Articles

DXM: A New High?
By: Annie Boehm


More and more teenagers are finding love for a new a drug called dextromethorphan, or more commonly know as DXM. DXM is a cough suppressant drug found in cough syrups and cough medicines. I’m not here to tell you what I think about it, because in all honesty, I know you don’t care about what I have to say, I’m here to give you facts and let you know what this drug is, and to tell that even when all precautions have been taken, there are still risks.

DXM can be found in just about any cough suppressant most commonly, Coricidin™, and Robitussin™ (and other equivalents) But the real questions are: Why do kids enjoy it so much? Is it as dangerous as other dissociative drugs such as PCP or ketamine? Well, that's what im here to tell you.

I have a few friends that frequently use DXM in the form of Coricidin™ pills.  I asked one of them about his experience and what about DXM was so wonderful, his response was, “It makes everything better, and deeper, you can see things differently, and more profound than you could normally. And it can sometimes make you numb, like you can feel no pain.”

About one third of people who have tried DXM liked it enough to do it again, another third didn’t care enough to drink cough syrup, and a third more hated the experience. Some effects are, euphoria, nonstop laughter, dizziness, very high fever, dream like experiences, disorientation, emphatic feelings towards others, vommiting, and mood lift. Now whether you enjoy this feeling or not is completely up to you, but remember, every time you make that decision, you’re putting our life on the line.

Now whether DXM is dangerous or not, for the most part, yes, especially if you take too much. Some of the dangers are, Nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and allergic reactions (often from the cough syrup itself) hot flashes, dizziness, and bad trips. Some of the more serious dangers are psychotic breaks, psychological addiction and depression and very rarely, irreversible brain damage. The last three are very rare and all occurred in chronic and frequent users. If you do DXM twice a month or less, you’ll probably be okay. But as with all drugs, there is always a risk, so be careful!

If you are going to use DXM recreationally (which i don’t reccomend), be sure to avoid all cough syrups containing decongestants, antihistamines, guaifenesin (induces vomiting) analgesics, acetaminophen/paracetamol, and incase of an allergic reaction occurs due to dyes used in cough syrup, it is a good idea to keep a nonprescription or non-drowsy antihistamine available. It’s also not a good idea to use DXM if you are on any other drugs, including prescriptions. Mostly, try to stay away from formulas containing anything other than dextromethorphan.

Now, I don’t want to be getting phone calls from my friends telling me their parents won’t let them hang out with me because i wrote an article promoting drug use. So I want to make it clear right now, I do not support DXM use, especially in frequent and chronic use, and definitely not in high doses. One of my best friends heart stopped while using Coricidin™. He nearly died from taking too many on his *first try*, and being there with him, trying to make sure he was going to be okay was torture for me. I was inexperienced with DXM use at the time, I had never been around anyone on it. It was hard, thinking you may never see your close friend again. (Don’t think it can happen to you? Think again.)

If you get nothing else out of this article, let it be this: Remember that DXM is a powerful psychedelic and must be used with care and respect for your own body and mind. DXM is not a safe drug, and it has not been well studied at recreational levels; whenever you use it you are taking a risk, possibly a big one.

So if you’ve just made your fifth Christmas ornament out of those little plastic shot glasses , or if your pharasist asks you how your tuberculousis is coming along, you may have done too much DXM.  If you do start finding reality breaking down, your friends avoiding you, or your grades or work performance dropping, it's time to stop. DXM may be a lot of fun to some people, but it just isn't worth losing something truly important over.



School Violence
by: Annie Boehm


Thirty-five school associated deaths, 158 additional non-death shooting and other incidents of high-profile violence, includin stabbings and riots, occured nation wide this school year. But why?

Violence is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in our nation. With images of death shown to our students everyday in the news, movies, video games, and music. But is censorship really the answer? Has it ever worked before?

Censoring kids from violence isn’t going to make it just disappear. If anything, it could make it worse. Teenagers and children know what they like, you take that away from them and you may cause some major conflict. As a fourteen year old, I can tell you right now, if you even try to take my music away from me, you’ll probably lose your arm in the process. My suggestion as how to keep kids out of violent situations? Talk to them.

