The recreational use of cough syrup is not as new or as common as sometimes implied. Javier Porto, therapeutic director of CC Adicciones, believes its relevance has been exaggerated. In his opinion, “these practices are linked to media sensationalism rather than an increase that poses a risk to public health.” However, it still presents significant health risks.
Javier points out that the active compounds in cough syrup “usually appear in very low doses to achieve relief from colds and flu.” These are:
Codeine
For over a decade, the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (Aemps) has required that drugs containing codeine always be dispensed with a medical prescription.It is an opioid derivative, and recreational users take codeine-containing syrups to feel a sense of placidity, tranquility, well-being…
Dextromethorphan
It has gained greater relevance in recent years because products containing it do not require a medical prescription. Its effect produces activation, hallucinations, and dissociative symptoms. Those who consume it seek to “feel disinhibition, a certain euphoria, activation, and some kind of amusing confusion…”.
Despite the known addictive power of codeine, the dependence that cough syrups could produce is not cataloged. Javier indicates that the main risks are:
- Intoxication
- Death from codeine overdose.
- Liver and cardiovascular damage.
- Loss of consciousness and blurred vision.
- Muscle stiffness and high fever.
- Short-term memory retention problems.
The risks would increase if the consumption of these types of drugs were continuous, but as Morente, a nurse and professor at the Pontifical University of Comillas, points out, the “vast majority of consumers are experimental or sporadic, not habitual or compulsive.”
