trying to quit syrup cold turkey can, at times, be more dangerous than the use itself.
"The knowledge that you're going to die doesn't stop them. It's embracing death. A lot of the deaths you see aren't from the use, it's from the withdrawals. Some of the deaths that were reported wasn't from recessing of the breath which comes from an overdose, they're coming from seizures from trying to quit." Ooskie speaks from experience. He found himself addicted to benzodiazepine, a class of sedative medication. Trying to quit cold-turkey almost put him at death's door. "Trying to quit cold-turkey is dangerous. I, myself, had a seizure that almost killed me from trying to kick the habit from using {a] benzodiazepine." Ooskie also feels like the addiction to syrup we are seeing has a lot to do with how it's promoted.
Discussing different brands who have taken to using styrofoam cups to promote their brands, Ooskie had this to say: "They're out here promoting it like people do soda. The kids are eating it up and no one is really speaking about the dangers. There are dudes curled up in the ER across the country over this."
Some people don't have as many issues when it comes to kicking the habit. Decatur, Georgia rapper, Elz Jenkins found himself trying out drank when he was in middle school, but has since left it alone. Elz recalled his first time sipping lean: "I sipped lean for the first time in middle school with my older cousin but didn’t really pick up on it until high school around 2005," says Jenkins. "When I was younger, I thought it was cool to be messed up and high. I didn’t really like the taste of alcohol. The lean was sweet and we’d dress it up with soda of course but we’d throw jolly ranchers in there so our cups looked cool. The first few times I sipped I went to sleep."
The feeling of being cool didn't last past the high for Elz. He ended up leaving the syrup, right as many began to casually pick it up."The fact that every time I sipped, I went straight to sleep. It tasted good but I would just sleep and wake up feeling like I had a hangover. It just started to seem pointless, but the sad part was, it was such a part of “being cool” I started to lower how much I drank just so I could still drink it," said Elz.
The cost of addiction is high one. It can ruin your health and your pockets. Marietta resident, Radrigo N. said the reasons he had to stop sipping syrup had everything to do with how his body and bank account began to feel
"I first stopped because you start to lose money buying it from sources, that kept shrinking and shrinking to the point you felt you had a rare pair of shoes that no one else had when you keep buying syrup," said Radrigo. "You start sipping every other night if not every night and the physical side effects start to set in. It’s hard to use the bathroom at all because you get mad constipated. The syrup seems to just sit in your body because its much more thicker than average liquids."