he said, though people can be arrested for public intoxication and operating while intoxicated.

Dr. Dan Nafziger, Elkhart County health officer, said that dextromethorphan (DXM), a primary ingredient in most cough medicines, when taken in excess causes an LSD-like high. Codeine is also used in some cough medicines, which is “essentially a mild narcotic,” though not found in most over-the-counter medicines, he said.

Nafziger said that from what he’s read, people get “disassociated symptoms” — having out of body experiences, even “drug-induced schizophrenia.”

McHenry added that the effects can occur with just a single large dose.

“Some teens think abusing cold medicine is not a big deal and figure, ‘I’ll just try it’,” he said. “But a single high dose of DXM can completely distort your vision, and make you dizzy, agitated and paranoid. Hallucinations are a side effect of DXM intoxication. And it can also affect your body. Taking large doses of DXM can make you vomit, lose your coordination and distort your sense of judgment.” Mixing DXM with alcohol or other drugs can lead to overdoses and death, he added.

Nafziger said that scientists are overall still undecided if DXM is addictive, but said that people may act like they’re addicted, leading to frequent abuse. People may not behave regularly, become severely apathetic or promiscuous when they wouldn’t be otherwise, Nafziger said.

Abuse of medicine with codeine could cause a person’s breath rate to slow down, eventually slowing down to the extent of death. Codeine is generally not associated with cardiac arrest, though, he noted.

Shotts said that earlier on in his career, while on county patrol for the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department, he worked a case in Elkhart where a boy had died from drinking excessive cough syrup. The boy had begun vomiting from the cough syrup and died from choking, he said.

Nafziger said that cough medicines in normal doses are not harmful. People abusing cough syrup aren’t just taking a second dose of cough syrup a little early, he said. They’re drinking bottles at a time.

“These folks are taking way beyond the recommended dose,” he said.

“I think the most effective prevention from a parenting standpoint is to know your kids well and be involved and know the warning signs of drug use and abuse,” Nafziger said.

McHenry agreed that kids and teens should know the dangers that come with cough syrup abuse and adults should be able to recognize signs of abuse.

According to the Mayo Clinic, possible symptoms of drug abuse in teens includes neglected appearance, problems in school, physical health issues and changes in behavior.

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