• The drug, Cheese, is an ad-hoc mixture of heroin and over-the-counter cold and sleep medicines, and Cheesing is a term for the use of the drug.

  Cheese, the drug, made headlines in 2005, when journals including Newsweek published sensationalized reports describing it as looming threat to America's teenagers. The reports followed a familiar pattern of drug stories in the popular press, and were criticized as sloppy by commenters including Jack Shafer of Slate.

  Cheese, in any case, fell largely off America's public-health radar until April, 2006, when Dallas, Texas high school student Karla Becerra became its first recorded fatality. Mesquite, Texas student Keith Witherspoon became the second, on November 1.

  Several others followed, until in early 2007, the Dallas Morning News examined drug fatalities among teenagers in Texas, and concluded that as many as 17 deaths since 2005 might have been due to cheese. Subsequent estimates have been as high as 40. On March 26, NPR reported on a "mini-epidemic" of Texas cheese use, involving addicts as young as 9.

  The drug is reportedly mild but addictive, and especially dangerous when mixed with alcohol; and is reportedly used mainly by teens, and in the Hispanic community.

• Fast Facts:

  1. Commonly found in Hispanic immigrant neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas
  2. Can cause heart or respiratory failure
  3. Usually mixed with Tylenol PM

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Cheese Heroin

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