There is an increase in teens using ‘Snurf” pills and other herbal over-the-counter drugs experts told WebMD. Four 10th-graders at Council Rock High School in North Newton, Pennsylvania were hospitalized on Monday and school administrators said they had confiscated a packet containing small pink pills called “Snurf” purchased over the internet. Newtown police are analyzing the pills and parents are frantically trying to learn more about this hitherto little known drug.

Sold over the internet as “Snurf”, it’s not clear what the product contains. Symptoms exhibited by the children as well as the effects that other Snurf users have, reportedly indicate dextromethorphan, the cough suppressant ingredient in Robitussin and other over-the-counter medicines. Deborah Levine, MD, attending physician at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center recently published a study on "pharming," the abuse of prescription and nonprescription drugs by teens. She said users call it DXM, dex, or robo, and Dextromethorphan that is a synthetic morphine analog that lacks opioid-like effects. "It's the ninth- and 10th-graders who are doing the dex," said Levine. "One in 10 kids in grades seven to 12 have used it. In California, they have seen a 15-fold increase in kids age 9-17."

Michael Windle, PhD, chair of behavior sciences and health education at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health feels that while there is a decrease of the use of illegal drugs amongst the teens, DXM as well as other such over-the-counter drugs are in use from eighth grade onward. "The message isn't out there of the potential dangers of using these substances. You have a very dangerous combination of fairly easy access with absence of messages of potential harm," said Windle.

Sold since 2005, Snurf is hard to find on the internet after the Pennsylvania school incident. The packet has ingredients listing which say "herbal" ingredients as "Fevizia, Palenzia, and De la Amazon" though multiple references show that no such herbs exist. Products listing the same ingredients though are available on the internet under the names of Snuffadelic and Red Dawn Vector Euphoria Enhancer.

Experts feel the teens were perhaps not trying to get drugs and the term herbal is misleading making many teens believe that not only they are safe but they are good for them. "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."

Windle also feels that as these are not illegal drugs, many teens feel these are fine as compared to illegal drugs such as marijuana, though the side effects and desired effects can be just as devastating. Levine says extreme doses of DXM cause the same kind of dissociative symptoms of memory loss, depression, anxiety, detachment from self, sense of unreality, blurred sense of identity etc., as are seen with ketamine, a very dangerous drug of abuse known as "special K." "DXM definitely has toxicity. “As the drug doses the kids take -- six to 12 times the regular dose -- you can have serious toxicities, especially if they take cough syrup that contains antihistamines or Tylenol," she says. "Even at lower doses that give some impairment, kids can get into dangerous situations. It is the combination of toxicity and impairment that leads to harm."

"These products can produce a very severe side effect that under some conditions could require hospitalization or even result in death," warns Windle. Levine says parents should be vigilant about their medicine cabinets including non-prescription drugs. "I would just warn parents to be cognizant of what their children are like; to know their daily routines and to know if they are too tired, or if their school performance off," she says. "Talk to kids. They should know these are serious medicines. Injuries and even deaths can occur."

School authorities issued a press release with a warning, "From the information on the packaging, we understand that SNURF is an herbal supplement with mood altering properties. We strongly recommend that anyone in possession of these pills dispose of them immediately."
The police say charges will be filed based on the outcome of the investigation which had just begun.