WATSONTOWN -- In Northumberland County some juveniles were found getting a buzz from cold medicine.
When police were called to a house in Watsontown after somebody complained about noise, they found several teenagers high on cold medicine!
Cold pills are legal, you can find them on the shelves at your local pharmacy.
Obviously, so can kids who Watsontown Police believe stole boxes of the drugs to get high, and wound up overdosing.
Police said they found four teens who appeared intoxicated at an apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Then, investigators found packet after packet of cold pills, empty. The teens, between 13 and 18 years old, had downed the pills and needed medical treatment.
“It raises a lot of concern medically, the one young lady took 38 herself,” said Cpl Wade Danley of Watsontown Police.
Police said this is the latest case of teens in the borough abusing legal drugs. Investigators believe kids are stealing boxes right off the shelf and telling each other how to get high.
“It's not just illegal drugs, it's legal over-the-counter drugs we need to be worried about,” said Danley.
According to pharmacists, when kids go after this kind of cold medicine, what they're looking for is an active ingredient in there, that's the DM in the Mucinex DM. That supposedly is giving kids a slight euphoria, but the tradeoff is potentially dangerous. It could lead to high fevers and even death.
“It's something to take very seriously. The kids think oh, it's an over the counter medicine, can't do much to me. Truly it's very harmful," said Adam Rosinski of Cutomer Care Pharmacy.
At Customer Care Pharmacy in Milton, owner Adam Rosinski said he's seen it happen at other pharmacies, kids swipe the cold tabs and pop the pills, never knowing how dangerous it can be.
One teenager said she can't understand why anyone would take that risk.
“Honestly, I never really heard of it, it could be kind of dangerous too, don't see why they'd do it in the first place,” said Samantha Miron of Muncy.
Watsontown Police believe the kids stole the cold pills, but they said they can't prove that, and the drugs are legal. Therefore, it's likely no charges will be filed.
These types of cold pills are not required to be kept "behind the counter" at pharmacies.
The teens are expected to be alright.