Herbal drugs endanger both teens and legitimate supplement makers
Sometimes it’s easy to see why those of us who support natural supplements as legitimate alternatives to pharmaceuticals are constantly facing an uphill climb – especially when people start abusing the natural alternatives.
The latest example of this is the popularity of so-called “Snurf” pills and other over-the- counter euphoria drugs that are being abused by teenagers all over the country. The pills are alleged to be “herbal” and “natural,” but the truth of the matter is that no one really knows what’s in them.
Recently, four Pennsylvania tenth graders were hospitalized after taking Snurf pills they bought on the Internet. Their symptoms seemed to indicate that the pills contain dextromethophan, a synthetic morphine that’s used as an ingredient in Robitussin and other non-prescription cough suppressants.
Snurf – also called DXM, dex, and robo by users – is just the latest of a growing list of easy-to-get pharmaceuticals that are being abused by teens. These drugs become so popular so quickly that it’s often difficult to keep up with them, and even more challenging to put a stop to it.
“It’s the ninth- and 10th-greaders who are doing the dex,” says Dr. Deborah Levine, an attending physician at New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center. “One in 10 kids in grades seven to 12 have used it. In California, they have seen a 15-fold increase in kids age 9 to 17.”
But here’s the problem: even the kids who would normally have avoided taking something like DXM, which they know is a kind of drug, get mislead because the Snurf pill packages list “herbal” ingredients such as “Fevizia, Palenzia, and De la Amazon” – AND THOSE AREN’T EVEN REAL HERBS! The shady makers of these products are listing phony “safe” ingredients.
According to Michael Windle, Ph.D., chair of behavior sciences and health education at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, many kids probably assume that products labeled “herbal” are safe – or even healthy – so they have no problem downing it in mass quantities.
“They say it is not illegal and that it’s an herb, so adolescents may think it is actually healthy for you,” Windle says. “This is a clever marketing gimmick to sell it online. You remove any guilt these adolescents may have about taking a drug.”
And as parents everywhere panic about these awful “herbal” drugs – that aren’t even herbal in the first place – genuinely helpful herbal and natural supplements are painted with the same broad brush. Before you know it, legitimate natural supplement dealers are soon lumped in with these insidious online drug dealers that masquerade their awful wares as natural supplements.
Ironically, use of illegal drugs by teens has dropped throughout the country – but the sad fact is they’re just being replaced with equally dangerous substances that just happen to be legal. These drugs are not only a new danger to our youth, but unfortunately they’re growing reputation could also doom the entire natural supplement industry, and its many legitimate health benefits.
Rash of bad Chinese export continues literally
More bad news from China.
This latest story about a questionable product from China comes, thankfully, not from the U.S., but from France, where a retailer recently pulled a line of Chinese-made armchairs off the market after buyers claimed the chairs caused them to develop a painful eczema skin rash.
A French newspaper has even reported that as many as 12 people have been hospitalized with the condition after buying these chairs.
A spokesman for the French retailer says the Chinese chairs were manufactured with too much of an anti-mold substance in the material which “in some people can cause allergic reaction.” The Chinese company Link Wise apparently placed an overabundance of anti- mold packs in the chairs to protect them from the damp monsoon season.
And so we add yet another nasty product to the “Horrible Chinese Export Hall of Fame.” Eczema-causing sofas now take their place next to dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients, toxic toys, tainted toothpaste, and murderous milk. And the so-called Chinese century is just getting started, my friends!
Take it from me: “Made in China” is a polite way of saying “Do Not Touch.”
