Maybe it's because police dogs are getting a whiff of anything that looks suspicious at U.S. border checkpoints. Maybe it's because government officials are cracking down extra hard on "street" drug users and putting repeat offenders away for extended periods of time. Whatever the case, some drug connoisseurs across the country have turned to another method to get high: buying legal prescription drugs in excess.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), since February of 1997, there have been more police reports and arrests concerning prescription drug abuse than any other drug-related crime, and the numbers are still growing. A fairly recent addition to the list of most popular prescription drugs of choice is codeine, which has become popularized by prominent figures in the Southern rap culture.
Originally, codeine was added to certain cough medicines to keep cold and flu symptoms in check. It was abused on the sly, but went virtually unnoticed by the masses. The drug didn't take the nation by storm until "screw" music exploded onto the Houston rap scene in the early-to-mid nineties. "Screw" music, a rap sub-genre popularized by late Houston producer DJ Screw, takes an original hip hop song and slows it down, giving the music a choppy, sluggish, almost hypnotic feel. Many people close to DJ Screw have admitted on several occasions that the music was designed to mimic a drug. Once the music hit the low-income inner city neighborhoods, it immediately became popular to experiment with drugs while listening to the music. Eventually, users stumbled upon codeine's euphoric effects, and it didn't take long for Southern rappers to catch on. They mixed it with soda or juice, added some ice and sipped it to get high.
References to "lean" or "syrup" (both street nicknames for codeine) have been used heavily in countless songs. Rappers have even been promoting the use of codeine by detailing different ways for novice users to spice things up and increase their high.
As southern rap as a whole became more popular, the trend spread nationwide and took on a life of its own. Some Southerners would argue that it first emerged from the confines of The Lone Star state when Memphis group Three-6 Mafia penned "Sippin' on Some Syrup," a catchy ode to their favorite beverage. The song eventually helped them score their first mainstream hit and sell one million copies of their album, "When the Smoke Clears."
Surprisingly, when DJ Screw, whose real name was Robert Earl Davis Jr., died in 2000 of a codeine overdose at the age of 29, the estimated number of people using the drug socially has skyrocketed, transcending race and social class.
Law enforcement officials attribute the meteoric rise to its easy accessibility and the slap-on-the-wrist punishment you get for having it. It's available in most drug stores and virtually any hospital. In most states, having a small amount of illegally obtained codeine is only a class D misdemeanor.
In a recent interview with National Public Radio, Sam Searcy of the Houston Police Department complained of the slap on the wrist for illegal codeine possession.
"They can quote what we're going to do with them and what we're going to file on them," Searcy said. "A class D misdemeanor is just above a traffic ticket, and they all know it."
Codeine is also very affordable and only moderate levels of consumption are needed to get high.
Despite its popularity, you most likely won't see it at parties, raves or being done out in the open like Ecstasy or marijuana. While most party drugs loosen you up, help you to let go of your inhibitions or give you the courage to do things you wouldn't normally do, codeine doesn't have quite the same effect in social situations.
"I wouldn't call it a party drug, per se. Syrup doesn't have the same effect as marijuana or regular liquor," said 23-year-old Randall Griffith, a casual user and former student at Arizona State University, which was recently dubbed the number one "party school" in the nation. "It just makes you dizzy, and a lot of the time it puts you to sleep. I've never seen anyone doing it at parties."
Some of the more serious, less-publicized side-effects to using codeine in excess are sexual problems, kidney damage, liver damage, intense itching, random hallucinations, seizures and severe nausea.
While no proven pharmaceutical "cure" has been found for codeine addiction, there are many different methods of therapy endorsed by doctors and detoxification centers. Some still recommend intense counseling and strict supervision, which could take anywhere from four weeks to four months. For rapid recovery, the Addiction Recovery Guide (an online service) suggests taking injections of opiate blockers, which counteract the cravings and reduce the withdrawal systems, making for an easier, more speedy recovery.
For the fastest recovery, the Addiction Recovery Guide recommends an expensive and risky procedure which involves putting patients under anesthesia and giving them a powerful drug called Naltrexone, which accelerates the withdrawal process. If this route is taken, recovery can happen within a 5-30 minute period. Withdrawal symptoms from chronic codeine use include anxiety, depression, twitching, stomach cramps, irregular heartbeat, dehydration and of course powerful cravings.
