Cough syrup and crime

The annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse is unsurprising. It shows miniscule changes in teenage drug use. Illegal drug use is slightly down, Ritalin abuse is up. What else could expect when you start dosing the kids with the drug starting in kindergarten or earlier? But the big news is in OTC drug abuse. Get ready for the war on cough syrup. It's surely around the corner, now that the prohibitionists have declared it an epidemic.

In its own surveys, the Partnership has seen an increase over three years in the number of kids who said they get a buzz from cold medicine that contains dextromethorphan — commonly known as “Dex” or “skittles.”

“People may say this is a passing fad, but it represents a whole new tier of substance abuse,” Steve Pasierb, president and chief executive of the New York-based Partnership for Drug Free America said.

I had to laugh when I saw this last night. I tried drinking cough syrup as a teen. It was awful. I also fell for the urban legends that smoking banana peels and drinking nutmeg would get you high. Also awful and didn't work.

There's nothing new under the sun. The only thing this proves is that kids will try anything to get high because they want to see what it feels like. Parents should be praying their kids turn to pot for experimentation. It's the least toxic way to satisfy their curiosity.

Meanwhile, on a somewhat related note, Pat at Left Independent takes a look at the latest crime statistics and finds the nexus between the war on some drugs and the crime rate.