Citation: Mom. "How to Lose a Son with Coricidin: An Experience with DXM (with CPM) (exp5903)". Erowid.org. Apr 1, 2001. erowid.org/exp/5903
[Erowid Note:
Coricidin Cough & Cold contains chlorpheniramine maleate which can be dangerous and/or fatal at high doses. This product should
not be used as a source for recreational DXM.]
[Erowid Note: This is an unconfirmed report of a death related to Coricidin, we initially published it because we had received an email about a death a few weeks earlier, but after several weeks of trying to find any confirming information without any success, we've decided to put it into the cellar. Let us know if you know of any information about this death.]
I got a call early in the morning from my son's dad. He said he had a situation. Our son, Justin, apparently was very high on something. The next call I got was to tell me he had stopped breathing before the paramedics got there to take him to the pediatric intensive care unit at Hermann Hospital in Houston. We found multiple flats of Coricidan Cough & Cold (with CPM in his room. He had passed the last plateau in his dosage.
Two days later the coolest of neurologists came into the room and explained how the brain works. The high-octane part, the ganglia, had been deprived of oxygen too long to ever function again. My beloved, gorgeous, talented son was brain dead. I got to sign the papers to remove his life support.
What a trip! Wow!
Then I got into the history section of my computer. I found out that sweet Justin had learned a lot about drugs from sites like this.
My mindset was one of sympathy for people who provided a leg on his journey to his death (present company included).
The setting is the rest of my life without a cherished son.
I made preparations for the experience by loving and providing for him for almost 17 years before he reached for the secret too soon.
Dosage was a lot. Timing was after midnight after his parents went to bed. It was too late to pump his stomach.
What I learned from the experience is that freedom of expression comes with the responsibility not to abuse that freedom. I also learned to educate all the parents of teenagers I know about sites like this one, not to mention a few congressmen and legislators, and the news media.
The cool patterns I saw came through the tracks of endless tears.
I would really like it if you published my experience.
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