UMEM Educational Pearls

Keywords

Category

Author

Title: Trends in Drug Abuse

Category: Toxicology

Keywords: drugs of abuse, heroin (PubMed Search)

Posted: 7/3/2008 by Ellen Lemkin, MD, PharmD (Updated: 7/21/2026)

ADOLESCENT DRUG ABUSE

"Pharming" is prescription drug abuse
Teens will take medications from their home medicine cabinets, mix them in bags together indiscriminately and make "trail mix" to pass around parties
"Cheese" is a combination of heroin with cough and cold preparations. The heroin concentration in cheese is typically between 2-8% compared to 30% found in black tar heroin, and is considered "starter heroin"

Prosser JM, Nelson LS. Emergency Medicine May 2008