Suffolk County, N.Y., prohibits minors from buying certain cold medicines
Teenagers in Suffolk County, N.Y., will soon have to ask their parents or older siblings to buy cold and cough medicine for them if the drugs contain the ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM).
Teenagers in Suffolk County, N.Y., will soon have to ask their parents or older siblings to buy cold and cough medicine for them if the drugs contain the ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM). A new law, passed in May, prohibits the sale of drugs containing DXM to anybody under the age of 19, a response to the increasing abuse of the drugs.
According to Suffolk County Legislator Lynne Nowick’s office, some people take large amounts of the drugs to obtain a high, but overdose can cause seizures, brain damage and death. Nowick also encourages parents to watch out for signs of abuse, such as large numbers of empty cough syrup bottles or boxes of cold medications in their children’s rooms.
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