Poll: Dextromethorphan (Robitussin) - Down the rabbit hole

[Subbies]

Did shrooms once in Amsterdam. It was awesome, really fun, but I doubt I'd do that again any time soon. Otherwise I'm not really a drug person. I'd rather have fun another way, but for the sake of curiosty I tried a few things (always in a legal setting though).

 

[Something Amyss]

It is strange that alcohol is perfectly legal and accepted while safer drugs like marijuana are illegal.

"safer."

My guess is that alcohol is so well established and embedded in society that authorities are too afraid to try and remove it.

Or they looked up "prohibition" somewhere and don't need to fear it. They just know the end result.

 

[hooblabla6262]

We used to call it robotripping (for obvious reasons if you've tried it).
Not my preferred drug, but mostly cause I hate cough syrup.
Just be careful of what kind you buy. Some contain chemicals that you do not want to over-consume.

As long as you are doing your research and being responsible about it, I say have fun.
I'll see you on the other side of that rabbit hole.

Oh, and drugs are not bad. Just illegal.
Bad is an abstract idea based on personal preference.
What you should say is "I don't enjoy drugs, and would strongly discourage others from trying them"
Whereas I say "I have experienced both the upsides and downsides of various drugs, and though they are not for everyone, I enjoy them a great deal. Let me trip in peace."
<3

 

[Padwolf]

No thanks. Don't like drugs, will never do drugs and never have. I strongly disagree with them. I spent a lot of time with friends who did drugs and they were boring as hell when high, they would just sit there doing nothing but go "oh my god I am high" We used to go out and have fun whacky adventures around town then they started up drugs then we did nothing but sit about all day. I get my happiness in other ways. But hey, go ahead if it pleases you.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Far be it from me to tell someone what to do with their own body, but there are safer ways to get high than chugging cough syrup. It's just not a good idea, man. Like, potentially fatal not a good idea.

Drinking an effective dose of dextromethorphan in the form of cough syrup does approximately as much damage to the body as a night of heavy drinking, and it is much more fun. If one were to extract DXM from Robitussin, which is a simple and legal process, there are no longer any major ill effects on health if the extraction is done properly. However, I'm no chemist and the process involves ammonia, so I don't feel comfortable performing it.

I guess that might be true if Dextromathorphan were the only thing in cough syrup, but most brands mix it with other stuff like guaffenisen, sudafed, or tylenol, any of which can mess you up in high doses. And besides, I'm sorry if I'm not buying the idea that in the doses of this stuff needed for recreational uses are just as safe as those in alcohol. A medicinal dose of this stuff is a teaspoon or two. A recreational dose is, what, 6-8 ounces? A full bottle, at any rate. That is so far over the recommended dose it's not even funny.

Also, the safeness of the active ingredient when isolated in a lab is irrelevant here, unless you're gonna cook yourself up a batch and know exactly what you're doing, both in the process of isolating it and in the dose you're taking. As the saying goes, the dose makes the poison, and you're talking about a very large dose. Do some research -- people really have died from this.

Active ingredients have to be listed on the bottle. I only get the ones with only DXM. You'll die if you use the wrong bottle.

People have died from it. They've also died from alcohol and tobacco, legal drugs which I partake in. Well, not so much the alcohol anymore. That was running my life so now that's once a month or so. I go through half a pack a day though.

Recently a friend introduced me to recreational usage of dextromethorphan, the active ingredient in Robitussin.

It has given me both the most unpleasant and most euphorically happy moments of my life over the last couple weeks.

It's usage could definitely be described as going down a rabbit hole of sorts.

Has anyone else on the Escapist been down that rabbit hole?

Spoiler

Also, I checked the rules of the site since this thread is easily pushing it to make sure I'm good to go and it said not to post threads about "Illegal Drugs in the United States", however, according to Wikipedia, "No legal distinction currently exists in the United States between medical and recreational use, sale, or purchase [of dextromethorphan]." Seeing as it is not illegal in the United States, I did not feel this thread would violate any site rule.

edit- at request, here is a link explaining recreational use of DXM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recreational_use_of_dextromethorphan

Also:

Spoiler: DXM in a nutshell (mixture of personal experience and researched facts)

To give a better description if you don't feel like reading the wikipedia is basically that DXM is a dissociative, a class of drugs that produces dreamlike states in users, and lasts for about eight hours. It tends to produce an intense physical euphoria and feeling of invincibility, but is not marked by the same reduction in decision making capacity as other dissociatives such as salvia divinorum or phencyclidine (PCP). However, while it does not generally significantly reduce decision making or mental ability in users (I've been around people on it several times who didn't even realize I was on anything until I told them), it does produce closed eye hallucinations. If mixed with other psychoactive substances, it tends to enhance whatever effects they have on one's mental capacity.

