An NBC11 investigation uncovers the secret drug lives of teens. It is not happening on Bay Area streets but on home computers.

What are the drugs being abused? Simple cold medicines found in any medicine cabinet in America.But a growing trend is showing teenagers across the country that are getting high off cough syrup and sharing their experiences online.

NBC11's Diane Dwyer investigated the situation and learned what kids know and their parents do not.

SLIDESHOW: More And More Teenagers Using Cough Syrup To Get High

Video can be found on YouTube of teenagers getting high on cold medicine and being proud of it.

In some cases, NBC11 found teens who said they felt as if they were going to die but their friends did nothing to help.

Some call it robo-tripping because they use Robitussin to get high.

"Drinking robo, are you robo-tripping?" One girl can be seen saying in a video on YouTube.

The drug that gets them high is DXM, a narcotic that is in Robitussun and Coricidin, Nyquil and other medicines.Abusing DXM can cause hallucinating similar to PCP such as an irregular heartbeat, blackouts and even death.



"DXM is going to make me crazy!" one user says on YouTube.

Experts said parents should not be too sure their children are not abusing the drug.

Brenda Stern works for an adolescent substance abuse program in Palo Alto. She said many teenagers are using cold medicines to get high because it is so accessible and it does not seem as dangerous as other drugs.

"It is in every neighborhood, it is in every socioeconomic class and yes it is in your neighborhood," said Stern, program director for an adolescent substance abuse facility. "They have no fear of using Nyquil, Dayquil or taking a handful of cold tablets. You know they tell you that 32 pills will kill you, but 16 will get you really high."

The trouble is, Stern said, 16 pills can kill a person as well and children do not take the warnings seriously enough.

NBC11 spoke with one teenage girl, whose identity is not being revealed, who said she began getting high on cough medicine when she was 15 years old.

While she did not want to show her face or tell her name she wanted to share her story to help other kids. She said one time a friend of hers almost died after taking 18 Coricidin pills.

"It takes your whole life," she said. "All of sudden I was videotaping, rocking, falls over. (It was) so scary. (I had) no idea what to do high. I called 911 (and) we just left."

Music videos glamorize the trend as well with some people drinking the cough syrup out of baby bottles.

Candice Kelsey wrote the book "Generation MySpace" and taught high school as well.

"It's almost a bravado," Kelsey said. "It's a way to say look at the risks. I take, look how outside of conventional society I can go."

She said the type of teenager most likely to be involved with the drug is surprising.

"I've noticed that it's a kid who, it's usually a kid whose parents are pretty involved, so it'd be pretty difficult for them to do illegal drugs," she said. "It's something that maybe would attract a kid that needed to sneak something past their parents."

And the number of reported cases of DXM abuse increased 10-fold from 1999 to 2006, according to the California Poison Control System..

Some teenagers also have dual lives, according to Kelsey, where they do well in school, participate in athletics and then take on another personality entirely online, whether it is on YouTube or MySpace.

"What I saw on the MySpace profiles shocked me because these kids were portraying themselves in a totally different way than how I knew them during the day," she said.So why cough medicine?

"It's free," one teenager said. "Steal it at home."

Some lawmakers are working to stop the problem.

State Sen. Joe Smitian of Palo Alto introduced a bill that would ban the sale of cold medicine with DXM to minors. Congress has done so as well. But so far they are just proposals.

In the meantime, experts said it is up to parents to try to keep track of their children and their medicine cabinets.

What might surprise parents is that most drug social networking is done online between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Learn More:

"Generation MySpace" By Candice M. Kelsey

Teen Counseling Center