Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Police and fire officials are warning teens against misusing over-the-counter drugs after several episodes at Sweet Home High School involving Benadryl overdoses.
School Resource Officer John Trahan said he first became aware of the problem a couple of weeks ago when someone approached him and told him a student was acting strangely in the hallway.
“I walked up and talked to the student and I could tell something was wrong,” Trahan said.
Assuming that this was abuse of a controlled subject. Trahan said, he started escorting the student to his office. On the way, he noticed another student sitting on the floor with other students attempting to help.
“They were shaking and there would be a delayed reaction when I’d ask something,” he said. “Their pupils were different than normal. They were very cold, shaking.”
When Trahan pressed them to tell him what they had taken, they told him it was Benadryl. Trahan called medics and they transported the students to the hospital where they were eventually released.
The next day, one of the students who had been taken to the hospital came to Trahan and told him that their friend, the other student who had been transported the day before, was hallucinating on Benadryl.
Trahan said when he asked what the student had taken, the student told him that it was a runoff effect from the day before. But when he called Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital emergency room staff, they told him there was no way the carryover could take that long, he said.
Trahan said last week that he’s aware of five cases of Benadryl overdoses, including one handled by another officer.
“After seeing the report, I knew immediately that it was Benadryl,” Trahan said.
He called Chief Mike Beaver at the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District to discuss the situation. They decided to visit Safeway and Thriftway where store officials were “very cooperative,” he said and agreed to revise store policies as to who could buy Benadryl (limited to those over 18) and, at one store, keeping the products behind the counter.
Trahan and SHFAD Battalion Chief Doug Emmert visited an assembly at the high school last Wednesday, Feb. 20, to talk to the students about the problem.
“I really just talked to the kids about the dangers of drug overdoses, period,” Emmert said. “I threw in Benadryl in particular.”
He said Banadryl is just the latest example of “different little crazes that come through. Somebody figures out that some usually benign drug will do something different than it’s supposed to do.”
Benadryl is an antihistamine used to treat allergies, congestion and bee stings. Emmert said it is used in “a lot of the sleeping pills that you can buy over the counter.”
In high doses, he said, “it kind of works the opposite of what it normally does.” Symptoms in an overdose can include excitability, heart rhythm changes, hallucinations, seizures, extreme chills, insomnia, dry mouth, flushing, fever, confusion, and long-lasting effects such as kidney or liver damage.
“Something that seems pretty harmless that you can buy over counter can actually hurt you,” Emmert said.
He told the students Wednesday “When you overdose, you actually hurt other people besides yourself – your parents or responders, who often have kids themselves and therefore can be very affected by what you’ve done.”