It is not safe to mix recreational doses of DXM with any other psychoactive drug with the exception of cannabis, which, unlike DXM, is illegal and therefore not to be condoned. Even then, while it is not physically dangerous to mix the two drugs, the DXM mixes with cannabis in such a way as to significantly reduce the decision making abilities of a user. Such a mixture will not lead to PCP-style "I can fly" jump off a building level decision making, but even if an individual is a cannabis user, if they are prone to making dangerous decisions they should think twice before mixing the drug with DXM.

ROBO TUSSIN! THE TUSSIN THE TUSSIN!
(IT's a song)

Sounds cool OP. I'd at least want to try some kind of drug at least once before I die. Don't want to miss out. But I have not so far and do not plan on ever regularly using.

Robo should not be anybody's first drug. Really it's only for someone with quite a bit of experience with softer drugs who wants a truly mind-blowing step up. If it was your first drug, to quote Count Rugen, I have no idea what that would do to you.

Also yeah. As I stated above, alcohol used to control my life. Regularly using anything with a high addiction potential is bad. I'm having to force myself a break from Robo even though it's not chemically addicting just because I like it a lot and I've done it too much lately. I'll be down the rabbit hole again, just not for a couple weeks.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

No, I haven't, but it sounds interesting. I've only ever hallucinated properly once, and it wasn't what I expected at all. That said, it was the most beautiful experience of my life. I'm not the most hardcore of drug users, but I have taken some in my time (this may be a result of growing up near Bristol and going to a lot of raves). I can certainly see dangers in using too much of any drug too regularly (especially acid), but I do think that the negative stigma is a bit much. Whilst I'm not going to say 'Everyone should go get fucked all the time!', I would definitely say that my experiences have made me happier, better adjusted, more at ease with myself and much closer with my friends.

 

[Bestival]

Never went in no rabbit hole, but did try some other stuff. Can understand where you're coming from here, because even though I never felt like I was unhappy, when I tried some stuff I'm apparently not allowed to talk about here, I felt so god damn happy that I must be clinically depressed right now by comparison.
Which is a dangerous realisation and a damn good way to get addicted, but luckily my cousin is my only drug hookup, and he keeps me well in check.

 

[freakymojo]

the idea of drinking something that will make me loose touch with reality, even if it is in a euphoric haze scares the living shit out of me.

not to mention im not really high on self restraint, and i tend to be pretty impulsive.
so i probably wouldnt go well with a possibly adictive substance.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

No for one reason and one reason only. Robitussin is nasty as fuck. It feels like my taste buds are being raped and I die a little inside whenever I used to have to take it. I would much rather go through my two week cold sniffling, sneezing, coughing, with aches and pains than even think about tasting that disgusting crap.

 

[II2]

Highest dose was around 500-600mg, around 2 bottles of cough syrup (only medical ingredient being Dextromorphan Hydrobromide 15/ml - no paracetemol or other additives).

There's ample reason why it's not more popular; it's just not very fun. Whereas LSD and psilocybin mushrooms and mescaline and other psychedelics have a more erotic, fun, energized feel where things are colorful and drippy and creatively, DXM and Ketamine have always struck me as the other side of that coin: the dead and black pit of stagnant dissociative delirium.

Yeah, it at a high enough dose it gets "trippy", but not in the normal, happy-go-lucky "holy shit I'm so ALIVE" acid peaks. Rather than a bubbling perception of space and time littered with interlacing patterns, it's just kinda a claustrophobic, drunk, disorted sense of dimension with the usual visual tracers, but in a much more "sickly" way.

It's death tripping. It's a zombie buzz. Flushed face, cotton mouth, indigestion (from all the syrup), slurred speech, zoned out, sensory-motor disconnect, blank thousand yard stare and vertigo and confusion. The whole fucking mess it makes of you is just yucky.

No hysterical public service, "it'll fuck you up for GOOD" (unless you make it a serious habit), but Christ, give it a pass...

 

[incal11]

Everything tangible about an emotion is a chemical reaction.

You misuse tangible, but I see what you mean. However an artificially induced emotion (be it by any drug, including simple alcohol), no matter how intense, sounds shallow to me. It's feeling for the feeling itself, and not for any other reason you may associate with it afterward.

You should not feel sorry for those who won't feel as happy as you were. Most of us are quite satisfied with normal happiness, not to mention keeping our objectivity and mental health in the best conditions possible.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Everything tangible about an emotion is a chemical reaction.

