You will never find it without either Gualfenisin or acetaminophen.
Does DXM need either of those to do what it does?
No.
Would it simplify dosing to be sold alone so that laymen didn't have to worry about potentially overdosing on three drugs at once instead of just one?
Yes.
However, from the war on drugs perspective, that makes it "easier to abuse" to achieve it's hallucinogenic side effect. Bundled with acetaminophen or gualfenisin however, you'd have to be a chemist intimately familiar with how to seperate the other two components to distill DXM in any amount with abuse potential, and the naive non-chemist trying to get high will either end up puking their guts out (Gualfenisin OD) or burning out their liver (Tylenol OD, which is exacerbated by alcohol consumption as well).
The Tylenol one is particularly problematic, because acetaminophen is also commonly prescribed with other common multi-drug formulations that people may not realize are additive.
When you take the route of adding a substance that does harm to discourage a pattern of behavior, you are poisoning. Poisoning being the act of artificially and with intent increasing the toxicity of an imbibed substance to disincent some pattern of behavior.
This is actually based on a natural pattern of behavior by the way. There is a mushroom that is generally completely harmless... Until you drink alcohol. Metabolizing the mushroom depletes the supply of the same enzymes that detoxify alcohol (and Tylenol).
So to be clear... If you call this mushroom poisonous, and it targets the same enzyme that alcohol does, then adding something like tylenol to something that doesn't need it to do it's job, you are poisoning.
It just happens to be handwaved because in the establishment's mind, those damn druggies aren't worth caring about anyway.
Not a partaker of DXM, but very concerned with the ethical implications, and the adverse contribution to trust in public health measures that this practice entails.
First off: Amazon is NOT my first choice for a source of pharmaceutical. Period.
Second, spin through the comments. Quoted below is an example of exactly what I'm talking about:
>Active ingredient is dextromethorphan. This blocks cough receptors in the brain. Got a cough? Get this!
>2. No extra ingredients. It’s so hard to find pure medicines just for cough. Store shelves are littered with bundled products for all sorts of symptoms. I don’t like taking a bunch of unnecessary meds, so I buy single symptom products like this.
8<---
>Finally, these gels are only sold in some stores. Shelf space is limited, so they rather carry heavily advertised, bundled meds that pay bigger margins. But they are here at Amazon for a great price!
8<---
Point there being, you've got a system where being able to acquire unadulterated formulations of a substance is the exception rather than the norm.
If you look through drug applications or filings with FDA, you will find that many pharmaceutical companies favor highlighting "abuse-resistant" formulations of combo drugs, while downplaying potential harms and that marketshare of the pure drug decreases after an approval of a combo drug is achieved.
I have started to pay more attention to this sort of thing since they started toying with doing the same thing on stuff I take. I can see a blatant flex of incentive shaping when I see it, and frankly, I disagree with it.
I agree with you Amazon is not the best place to get pharmaceutical products and "abuse-resistant" formulations are effectively murder targeted at the most vulnerable. They are practically eugenicist in nature.
When I was much younger I had a bit of an adventurous spirit and never had problems finding pure DXM on the shelf. The issue I ran into most often was it was a frequent target for shoplifters so the name brand gel caps would often be out of stock. Usually you could find the generic store brand version though. Delsym was almost always available. The extended release may or may not be desirable depending on how long you want to trip, but IIRC you could just mix it with something acidic like orange juice to dissolve it and make it instant release. Just anecdotal I know, but that was my experience.
You will never find it without either Gualfenisin or acetaminophen.
Does DXM need either of those to do what it does?
No.
Would it simplify dosing to be sold alone so that laymen didn't have to worry about potentially overdosing on three drugs at once instead of just one?
Yes.
However, from the war on drugs perspective, that makes it "easier to abuse" to achieve it's hallucinogenic side effect. Bundled with acetaminophen or gualfenisin however, you'd have to be a chemist intimately familiar with how to seperate the other two components to distill DXM in any amount with abuse potential, and the naive non-chemist trying to get high will either end up puking their guts out (Gualfenisin OD) or burning out their liver (Tylenol OD, which is exacerbated by alcohol consumption as well).
The Tylenol one is particularly problematic, because acetaminophen is also commonly prescribed with other common multi-drug formulations that people may not realize are additive.
When you take the route of adding a substance that does harm to discourage a pattern of behavior, you are poisoning. Poisoning being the act of artificially and with intent increasing the toxicity of an imbibed substance to disincent some pattern of behavior.
This is actually based on a natural pattern of behavior by the way. There is a mushroom that is generally completely harmless... Until you drink alcohol. Metabolizing the mushroom depletes the supply of the same enzymes that detoxify alcohol (and Tylenol).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinopsis_atramentaria
So to be clear... If you call this mushroom poisonous, and it targets the same enzyme that alcohol does, then adding something like tylenol to something that doesn't need it to do it's job, you are poisoning.
It just happens to be handwaved because in the establishment's mind, those damn druggies aren't worth caring about anyway.
Not a partaker of DXM, but very concerned with the ethical implications, and the adverse contribution to trust in public health measures that this practice entails.