What Lil Wayne's Hospitalization Isn't Saying About Lean
If you associate lean with Lil Wayne, well, you're not the first. But the initial traces of lean consumption date back to Houston in the late 1960s. Blues musicians would pour Robitussin, a common cough medicine, into their beers. These days the highly addictive cocktail containing promethazine-codeine is mixed with a soft drink and sometimes hard candy. Lean is dangerous for many reasons, but mainly because it's easy to lose track of how much the active drug was consumed since the drink is masked by the taste of soda and candy.
Sizzurp sippin' was attributed to the deaths of some of our favorites, like Pimp C and A$AP Yams. Here are 10 things you need to know about this life threatening beverage:
The main ingredient in lean, codeine, is a narcotic similar to Heroin, Morphine, Oxycontin and Vicodin
Lean alters the way the brain creates and uses dopamine, the chemical that triggers euphoria
The two active ingredients, Codeine and Promethazine, are Central Nervous System Depressants
In other words, both ingredients can slow breathing or stop it completely in large enough doses.
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Since lean is usually purple, it's also known as Sizzurp, Purple Drank, Memphis Mud and Texas Tea
The side effects of lean are insane
The side effects of drinking lean include slurred speech, blurred vision, euphoria, sedation, dissociation from one's body, impaired motor skills, lethargy, seizures, slowed heartbeat, confusion and loss of consciousness. The effects may worsen with continued consumption and vary depending on the amount taken.
Lean consumption can lead to onset neuroleptic malignant syndrome
This sometimes fatal condition is linked to the intake of the medication promethazine.
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It's called lean because when users are high they feel like they are unbalanced and slump over
The risk of death is highest when combined with other sedative drugs or depressant substances such as alcohol
People who are addicted to lean may take too many over-the-counter cold and flu drugs
NyQuil, for example, is known to have effects similar to lean.
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For these reasons, lean concoctions are deadly
