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If you think your child hasn’t tried Robotripping, you might want to read this.
Last week, a mom wrote to us with this story:
I’m not sure if you are aware of this recent trend of kids drinking Robitussin, but I found out about it by accident from my 16-year old daughter, who lives with her Dad. She got mixed up with a 19-year old freak who drinks whole entire bottles of Robitussin to get high.
My daughter said she will never do this again, because it made her so sick she was vomiting on and off for 3 days. Do you have any recent reports or info regarding students under the age of 18 using Robitussin to get high? This is the first I have heard about it.
–Southwest Mom
To be honest, I’d heard murmurs about this trend, but didn’t realize how widespread it has gotten. When I was in high school, I remember a kid named Mike who drank Scope and cough syrup between classes. Everyone knew he was doing it, but nobody else joined in. In fact, I remember feeling a little sorry for him. Well, times have changed. I dug around on the Internet and found out that “Robotripping,” as it’s often called, is hugely popular with kids aged 9-17. Basically, it involves consuming large amounts of Robitussin or other cough syrups containing DXM until you get high — apparently, when you drink enough of it, it has a hallucinogenic effect. Coricidin, or “doing Skittles” is also a popular abuse of an OTC drug. (1 in 10 teens admitted to abusing the medicine to get high.) Kids feel like it’s safe to do this because these are medicines found in their parents’ bathrooms, but sadly, some have actually overdosed and died from Robotripping.
Does anyone else have more information on this, or on other OTC drugs that kids are abusing? (I’m including a link here to the Kidshealth.org website, where a doctor describes what you should look for if you suspect your child is Robotripping.)
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July 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 am
Where did you come up with the name, “robotripping”? The kids are calling it, “surping”. That’s their name for it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 am
Terry, When I was researching it online, a lot of articles (including the one I linked to in this post) referred to it as “Robotripping.” But thanks for the update!
October 12th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I just caught my 17 yr old son drinking cough medicine to get high. Apparently he had taken cough medicine pills in the past and I didn’t pick up on it because the high didn’t last as long as the cough syrup high I busted him on. I was so scared and didn’t know what to do for him. My advise to other parents is if you kids eyes are dialated they are quite possibly high on over the counter drugs. Question them, threaten to have them tested for it. Threaten to take them to have blood work done whatever you have to do to get a truthful answer out of them. I knew my son was tripping on something. He kept insisting he was just tired. I kept on till I got the truth. I am glad I didn’t just toss it off as aa teen who had stayed up all night. Now I feel like I have to watch him like a hawk and will for awhile. Its scary stuff these kids are doing.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
a few of my friends robotrip and i don’t know why because it makes you sick at first and then you just want to go to sleep so i don’t know why people do it.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:05 am
I recently found out that my 17 year old son had also been using cough medicine. Not only had I missed signs that something had not been right, but before I knew the real situation I helped him cover other “accidents”. He had always been the perfect child and I think once in high school wanted to be popular. Things changed after he got his license. He came home one night and had busted the side view mirror on the car, gave my husband and I a lame excuse and I guess we wanted to believe him. Then he got a citation one night for letting a minor drive, she had not license, this is what I did not tell my husband about at first.
Less than a month later, he called the house at 4 am to tell us that he had been in a car accident and hit a stump, to use his words. After finding out that he was alright, we were so angry. The car was totaled, he hit a tree and the car had gone through a fence!! Somehow he had crossed all the way to the left side of the road. To this day, he swears he was trying to avoid a drunk driver. Point is, we found empty cold packets in his room, well hidden, we also found some full beer bottles and 2 empty ones. Now he says that he did experiment with the cold medicine. That fence missed his head by about 2″, of course we made him turn in his license. Looking back, I feel stupid, there were signs: him not waking up until 1 in the afternoon, new group of friends, using his paycheck in a day or two, etc…. Parents, please be aware, I almost lost my child in a car accident because of cold medicine, will all of you be so lucky?
January 29th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Just found 2 reciepts in my daughters wallet. One for 2 bottles of Rob. Max, the aother for 3 bottles! They are dated 1 day apart, and of course from 2 different stores.
She has had prescription drug issues in the past… stole them from me until I learned to put them in a lock box.
Guess she found a new way and she’s 19!
May 6th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
i’ve never heard it called surping before, but i think thats a reference to sizzurp.
robotripping is terrible for your brain and can cause mental issues. For instance, i now have sleep paralysis disorder (look it up if your curious) because of robotussin. it messes with your frontal lobe.an easy way to tell if your child is robotripping: watch the way that they walk.now this is only apparent while they are on robo, but they will walk very strangely, or have a hard time walking and balance issues.also, they will keep their eyebrows raised while intoxicated, and their eyes will look very shadowed and sunken in.i hope that this helps you guys out
September 14th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
My son Died 1 year and 10 months ago. He was huffing gas. His friend told me the new thing was cough medicine. I am trying to deal with the loss of my son and want people to know that this is a problem with our kids. We did a show on A&E Intervention in Depth(HUFFING) after his death. It is a bad feeling to be so helpless and not know that we have the problem in our on house. We trust our kids but there is no awareness about inhalents. We talk about don’t do drugs and beer but inhalents we don’t know about. We need to get this out and help our children.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:02 am
my 18 year old fiancĂ©e has been doing this for a year now. I thought I got him to realize how dumb he was for doing it but now the first day I wasn’t with him because I am visiting my grand mother in the hospital, I call him and I know right away he took cough medicine. this stuff gets you hooked so if you know someone who does it then make them get in the car with you and take them to the hospital! they will not think about doing it again after that!
September 6th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
I’m a 15 year old boy in high school and happened to run across this page. I have a lot of friends in school that talk about the drugs they’ve done and what not. The thing i noticed most about all of them is that their parents hardly watch any of them and don’t really care what their doing. if people would have watched their kids better they probably could have been able to prevent this from happening to their kids in the first place. Being one of the only kids in my “group” that doesn’t do drugs doesn’t bother me because they are still good people to talk to, they just need help to get them in the right direction…
January 11th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
The Robotripping isn’t really new, although it may be wider spread now. I knew a few folks who did it back in the 80’s in Boston. I accidentally drank some of that stuff one time and it was the worst feeling I ever had in my life. I thought I was going to die. My friends had to help me to the car. I could not walk by myself and was barely coherent. They took me to a friends house to sleep it off. The whole time there I was just sitting up with my head up staring at the ceiling, afraid to move and felt so sick. I prayed and prayed for this feeling to pass. Finally many hours later I must have fallen asleep and woke the next morning feeling great. I was all better and thanked God I made it through. Never would do that again. Even the thought of taking it for a cold now bothers me. I don’t see how anyone would do that stuff on purpose. It makes you feel horrible. It was really scary. Just my experience I thought I’d share. Keep your kids away from it.