Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
#comingup
MIDVALE -- Midvale police have cited 10 high school students for retail theft, and what they stole gives police even greater concern. It's Delsym, a cough syrup, and if you drink it fast enough, it can give you a euphoric-type high.
The dosage directions are pretty clear on the back of a box of Delsym: 2 teaspoons every 12 hours. But according to Midvale police, a group of kids at Hillcrest High School were drinking as much as three-quarters of a bottle at a time.
"They would, according to them, do their assignments and not even remember doing their assignment," says Midvale police Sgt. Marcelo Rapela.
On March 8, the school's resource officer was called to a Smith's grocery store after two kids, cutting class, had been caught trying to shoplift Delsym.
"She had noticed, in the past month, empty cough syrup bottles throughout the school in the garbage cans, in the hallways," Rapela says.
Upon further questioning, the resource officer learned the students had also stolen cough syrup from a nearby Harmons, which was caught on tape. There were more teens involved, some of whom were being paid $10 per bottle by other students.
"Two of the students who'd been recruited ended up going to the nurse's office and being very, very ill," Rapela says.
"They don't look at it as a drug because cough syrup, because mom and dad give cough syrup when you have a cough or are sick," says Bonnie Peters, executive director of the Family Support Centers.
Peters says cough syrup abuse has been going on for quite awhile, but the dangers of it are still being discovered, since it affects the central nervous system.
"It can cause arrhythmia in terms of irregular heartbeat. It can reduce the ability to breath," Peters says. "There's a whole lot of stuff that can go on if you're doing that."
The Canyons School District says they are aware of the problem and reiterated their drug policy, which involves suspension and early drug intervention classes.
Peters says parents can look for signs like stupor, dilated eyes and either the smell of cough syrup or the smell of trying to cover it up like mint.
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com
