Testing It Up

One of the common slangs used for cocaine is “crack.” The origin of the slang is a story in itself. The coca leaves from which cocaine was extracted once grew in the Inca-ruled South America. Incan priests used it for their rituals, but the practice stopped when the Spanish conquistadores came. Instead, coca leaves were fed to the conquered Incas to get them to work in the mines.

The Spaniards took the coca leaves to Europe, where its usage became popular. Learned men cracked experiments with coca leaves to create a purer extract, and this was done successfully by Alfred Niemann. However, this did not stop thrill-seekers from extracting even purer forms of cocaine. One way they came up with was to heat cocaine powder with a baking soda solution, which produces a “cracking” sound. This cracking sound is said to be the origin of the slang. Still, some believe that cocaine is called crack because it “cracks up” the mind.

For full version of this article, please visit “Drug Slang Origins – How Cocaine Became Crack“.

In this age of technology, with the onset of instant messaging and the new slang and abbreviated spelling style that were developed with it, it can be quite easy for parents to miss out on the current trend that their teens are into – down to the lingo that they use to converse with their peers. For parents who have to deal with problematic teens, this may mean that they are unaware of the dangerous practices that their teens may be engaged in.

Here are a few of them, all related to abusing cough syrup, along with what they mean.

Robo. No, they are by no means talking about Robo-cop, the sci-fi movie; most of them were not even born yet when that movie was shown. Robo is normally used to refer to any cough syrup with dextromethorphan. It is derived from one of the more common brand names among cough syrups – Robitussin – but it is largely used to represent cough syrups in general. Other slang terms are derived from Robo to refer to different activities related to dextromethorphan abuse: Robo-fizzing means making a cocktail out of cough syrup and soda or alcohol, and Robo-tripping refers to that “high” that one experiences when taking dextromethorphan at high doses.

Skittling. If dextromethorphan is taken through Coricidin tablets instead of cough syrup, then it is called “skittling” after the candy Skittles. Capsules or tablets with dextromehorphan are also called “red hots.” Another term used to refer to Coricidin is CCCs or Triple Cs, which are derived from the fact that Coricidin tablets have “ccc” stamped on them, which stand for Coricidin Cough and Cold.

Orange crush. Other brands of cough syrup, such as Delsym, contain orange-colored syrup and are encased in orange packaging, which is probably why these are sometimes termed as orange crush.

When there is a need for people to refer to something that is taboo, these things are inevitably rechristened with names that are innocent, benign, and not in any way related to what it is referring to. This is very rampant in the world of substance abuse, where dealers and users alike have created for themselves practically a new language that only the ‘insiders’ can understand. That is, of course, unless we do something about it.

Meet Aunt Mary, Aunt Emma and Aunt Hazel. These are just some of the slangs that refer to marijuana, heroin and morphine, in that order. Now who would think ill of people talking about three ladies with names as lovely as those? And let’s not forget Mary Jane, who could very well be that girl next door, only this one is not exactly wearing a skirt and tube top – or Alice B. Toklas, both slangs for marijuana.

In Colombia, the police have actually written what is practically a dictionary of drug slangs. These were the result of investigations and drug busts that have uncovered the secrets of drug cartels as well as information provided by spies and double agents. This knowledge has proven to be useful in the police crackdown of illegal substances, but simply keeping up has been a challenge. For every word or phrase that is written in that book, a new term is probably being concocted by illegal drug players.

It is to parents and responsible adults’ advantages that they keep themselves informed of these slangs as well as other ‘drug speak’. While we do want to give our children some privacy, it is more important now than ever to protect them from serious dangers.