7/16/06
My cough progressed to the point where serious drugs were needed to combat it, and serious drugs it got. Armed with a vial of gold liquid called Tussionex Pennkinetic, I read the directions: one-half to one teaspoon, and thus I erred toward the latter. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but like many weekend nights have proven, a little patience was all you needed.
They said Tussionex Pennkinetic would knock you out, but I think they meant "make you go to sleep." It knocked me out alright, but in the 1966 sense of FUCKING GROOVY, MAN! I ingested the medicine at 11pm; by 1am I had re-written three old songs in my head, changed the beginning of one of our scripts, mentally constructed a new house by our farm, and pretended I could fly.
By 3am, I had "gone to bed," but it was a mere formality. My mind and core were racing so much that I had to throw open the window and let some air in. It was a state of euphoria, of everythin-a-gonna-be-all-right that I hadn't experienced in about ten years, and maybe since the Grateful Dead came to Chapel Hill in 1995 and dispersed opium throughout the Research Triangle.
Thank god it was Tessa's morning with Lucy, because when I came to at 11am, I had to be reminded what part of the country we were in. The hangover, always the dealbreaker with my drug experiences, was so intense that it was actually nostalgiac, reminiscent of those Sundays in North Carolina at the age of 24 when you'd let the Purple House boys talk you into having that last bottle of Mad Dog Platinum.
For my part, I had no idea how effective standard tussin abuse can be (or if that's what I was doing) but I can assure you, as wonderful as it was, it will be several years before I try it again. I haven't stepped outside my body in so long that stepping back in was unbelievably painful. That gold liquid is fools' blood.
Posted by Ian Williams at July 16, 2006 09:28 PMI've never experienced tussin the way you have, Ian, but in Canada you can get robitussin with codeine over the counter - that stuff's pretty good. I had a similar experience to yours when I first took Ultram (tramadol hydrochloride) for my back pain. The only thing that didn't happen to me was the intense hangover, which makes it a pretty sweet pill.
Feel better.
I have taken a variant of what you took...basically anything to stop the cough that had codeine or hydrocodone in it. The first time I took it I mistakenly took 2 tablespoons instead of 2 teaspoons. Since I am a petite woman this was way too much and I hallucinated "black things" crawling on the walls and I felt like I was actually separated from my body. It was kind of terrifying. Another weird thing happened recently when I went to buy regular robitussin at the drug store. The woman actually asked for my ID of all things. She wrote down my name in a book she had at the counter and said they don't allow anyone to buy more than 2 bottles in 30 days. What is this about?
Groovy.
As for me, I'm old enough to miss the days when Paregoric was over-the-counter for tummy upsets. (active ingredient: belladonna) I was trippin' as a toddler, man!
I think you are confusing two things in the post. You took a combination of codeine -- as a cough suppressant and chlorpheneramine maleate -- an antihistamine, aka Chlor-Trimeton. Like all antihistamines, some people are sensitive to it with side effects up to and including hallucinations.
Robitussin DM is my drug of choice. Guafesin is an expectorant, which thins your mucus, so you can clear your chest easier, and Dextromethorphan, which is a non-narcotic cough suppressant.
Dextromethorphan is kinda trippy if you take enough of it -- the whole 'Sizzurp' scene in hip hop grew out of mixing cocktails of DXM and liquor, and in bleak suburban Salt Lake, DXM was so popular as a drug of abuse that they stopped selling it to minors.
unc alum- i think they keep track of that stuff so that you can't go open a crystal meth lab.
When I was in high school, a slew of kids got busted for being "drunk" off Robitussin at a football game. Seems like that was the cocktail of choice at the time. Pretty pathetic, though.
unc alum
I ran into a similar problem here and, as Lee suggested, I suspect the problem is because of the crystal meth. The grocery stores in my town also limit the number of Thera-Flu non-drowsy pills you can buy. Since it's my preferred cold medicine, I was bummed to learn I couldn't stock up. One day, I thought I would be clever and I opened up boxes three and four thinking they'd have to sell it to me, instead of the 2 box limit. The cashier still only let me buy the two boxes. After completing the transaction, however, she looked at me and said, "Now you can buy those other two boxes. I just can't ring up more than two on one transaction."
Were I a crystal meth lab owner, she would be my favorite cashier in the whole wide world.
As Kent says above Tussionex has an antihistamine (like benadryl) and hydrocodone (what's in vicodin. It's the hydrocodone that did it Ian. It's powerful stuff. There's no dextromethorphan in tussionex and you have to take large doses of that stuff to get any hallucinogenic effect anyway. It's reallya high school kid thrill (like scope). Robittussin with codeine (what I consider "tussionex lite") is actually available here in NC without a prescription too but you have to sign a log to get it and many pharmacies won't do that.
It's the psedophedrine (a decongestant that is what's in pseudophed and other cold meds) that they use in meth labs and that stuff is now available only in small amounts and is kept often behind the counter now.
There are some good studies to show now that regular OTC cough syrup (ie regular robitussin DM) does very little to help coughs and that to really stop a nighttime cough you have to go to something like robitussin with codeine or tussionex (with hydrocodone), but many, many people learn to love the stuff just like you. It is the source of many phone calls for refills for that "cough that just won't go away!"..
Rush Limbaugh's a big fan of hydrocodone. That's what made him deaf.
sorry about that.
-your supplier
You can't make meth out of robitussin, but you can become addicted to it. It's dissociative effects have had me addicted to it, on and off, for the last 16 years. I started doing it in high school, did it every day for ten years, quit for 3 and then started again. I wish they would just take that shit and put it behind the counter. They just ID you here in Raleigh, and the same people watch me buy it every day. When you go to get help, for it, by they way, no one really takes it seriously. It's a fun drug but can become dangerous. Please be careful if you do it.