You misuse tangible, but I see what you mean. However an artificially induced emotion (be it by any drug, including simple alcohol), no matter how intense, sounds shallow to me. It's feeling for the feeling itself, and not for any other reason you may associate with it afterward.

You should not feel sorry for those who won't feel as happy as you were. Most of us are quite satisfied with normal happiness, not to mention keeping our objectivity and mental health in the best conditions possible.

The thing is though, the reason it was the absolute happiest moment of my life was the mixture of chemical enhancement and the circumstances. That moment alone would have been one of the happiest of my life because of how much I love my girlfriend. However, with the chemical enhancement it was made that much more euphoric. I've had plenty of drug experiences where I did nothing and while I was happier than I would be just sitting around sober they certainly don't fit in the most happiest moments list because all of the happiness was from the chemical enhancement. When you have intense happiness already combined with the chemical enhancement is when it creates true euphoria.

And honestly I just said it was sad that others didn't use drugs just to turn around and be equally as condescending right back at whatever guy it was that told me he thought it was sad that my happiest moment came from a drug. How is having the happiest moment of one's life sad in any regard?

 

[Lono Shrugged]

One time I did cough medicine I listened to Phillip Glass and figured out the anti-life equation. The next morning I forgot it.

Some roads are not meant to be traveled by mortal men...

 

[WolfThomas]

One time I did cough medicine I listened to Phillip Glass and figured out the anti-life equation. The next morning I forgot it.

Good thing you forgot it. Otherwise Batman would have to break his no-guns rule and shoot you with a time travelling bullet.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

One time I did cough medicine I listened to Phillip Glass and figured out the anti-life equation. The next morning I forgot it.

Some roads are not meant to be traveled by mortal men...

Reminds me of the time that I listened to classical music in pitch blackness for two hours all alone on DXM. I didn't believe time existed, I didn't believe the world existed outside my house, I didn't believe other people existed. I furthermore believed I was a being of pure consciousness.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

One time I did cough medicine I listened to Phillip Glass and figured out the anti-life equation. The next morning I forgot it.

Some roads are not meant to be traveled by mortal men...

Reminds me of the time that I listened to classical music in pitch blackness for two hours all alone on DXM. I didn't believe time existed, I didn't believe the world existed outside my house, I didn't believe other people existed. I furthermore believed I was a being of pure consciousness.

It's that kind of bullshit is why it's not worth doing cough medicine. You start thinking you are a "being of manifest light" and all that crap it's like taking a dose spirituality and religion. Horrible and just as delusional.

 

[repeating integers]

Uh... no. Never tried drugs, will never do drugs, will be dead before I snort drugs.

That is all.

I'm pretty sure your avatar counts as LSD, though.

 

[Saulkar]

Because the physical effects of getting high/drunk for me are vastly greater than the psychological (completely negligent) I find nothing but displeasure under the influence of intoxicants(right term?).

I cannot say the same for other people so I will not judge you or others as long as you bring no harm to others around you.

 

[incal11]

honestly I just said it was sad that others didn't use drugs just to turn around and be equally as condescending right back at whatever guy it was that told me he thought it was sad that my happiest moment came from a drug. How is having the happiest moment of one's life sad in any regard?

I see, I'm not trying to be condescending, sorry if I give that impression. Actually what is uncomfortable to many non-drug users is that this sort of experience could be said to "devaluate" normal or natural happiness, which could then be deemed "unworthy" or "not enough". I certainly do not wish that for you, but beware that your relationship does not become all drugs and no love. It happened plenty of times to others, and it can happen to you. In my eyes, that and other assorted very serious and real risks associated to drugs cannot be compensated by any kind of good trip, ever.

Otherwise what you describe seems like a good usage of recreative drug. Shame it's not really the most widespread, it's still unsafe, and then why not just get a little drunk?
To each his own I guess, as far as simple amusement is concerned.

 

[Grant Stackhouse]

I remember when this was starting to become popular a few years ago. There were talks that the FDA was considering banning over-the-counter sales of cough syrup. Personally, I'm sick of having good things ruined for me, because some kids cared more about their personal happiness than about respecting the good-faith gesture that over-the-counter medicine is. If I get sick, which is very rare, then I rely on things like cough syrup to keep me on my feet and working. The last thing that I want is to have to pay for a doctor's visit, just so I can have some Robitussin prescribed to me.

If you aren't happy, then figure out why. Don't just force your brain to think it is happy. Evaluate your life and find the source of your unhappiness, then adjust things until the problem is fixed.