Restrictions to be placed on cough medicine

Some of the bottles in the pharmacy’s cough and cold aisle are about to be off limits to kids. 

People under the age of 18 won’t be able to buy cough medicine containing dextromethorphan, which is often abbreviated “DM.”

It’s a cough suppressant that kids have been using to get high. 

According The National Capital Poison Center, a non-profit association at The George Washington University Medical Center, abusing cough syrup lands 6,000 people in emergency rooms each year.  Half of those people are between the ages of 12 and 25. 

Florida lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of medicine containing dextromethorphan to anyone under 18 and require pharmacists to require identification from anyone under the age of 25 who wants to buy the products.

The law takes effect January 1, 2017. 

Side effects of the dextromethorphan include “heart rate increase, it'll probably affect your vision, your ability to think coherently, behave, interact...bacially you're under the influence,” explained Craig Sicinski, the owner of Orlando Pharmacy. 

Sicinski said he thinks the new law is well-intentioned even though he hasn’t personally seen kids raiding shelves. 

"I've been a pharmacist for 17 years.  I don't see kids loading up the baskets with DM,” Sicinski said.