South of Royal Avenue on the bicycle path along Beltline Highway, a young man was found yesterday morning by police officers lying unconscious in a ditch on the west side of the path. The officers immediately attempted to awake the juvenile and observed him breathing a strong odor of alcohol. They were unable to rouse him and Eugene Fire was dispatched to the scene and transported the juvenile to a local hospital. Officers later confirmed that the boy and a friend had consumed cough syrup and hard alcohol. The friend was also transported to a local hospital after police officers found him at his home and evaluated him.
Mixing cough syrup with alcohol can be deadly. Eugene police would like to make parents and guardians aware that the drug combination has recently been publicized by the entertainment industry leading some adolescents to experiment with it. The drug is a depressant and causes a state of euphoria. Observable effects of people who use it are; droopy eyes, slowed speech, loss of coordination, cold and clammy skin, shallow respiration and uncontrolled eye movement.
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