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At some point, every parent has been warned to lock up the liquor cabinet and not to keep prescription drugs, especially pain meds, just lying around the house.

But, a big I-Team investigation uncovered a legal high making a big comeback among Wisconsin kids, and the consequences can be deadly.

It nearly killed Danielle Dufresne of Green Bay.

"I remember the doctor talking to my parents, 'You know she probably won't make it through the night. We'll probably have to put her on a respirator,'" Dufresne recalled. "They gave me 15 to 18 hours to live."

Danielle's body started shutting down from acute liver failure after taking way too much Coricidin. Coricidin is an over-the-counter cough medicine meant for people with high blood pressure.

"People think that when you can buy something over-the-counter it means that it's not going to hurt you, and that's not true at all," explained Cathy Smith with the Wisconsin Poison Center.

Coricidin contains dextromethorphan, or DXM, the most popular cough medicine out there. Taking enough Coricidin makes you hallucinate.

Every year millions of teens do it for a quick, cheap trip. The kids call it "Skittling," named after the candy that looks just like the pills they're popping. Popular five to 10 years ago, "Skittling" is now making a comeback in Wisconsin.

Smith says taking too much Coricidin can kill.

"The other risk that we worry about is the longer you delay in telling somebody what you did, or going to an emergency room, the more serious your condition is going to be," Smith warned.

For better or worse, all the DXM Tammy Olson's 16-year-old daughter swallowed took effect right in front of her this past March.
"My concern was that she was going to die," said Olson. "That was my concern that she was going to get to the hospital and that she was going to die."

She almost did.

"No parent should have to go through what I went through," Olson said. "She couldn't walk by herself. She couldn't feed herself for two days. She was in the ICU. I'm very grateful she's ok without any permanent damage to her."

Turns out Tammy and her daughter got lucky. Coricidin is actually a combination drug, not just DXM. There's often acetaminophen.
It is the same medicine that's in Tylenol, which is actually what nearly destroyed Danielle Dufresne's liver.

"What is the antidote for destroying your liver? It's a liver transplant," Smith warned. "You don't get a liver transplant, you die."

That's why some local pharmacies now choose to keep Coricidin behind the counter, like CVS Pharmacy in Whitefish Bay.

When an undercover I-Team producer asked the pharmacist why they keep it locked up, she told our producer it was being stolen.

But our undercover cameras also found, despite the risks, a lot of places still keep Coricidin out in the open.

"It makes me mad that there's nothing I can do to stop her from getting her hands on it if it's openly stocked in stores," Tammy Olson complained. "There is nothing you can do to prevent them from walking in there and walking out with it."

We saw Coricidin on the shelves at several Walgreens, including the one on Oakland Avenue, Thompson's Pharmacy on Capitol Drive, and Hayek's Pharmacy in Shorewood.

We asked pharmacist Bill Quandt why the Coricidin is kept out in the open.

"We can see what's going on here," Quandt said. "The bigger places, they don't. They're back there, so they have to be aware when someone wants it."

Quandt also said, so far, Hayek's hasn't been targeted this time around by kids looking to make a quick score.

When we asked Quandt if there would ever be a point when Hayek's decides to move the Coricidin behind the counter, he said, "At the point where it starts becoming habitual and chronic, abused."

But with the recent "Skittling" surge, advocates say it's only a matter of time.

"I would prefer that the pharmacies voluntarily choose to keep it behind the counter, because if it's on the shelf, the kids will just steal it," said Smith.

We did ask a Walgreens spokesperson why only some of its Milwaukee-area stores keep the Coricidin behind the counter. He told us, it only gets locked up at stores where they've had thefts.

Either way, this should serve as a reminder to both parents and teens that taking Coricidin to get high is not a good idea.