poledriver
Bluelighter
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- Jul 21, 2005
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Sizzurp: What is it and why are so many celebrities getting hooked on it?
IT’S the purple drink that has been dangerously glamorised by celebrities and romanticised in rap lyrics and Hollywood types are increasingly getting hooked on it.
Sizzurp, as it’s become popularly known, is now the beverage of choice for the hip hop community, made by mixing prescription-strength cough syrup which soft drink such as Sprite and a Jolly Rancher candy for “extra sweetness”.
The purplish hue of the berry flavoured cough syrup has seen it become known as “Purple Drank” as well as “Lean” and “Syrup”.
When consumed in large amounts, the active ingredients in prescription cough syrup — codeine, a narcotic, and promethazine, an antihistamine — interact with each another to produce a dazed, sleepy effect with an induced high.
But far from being a harmless party drink, the codeine in sizzurp makes it highly addictive and comes with a host of serious side effects such as a slowed heartbeat, shallow breathing, blurred vision, agitation and hallucinations.
Overnight, pictures emerged of Rob Kardashian reportedly surrounded by cups which appeared to be containing Sizzurp.
The pictures showed the remnants of a purple liquid in one cup, with another labelled with “Codeine Boys”.
The liquid was contained in a large styrofoam “double cup” which is typically used by most Sizzurp drinkers.
Earlier this year, concerns were raised for Justin Bieber after a Sheriff’s search of his Calabasas home, found four or five empty codeine bottles and various styrofoam double cups.
Earlier in the year, TMZ reported Justin Bieber was possibly addicted to sizzurp, using a combination of “prometh with codeine cough syrup at a cost of $800 per pint, which is “considered top of the line for this kind of substance”.
The website also reported that when Bieber is partying hard, he “drinks eight to 12 ounces of the stuff”, equivalent to a full soft drink can of cough syrup.
In May, they reported Bieber was off the codeine cocktail after “months of downing sizzurp like it’s his job”.
The American Medical Association is becoming increasingly concerned about the abuse of cough syrup and the proliferation of use among American teenagers.
Jose Martinez, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, told the L.A. Times that while the cough syrup is a prescription-only controlled substance, its recreational use is widespread.
“It is not uncommon to see large quantities of the controlled substance being sold and transported,” Mr Martinez told the paper.
DEA officials added that the syrup is usually obtained by doctor shopping, forged prescriptions and pharmacy theft.
In April this year, pharmaceutical company Actavis announced they will cease production of the prescription cough syrup due to its association with sizzurp.
The company fears the celebrity glorification of their product had led to its abuse.
Rapper Soulja Boy regularly posts photos of Actavis bottles on his Instagram, including one picture of six bottles lined up just days after the ban saying: “Soulja got the juice. They say the streets dry.
I say you gotta be kiddin me. I serve everybody.”
A representative for Actavis told TMZ: “Given [recent media attention], Actavis has made the bold and unprecedented decision to cease all production and sales of its Promethazine Codeine product.
“This attention has glamorised the unlawful and dangerous use of the product, which is contrary to its approved indication.”
The product is not believed to be sold in Australia.
Sizzurp originated in Houston in the 1960s when blues musicians would drink Robitussin mixed with beer.
By the 1980s and 1990s the formula changed to using codeine promethazine cough syrup mixed with flavoured soda such as Sprite and Jolly Ranchers and gained popularity in the underground rap scene.
Recent references to the drug via social media, lyrics and music videos has seen it spread to mainstream teenagers and college kids who’ve heard it mentioned in hip-hop and rap music.
Three 6 Mafia, who won as Oscar for their song It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp, released a song called Sippin’ on Some Sizzurp in 2000.
Far East Movement also reverenced the band and the drink in their 2010 mega-hit Like a G6 in the lyrics “sippin sizzurp in my ride, like Three 6”.
While Lil Wayne who has spoken liberally of his weakness for the beverage told an audience back in 2008 that sizzurp is part of the culture in the South.
“I’m purple drank forever,” he rapped in last year’s Turn On the Lights.
Wayne suffered multiple seizures in 2013 which some media outlets reported was a direct result of his addiction to a potent cough-syrup mixture.
The drink has claimed many prominent victims in the rap community including
DJ Screw, who popularised the drink in the early 1990s through his music, died of a codeine-promethazine-alcohol overdose on in November 2000 after the video to Three 6 Mafia’s single debuted.
Big Moe, whose albums City of Syrup and Purple World were based on the drink, also died of a heart attack in 2007, with speculation it may have been caused by the drink.
Influential hip-hop figure Pimp C who recorded an ode to getting high off the cough medicine called Sippin’ On Some Sizzurp died in 2007 “due to promethazine/codeine effects and other unestablished factors.”
Dr George Fallieras, an emergency room physician at Los Angeles’ good Samaritan Hospital told the L.A. Times that despite the warnings the drug was relatively harmless when used in appropriate quantities.
“This is a very common cough syrup that, when taken in appropriately prescribed quantities, is quite safe.”
