DXM Extraction

DXM, also known as dextromethorphan, is a common, active ingredient in many cough medications. DXM extraction* occurs when DXM is taken out of substances that contain other ingredients, such as cough syrup, to be left with a pure DXM powder.

Sharon Talks About Her Son’s DXM Use:
"Shawn's perception of what he was like when he was on DXM, is totally different than my perspective and what I saw as his parent. Sean and I had a good relationship and a loving relationship but we didn’t have a communicative relationship, not like we have now.

"After using DXM, eventually he began to display psychiatric problems. And I had discussed with a counselor friend of mine, who has been a drug and alcohol counselor for over thirty years. She told me that what I was seeing was called a drug-induced schizophrenia. So the amount of cough syrup that he was drinking caused schizophrenia. And Shawn, not only with the incarcerations, spent a couple times also in a mental health ward, actually locked up and heavily sedated.

"Sean's brothers did try to intervene on behalf and warned him about his behavior and what he was doing. They told him that he needed to stop this cough syrup abuse because it was destroying his life. But by then, Shawn was truly in his own world. And so it didn’t matter what his brothers said and it didn’t matter what I said because, for the first time, I saw Shawn care, totally about his own self."

Watch Sharon’s video.

*DXM extraction is a method used to get the result of pure DXM powder. This powder is also sold illegally on the internet. By using DXM extraction, many users create their own illicit drug mixtures to sell to others.