BELFAST – The fad of guzzling cough syrup to get high nearly killed a teen-age girl last weekend.

Police Chief Allen Weaver said the girl was hospitalized after overdosing on over-the-counter cough syrup. He said the girl’s heart stopped beating for 11 seconds at one point. The girl consumed two bottles of the medicine, which she and three other teens are alleged to have stolen from the local Shop ‘n Save.

“We’ve heard rumors that kids are using this cough medicine as a way to get high and experience hallucinations,” Weaver said Thursday. “Apparently, it’s becoming quite a fad in town. A lot of kids are doing it because they think it’s a legal way to get alcohol in their possession. Now we have a case where somebody has overdosed.”

Weaver said the four youngsters apparently learned about the alcoholic properties of cough syrup over the Internet. He said an Internet site contains information about which brands of over-the-counter medicine contain the highest levels of alcohol.

“What this site doesn’t tell them is that consumption of excessive quantities of these medicines can cause cardiac arrest, respiratory failure or cause someone to go into a comatose state they might not come out of,” Weaver said. “It’s very dangerous and parents should be aware of the potential harm.”

Weaver said the two boys and two girls involved in the incident range in age from 13 to 16 years old. He said they apparently shoplifted the cough syrup. All four have been charged with theft and turned over to juvenile authorities. They all will be charged with possession of alcohol by consumption. Weaver said District Attorney Leann Zania was committed to prosecuting juveniles for possession of alcohol by consumption because the purpose of using the cough syrup is to get high.

“We will treat it no differently than if they had a can of beer,” said Weaver. “The last thing we want is to have a child overdose or die from experimenting with over-the-counter drugs.”