NyQuil won’t make users high unless abused
In response to Chris Freyder’s March 4 column titled “Everyone is getting high — they just don’t know it yet”:
No one is getting high on NyQuil unless they are seriously and intentionally abusing it. In fact, using NyQuil as recommended causes nothing more than drowsiness — equivalent to the effects of Benadryl.
First, the standard formulation of NyQuil contains the following active ingredients per 1 tablespoon (15 milliliter) dosage: doxylamine succinate 6.25 milligrams (antihistamine), dextromethorphan hydrobromide 15 mg (cough suppressant) and acetaminophen 325 mg (pain reliever/fever reducer). Recommended adult dosage is two tablespoons — so double everything.
NyQuil contains 10 percent alcohol by volume. However, you need to drink 5 ounces of NyQuil to consume the equivalent amount of alcohol in one beer. That’s half of a 10-ounce bottle of NyQuil — chug away. In a single ounce (30 ml) dosage of NyQuil you would get the equivalent of 2.4 ounces of beer. Not enough to intoxicate any normal adult.
Vick’s uses ethanol in NyQuil as a solvent because the three active ingredients are powders at room temperature. There is no alcohol in NyQuil liquicaps. Clearly, the alcohol’s intent is not to make you high.
NyQuil does not contain “sedatives and hypnotics.” It in fact contains one — doxylamine. While doxylamine’s main use is as an antihistamine in this case, it is also listed as a hypnotic/sedative.
Why? Doxylamine causes drowsiness like many antihistamines. And like diphenhydramine (Benadryl), it is used both as an over-the-counter sedative and as an over-the-counter antihistamine.
What about dextromethorphan?
While dextromethorphan (DXM) can be abused (robo-tripping) and at high dosages does have psychoactive effects, at recommended medical dosages it has no psychoactive effects whatsoever.
To achieve the lowest level of DXM intoxication you must consume 1.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Just short of 5 ounces for Drew Brees at 95 kilograms.
Perhaps the most directly dangerous ingredient is the acetaminophen (Tylenol). In 1 ounce of NyQuil you get a single dose of acetaminophen (650 mg) — not to exceed four doses in a single 24-hour period.
In attempting to reach the lowest level of DXM intoxication you risk acetaminophen overdose. A sufficient overdose can lead to liver failure and even death. Acetaminophen overdose is both the No. 1 cause of adult acute liver failure in the U.S. and the No. 1 reason people call Poison Control.
Clearly, you must intentionally abuse NyQuil while risking hepatotoxicity and death to get high. Recommended use simply makes you drowsy.
Solution: DayQuil — no doxylamine, no alcohol.
Jeremiah Haremza
Physics and astronomy graduate student
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Letter to the Editor: 2/4/11
March 9, 2011