On "Drank" And "Purple Stuff"

From the front page of the Houston Chronicle: "Sippin' syrup," a drink with Houston origins (also known as "Drank," "purple stuff," and "lean") is a mixture of codeine syrup and soft drinks or alcohol. Producer DJ Screw "extolled the use of the recreational drug in his songs before his death in 2000 of a codeine overdose." In 2007 rapper Big Moe, "who also sipped syrup and whose biggest hit was Purple Stuff, died of a heart attack"; thereafter, Port Arthur rapper Pimp C died from an overdose of cough syrup and sleep apnea.

Now available for purchase in black communities: Drank, a nonalcoholic and non-codeine "slow your roll" carbonated beverage containing melatonin, rose hips and valerian root. (Check out the Drank web site.) Ronald Peters, a professor at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health, "worries that the new canned beverages could be a gateway for youth who want to experience the slowed-down effect of cough syrup abuse. He called the products a step in the wrong direction and criticized them as 'one of the most asinine things I have ever seen.'"