“But the amount of codeine these guys ingest with the syrup is massive ... It’s just the same as someone being addicted to heroin, except they’re not using needles.”
http://www.news.com.au/entertainmen...ing-hooked-on-it/story-fnk822dn-1226968969009
IT’S the purple drink that has been dangerously glamorised by celebrities and romanticised in rap lyrics and Hollywood types are increasingly getting hooked on it.
Sizzurp, as it’s become popularly known, is now the beverage of choice for the hip hop community, made by mixing prescription-strength cough syrup which soft drink such as Sprite and a Jolly Rancher candy for “extra sweetness”.
The purplish hue of the berry flavoured cough syrup has seen it become known as “Purple Drank” as well as “Lean” and “Syrup”.
When consumed in large amounts, the active ingredients in prescription cough syrup — codeine, a narcotic, and promethazine, an antihistamine — interact with each another to produce a dazed, sleepy effect with an induced high.
But far from being a harmless party drink, the codeine in sizzurp makes it highly addictive and comes with a host of serious side effects such as a slowed heartbeat, shallow breathing, blurred vision, agitation and hallucinations.
Overnight, pictures emerged of Rob Kardashian reportedly surrounded by cups which appeared to be containing Sizzurp.
The pictures showed the remnants of a purple liquid in one cup, with another labelled with “Codeine Boys”.
The liquid was contained in a large styrofoam “double cup” which is typically used by most Sizzurp drinkers.
Earlier this year, concerns were raised for Justin Bieber after a Sheriff’s search of his Calabasas home, found four or five empty codeine bottles and various styrofoam double cups.
Earlier in the year, TMZ reported Justin Bieber was possibly addicted to sizzurp, using a combination of “prometh with codeine cough syrup at a cost of $800 per pint, which is “considered top of the line for this kind of substance”.
The website also reported that when Bieber is partying hard, he “drinks eight to 12 ounces of the stuff”, equivalent to a full soft drink can of cough syrup.
In May, they reported Bieber was off the codeine cocktail after “months of downing sizzurp like it’s his job”.
The American Medical Association is becoming increasingly concerned about the abuse of cough syrup and the proliferation of use among American teenagers.
Jose Martinez, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, told the L.A. Times that while the cough syrup is a prescription-only controlled substance, its recreational use is widespread.
“It is not uncommon to see large quantities of the controlled substance being sold and transported,” Mr Martinez told the paper.
DEA officials added that the syrup is usually obtained by doctor shopping, forged prescriptions and pharmacy theft.
In April this year, pharmaceutical company Actavis announced they will cease production of the prescription cough syrup due to its association with sizzurp.
The company fears the celebrity glorification of their product had led to its abuse.
Rapper Soulja Boy regularly posts photos of Actavis bottles on his Instagram, including one picture of six bottles lined up just days after the ban saying: “Soulja got the juice. They say the streets dry.
I say you gotta be kiddin me. I serve everybody.”
A representative for Actavis told TMZ: “Given [recent media attention], Actavis has made the bold and unprecedented decision to cease all production and sales of its Promethazine Codeine product.
“This attention has glamorised the unlawful and dangerous use of the product, which is contrary to its approved indication.”
The product is not believed to be sold in Australia.
Sizzurp originated in Houston in the 1960s when blues musicians would drink Robitussin mixed with beer.
By the 1980s and 1990s the formula changed to using codeine promethazine cough syrup mixed with flavoured soda such as Sprite and Jolly Ranchers and gained popularity in the underground rap scene.
Recent references to the drug via social media, lyrics and music videos has seen it spread to mainstream teenagers and college kids who’ve heard it mentioned in hip-hop and rap music.
Three 6 Mafia, who won as Oscar for their song It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp, released a song called Sippin’ on Some Sizzurp in 2000.
Far East Movement also reverenced the band and the drink in their 2010 mega-hit Like a G6 in the lyrics “sippin sizzurp in my ride, like Three 6”.
While Lil Wayne who has spoken liberally of his weakness for the beverage told an audience back in 2008 that sizzurp is part of the culture in the South.
“I’m purple drank forever,” he rapped in last year’s Turn On the Lights.
Wayne suffered multiple seizures in 2013 which some media outlets reported was a direct result of his addiction to a potent cough-syrup mixture.
The drink has claimed many prominent victims in the rap community including
DJ Screw, who popularised the drink in the early 1990s through his music, died of a codeine-promethazine-alcohol overdose on in November 2000 after the video to Three 6 Mafia’s single debuted.
Big Moe, whose albums City of Syrup and Purple World were based on the drink, also died of a heart attack in 2007, with speculation it may have been caused by the drink.
Influential hip-hop figure Pimp C who recorded an ode to getting high off the cough medicine called Sippin’ On Some Sizzurp died in 2007 “due to promethazine/codeine effects and other unestablished factors.”
Dr George Fallieras, an emergency room physician at Los Angeles’ good Samaritan Hospital told the L.A. Times that despite the warnings the drug was relatively harmless when used in appropriate quantities.
“This is a very common cough syrup that, when taken in appropriately prescribed quantities, is quite safe.”
“But the amount of codeine these guys ingest with the syrup is massive ... It’s just the same as someone being addicted to heroin, except they’re not using needles.”
http://www.news.com.au/entertainmen...ing-hooked-on-it/story-fnk822dn-1226968969009