Tell your son that those video games he plays aren’t real. Let him know that if he ever were to try something he saw in that game he would get in big trouble. Not only with you, but possibly the law. That the stuff in there is make believe and it’s not okay.

Make your daughter understand that just because the president can kill people in Iraq to solve problems, doesn’t mean she can shoot people if they do something wrong. It may sound silly, but a lot of kids aren’t even aware that it is wrong.

Another thing we can do to prevent violence is give support. Most school shootings are caused by kids feeling unwanted, hurt, and alone. Let kids know they are not alone. That there are other people that feel just like them. One of the best movies to help prove this point is, The Breakfast Club. Even though each of them saw each other differently, all of them had problems and each his/her own. Most students are unaware that they are the only ones with problems. Perhaps some sort of support group would be good, wherekids go and just know they’re aren’t alone.

Something else tht has been proposed is offering after school progrms to kids. Now whether that would help of not I’m not sure. Most people I know wouldn’t go even if it was available. But if there was someplace fun were you just go hang out after school, like the cafeteria, mabye kids would go there after school. But most likely organized activies wouldn’t work, unless it was a sport, and not all kids like sports.

A lot of violence starts at home. Many kids with records of violence at school, also have violent parents. So maybe teachers should become more aware of the signs, and alert someone if they suspect a child is being abused. Because if we can cut out violence at home, it should be easier to cut it out of schools.

So, there are many ways to help stop school violence, but censorship doesn’t seem to be the best one.


Eating Meat
By: Annie Boehm



How does one justify eating an animal? Maybe by saying that the animal is going to die anyway. No, thats not good enough, because so are we. Maybe the animals dont deserve to live. Well, I don’t think thats okay either.  Who’s to say we’re any better than an animal? I don’t know anyone. In my opinion, the best way to justify eating an animal is, you don’t.

Yes, I know all the favorable arguements. People say, “Large cats eat small animals, and bears eat fish, whats the difference? It’s all in the food chain.” The difference is those animals can not survive without meat, humans can.

Milk is quite a disgusting thing in my opinion. As humans, we are the only species that drinks milk past infancy. The reason that our mothers stop making milk for us is because we stop needing it. So those commericails that keep telling you that you need milk to survive are lying. Yes, it’s true, cows must be milked, but they do not to be force bred just so they may produce milk for you. That milk is for their babies, not you. Our society has a word for force breeding, it’s called rape. And also, what do you think happens to all those babies that the mothers must have to produce milk? Most (all males) go the veal industry. Drink milk, support the killing of baby calves.

The torture that an animal must go through as a factory farmed animal is horrifying. Cattle raised for beef may be born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are fed an unnatural diet of high-bulk grains and other “fillers,” which can include expired dog and cat food, poultry feces, and leftover restaurant food. They are castrated, their horns are ripped out of their heads, and they have third-degree burns inflicted on them (branding), all without any pain relief. During transportation, cattle are crowded into metal trucks where they suffer from trampling, temperature extremes, and lack of food, water, and veterinary care. At the slaughterhouse, cattle may be hoisted upside down by their hind legs and dismembered while fully conscious. The kill rate in a typical slaughterhouse is 400 animals per hour. Chickens are packed into tink cages where they can not even move a wing, and then are hung from their feet and thier necks are slit, all while fully consious.



"You can't tear flesh by hand, you can't tear hide by        hand. Our anterior teeth are not suited for tearing flesh or hide. We don't have large canine teeth, and we wouldn't have been able to deal with food sources that required those large canines."
—Renowned anthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey

According to many biologists and anthropologists who study the human anatomy, humans are not suited to eat meat. We do not have large, sharp canines, we can not tear flesh with out bare hands, we must cook our meat. Carnivores, even omnivores have sharp teeth, sharp claws and strong enough stomachs that they have no need to cook thier food. We, as humans, are more like rabbits than say, a cheetah. Ask yourself this, when you see a dead animal on the side of the raod, do you ever consider stopping for a snack? Does an animal carcus make you drool? No? Good, that means you’re a normal, plant eating omnivore, just like the rest of us, whether you like it or not.

So the next time you go to bite into that Big Mac® just think about the cow that was murdered just so you could have a tasty snack.