DannyBoyinExile

Back in the day, the recreational drug for many TDCJ inmates was… cough syrup. I don’t mean the fancy stuff containing codeine and promethazine, that even celebrities in the free world sip on, to get a buzz. I mean straight, over the counter cough syrup that anyone could pick up from a shelf at any store and purchase. (Or steal!)
In fact, the medical departments of each unit had a standard protocol for when an inmate (ANY inmate) complained of a cold. They gave him or her 14 individual servings, and told him or her to drink them twice a day, for seven days. (Then they could come back and get some more!)
The first time I ever got them (the first of many times, I’ll admit), I really needed them. But I didn’t fail to notice that by the time I made it back to my wing, FIVE DIFFERENT PEOPLE saw them and asked if I wanted to sell them. I’m like, “No! I NEED these.” In fact, I was coughing so vehemently that I ended up drinking five of them in a short period of time, under the assumption that a massive dose of something always works better than a smaller one.
And it did! A short while later, I happened to remark to a friend of mine that I almost felt like I had a buzz from drinking them. He’s like, “You don’t know about these? How many did you drink?”
He scoffed at my measly answer of five. “FIVE? That’s a waste! Drink TEN of them.”
I’m like, “TEN? All at once? Are you crazy?”
He told me, “Trust me. You don’t know what you’re missing. Drink five more – and you will thank me later.”
So I drank five more doses – strictly for medicinal purposes, of course. I didn’t thank him right away, for sure, because they taste TERRIBLE. But 45 minutes later, I felt as if you had plugged the charger from my tablet directly into my brain. My mind was totally lit up with colors and images – and I was jamming as if I had a radio blaring in my head. I literally felt like I’d taken a hit of LSD, and hadn’t felt so high since I was in the free world, on some REAL drugs.
I thanked him then, of course – and over the course of the next year or so I probably drank more cough syrup than I did water! Not only did I go to medical once a week, for another dose – I also bought them from anybody I saw with them. I’d even take some commissary to medical with me, so I could buy them from the other guys, before they sold them to anyone else. I even set up my own network of guys who would go to medical, pick them up, and bring them directly to me.
I knew they didn’t contain codeine, or even alcohol – but SOMETHING in them was magic, for sure. There were only two active ingredients in them: dextromethorphan, and guaifenesin. I did some research, and narrowed it down to dextromethorphan. I even asked my wife to look it up on the internet for me.
She said, “I’m not telling you what it says.”
I said, “I KNOW about it, I’m just curious. What does it say?”
She grudgingly told me, “It says it causes euphoria and hallucinations in high dosages.”
Bingo. Come to find out, the “DM” you see on ANY cold medication is the same stuff. Teenagers in the free world were even drinking this stuff (“Robotripping”) – and they beat me to it!
Well, so many inmates started taking this stuff – or going to medical to pick it up, only to sell it – that it invited some serious scrutiny, and cough syrup was subsequently banned from TDCJ. The next time I went to medical, I was informed that they no longer stocked them. The nurse told me, “I don’t know y’all thought they got you drunk – there’s not even any alcohol in them! It was all in your mind.”
My first thought was, “Then why did you stop passing them out?” Alcohol wasn’t in my mind – but the dextromethorphan was, for sure. I had quickly become a dextromethorfiend, but those days were over with. Or so I thought. The charger may have been unplugged from my brain when they took the cough syrups, but it was still functioning. So when, several years later, I looked at the commissary price list and saw Mucus Relief DM, I’m like, “What?”
THE DM? I quickly bought a bottle, looked at the ingredients – and each pill contained the same two chemicals, in the same amounts, as the cough syrup did! Each bottle only contained ten pills, which was one dose for me (a STARTER dose, at that), but it was no problem for me to pay other people to buy them for me. Which is exactly what I did. Every single day.
Other guys were slumping out on Man Down, or skitzing out on meth, but I was kicking back with my headphones on – or in the commissary line, trying to buy more Mucus Relief DM. Before long, even the commissary ladies were on to me. When they’d suddenly start selling several bottles (of something they NEVER sold), they’d stick their heads out the window. “I know who these are for! Where’s he at?” They started calling me the Mucus Relief Bandit.
I’m happy to say that my mucus is fine these days – and I’ll probably never cough again. I came to my senses, and stopped taking the pills. When I told people I didn’t take them anymore, they were skeptical at first. “You’re not taking them any LESS, either!”
But I made up my mind to quit, and that’s exactly what I did. I need to be in my normal state of mind, in general. And if I apply as much willpower to my goals as I did chasing mucus relief pills – there’s no telling what I can accomplish.
Word eventually got out (about the pills, I mean, not that I quit) an they were ultimately discontinued by TDCJ as well. That hurt a lot of people’s feelings, but not mine. I’m proud to have straightened myself out, and I don’t take ANY drugs anymore. I want to be the very best person that I can be, and I can’t do that on drugs. DM, R.I.P.
So says DannyBoy.