(no subject)
Being an account of those events whereby, perchance, I saved a life while contributing to the delinquency of minors.
At Walgreen's, the sale rotates every week--Sunday, to be precise. This means also that the attendant sale tags must also be changed. The charming task of parting the old ad tags from the company of the mylars on Saturday nights usually falls to me, and while I was seeing to this, I happened upon some boys by the cold medicine. The three of them huddled there, comparing the different formulations of cough syrup each of them held. An air of guilt clung heavily about them, and it could not have been more apparent what they had in mind. DMX use is increasingly popular among kids these days, but as there was nothing illegal about what they were doing, I kept mum. I continued to pull tags, casting them an arched glance, which was caught by the one I had gathered was the brains of the outfit. He quickly feigned a cough, and the others looked at me and sped up their hushed deliberations. Now, I am far from being able to scold someone in good conscience for recreational substance use, but anything that can kill you the first time you use it is not in the cards for me, and it gave me pause to note that they'd settled on a couple large bottles of Robitussin DM. The trouble with this particular syrup is that it's actually a solution of two drugs: dextromethorphan, a cough supressant, and guaifenesin, a decongestant. It happens that dextromethorphan is highly euphoric and hallucinogenic in lage quantities, and relatively safe to trip on, given that the lethal dose is a staggering 6 grams, and most people pass out long before 4. Unfortunately, the guaifenesin would have reached toxicity long before they'd taken enough of the DMX to get high. Steps had to be taken. (Jesus, when did I become an adult, much less a philanthropic one?) I knew that my lengthy pharmacological treatise would have been lost on them; an explanation sounds an awful lot like judgement to a teenager, and if I sounded too parental they'd just ignore me, leave, buy the stuff elsewhere, and be stone cold inside an hour. This wouldn't do... I couldn't have this on my head. I made my way over to them, taking a plain bottle of Robitussin from the shelf (which has only the DMX) and said in a calculatedly knowing voice, "This is what you need." They eyed me suspiciously for a moment, and I gave the pack leader a reassuring look as I pressed the box into his hand. I'm not entirely sure what ultimately convinced him I was being genuine, but I'm certain my empathy had nothing to do with it, thank you very much. A distant part of me felt like a pusher at that moment, but people have got to learn for themselves, and usually the hard way. I wouldn't have done them any favors to preach to them, and I'd have been lying anyhow. The boys bought their cough syrup and left, and I, trying to convince myself I'd made the only choice I could live with, went back to pulling signs.
ps- I've started on the sequel to the Belgariad. It agrees with me. ^_~
At Walgreen's, the sale rotates every week--Sunday, to be precise. This means also that the attendant sale tags must also be changed. The charming task of parting the old ad tags from the company of the mylars on Saturday nights usually falls to me, and while I was seeing to this, I happened upon some boys by the cold medicine. The three of them huddled there, comparing the different formulations of cough syrup each of them held. An air of guilt clung heavily about them, and it could not have been more apparent what they had in mind. DMX use is increasingly popular among kids these days, but as there was nothing illegal about what they were doing, I kept mum. I continued to pull tags, casting them an arched glance, which was caught by the one I had gathered was the brains of the outfit. He quickly feigned a cough, and the others looked at me and sped up their hushed deliberations. Now, I am far from being able to scold someone in good conscience for recreational substance use, but anything that can kill you the first time you use it is not in the cards for me, and it gave me pause to note that they'd settled on a couple large bottles of Robitussin DM. The trouble with this particular syrup is that it's actually a solution of two drugs: dextromethorphan, a cough supressant, and guaifenesin, a decongestant. It happens that dextromethorphan is highly euphoric and hallucinogenic in lage quantities, and relatively safe to trip on, given that the lethal dose is a staggering 6 grams, and most people pass out long before 4. Unfortunately, the guaifenesin would have reached toxicity long before they'd taken enough of the DMX to get high. Steps had to be taken. (Jesus, when did I become an adult, much less a philanthropic one?) I knew that my lengthy pharmacological treatise would have been lost on them; an explanation sounds an awful lot like judgement to a teenager, and if I sounded too parental they'd just ignore me, leave, buy the stuff elsewhere, and be stone cold inside an hour. This wouldn't do... I couldn't have this on my head. I made my way over to them, taking a plain bottle of Robitussin from the shelf (which has only the DMX) and said in a calculatedly knowing voice, "This is what you need." They eyed me suspiciously for a moment, and I gave the pack leader a reassuring look as I pressed the box into his hand. I'm not entirely sure what ultimately convinced him I was being genuine, but I'm certain my empathy had nothing to do with it, thank you very much. A distant part of me felt like a pusher at that moment, but people have got to learn for themselves, and usually the hard way. I wouldn't have done them any favors to preach to them, and I'd have been lying anyhow. The boys bought their cough syrup and left, and I, trying to convince myself I'd made the only choice I could live with, went back to pulling signs.
ps- I've started on the sequel to the Belgariad. It agrees with me. ^_~