Several news sites have been breathlessly reporting the widespread abuse of a deadly new drug called "snurf."
Apparently four high school sophomores were sent to the hospital after ingesting the drug.
Their symptoms?
No-one will tell us!
From what I can gather, their "symptoms" included distorted perception and impaired motor function. In other words, they were tripping. Being tenth-graders, they panicked and went to the nurse, who called an ambulance.
Serves them right. Who the hell decides that the best place to take their first trip is at school?
Apparently snurf is nothing more than DXM, the ingredient which makes people drink Robotussin to get high. It can be toxic in high doses; so can vitamin A.
Now people are waxing hysterical about the drug, claiming that it's a deadly scourge ready to destroy our children. This site is typical--the author even claims, "Even as my high school experience is some of decades in the past, I am beginning to wonder if I was merely on the fringe of all things popular, or if it simply was a different time and place. There were no drug [sic] - that I know of - and the worst anyone did in the bathroom was smoke."
Cochran is lying. Although she never reveals her age on any of her websites, one may safely assume that since she still "juggles dirty diapers," she is not significantly older than I am. I graduated in 1992, and kids were into alcohol, pot, and LSD--pretty much the same vices enjoyed by students when my parents were in high school.
So unless Cochran is popping out babies at seventy years old, she is deliberately telling lies in order to scare parents into believing that our teens are in grave danger.
In a world of rampant materialism and consumerism, more young people will seek to find meaning--or diversion--through drugs. Faced with terrorism, warfare, genocide, the possibility of human extinction, all of which we learn about in our high school years, who wouldn't be tempted to "check out" once in awhile? Teens are going to try to get high, period.
It is our duty to stop them, of course; while I condone most drug use for adults, young people are not equipped to handle such things responsibly. Parents should be concerned--and educated--about new ways to get high.
But moral panic serves only to control the masses.
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