The Punisher and the “Coast Guard Cocktail”
scene from Punisher: Force of Nature (By Swierczynski and Lacombe)
The “Coast Guard Cocktail” is a sea-sickness remedy of legendary fame. Like many legends, it’s not entirely clear how much is truth, and how much is myth. I’ve seen many references to the cocktail, but I’ve never met anyone who’s actually taken it. Was it actually dispensed, or at least condoned, by the Coast Guard, or is the name supposed to be a slur against them (as in “they need sea-sickness pills”)?
The medicine behind the cocktail is sound, if a bit excessive. Two separate pills make up the treatment. The first is promethazine, better known in the U.S. by the brand name Phenergan. It is an excellent medicine at quelling nausea and is indicated for prevention of motion sickness — unfortunately, it is also extremely sedating. The second pill in the cocktail, ephedrine, a stimulant, is taken to counteract the sedation caused by the Phenergan. It is the same medication that until recently was the active ingredient in many energy drinks and diet pills. It can cause nervousness and irritability, and at high doses there are concerns about elevated blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms.
I’m always leery when a pill is prescribed to the combat side effects caused by another medication. That can easily lead to drug after drug prescribed, and before you know it, you’re on twelve pills for a simple problem. Plus, even with the ephedrine, I suspect the Phenergan is still going to be sedating. That may be all right for passengers who can sleep the day away, but I wouldn’t want any professional on it when they’re supposed to be on duty (or – like the Punisher — supposed to be shooting people).
Phenergan is available by prescription only (at least in the U.S.), and the legality of ephedrine varies by locale. The “over-the–counter stuff” the Punisher refers to is likely either Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) or Bonine (meclizine). Both are good at motion-sickness, though not quite as good as Phenergan. Both are also sedating, but again, not as sedating as Phenergan (particularly meclizine, which is less sedating than Dramamine).
Extra credit to writer Duane Swierczynski for having himself listed as the doctor on the Punisher’s prescription bottles.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Not everyone finds Phenergan sedating - I don’t, and my parents have legendary tales of giving to me for my severe motion sickness, then having me go hyperactive for hours. I actually turned out to have benign positional vertigo (and still have severe motion sickness, not just when I’m in a vehicle) and find hyoscine hydrobromide to be the best remedy for me.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Salt pills? Don’t they usually use sugar pills?
May 15th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Ah, push-pull medication. We had a student take 2 of someone else’s Adderall and about six Red Bull to stay up and study for finals. When he finally wanted to go to sleep he couldn’t, duh, so he took 20-40mg of oxycodone.
When he came to us he just wasn’t feeling well at all.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:16 am
This must be a post 1995 ‘remedy’. Nine years in the USCG and I’ve never even heard of that.
I saw rather a bit of illegal use of various substances, but exclusively for recreational purposes. I knew guys who would smoke up in the boom shack in port, but wouldn’t touch underway.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I didn’t know phenergan was that sedating. I took it for a 10 day stomach virus a few weeks ago, and while I felt lightheaded I didn’t sleep any more than usual. Ephedrine would have had me bouncing off the walls.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Official Comment
BjamesB,
The Punisher was purposefully trying to make his “prey” sick, and the salt pills will do that.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I’ll take that extra credit for myself, thank you, as I dropped that on Duane uninvited.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I’ve never heard of the “Coast Guard Cocktail”, but I’ve read about the NASA pills. Maybe its an urban legend that developed from the NASA pills. (NASA pills also used in the “vomit rocket”.)
ScopeDex-
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_v19/ai_3664124/pg_3
Scopolamine can produce a number of side effects, including drowsiness, dryness of the mouth, blurred vision, a sensitivity to light, and heart irregularities. To combat the drowsiness, NASA has given its space-sick-prone astronauts the stimulant dextro-amphetamine along with scopolamine, a combination the space agency calls ScopeDex.
The legalized speedball, seems to work. I read somewhere that ScopeDex works better than Scopolamine by itself. ScopeDex is the first choice. If they run out of it, on the vomit rocket, then they have to use scopolamine. It seems that ScopeDex is superior to straight scopolamine. Some persons do better with ordinary dramamine. I guess a lot of it has to do with your personal chemistry.
May 16th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Michel’s right–it was all his idea, putting my ridiculous name on the bottle. I first encountered this in a piece I wrote for Men’s Health many years ago, but I’ll be damned if I can remember the source.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I was in Uncle Sam’s Confused Group from 1985 to 1990, and around ‘87 or so, they did indeed introduce a two-pill “cocktail” of nausea suppressant and stimulant for those prone to seasickness. I don’t recall the specific combination, being blessed with an iron stomach that only rebelled in the most extreme conditions, but “ephedrine” sounds right for the stimulant. I do remember someone saying (inaccurately, but close enough for government work) that it was “like the stuff in Sudafed”.
And, yes, Coasties need seasickness pills, but it’s not a slur against them: it’s our JOB to go out into the worst weather conditions possible, to rescue folks who shouldn’t be out there. The Navy steers AROUND storms; the Coast Guard steers INTO them.
Let me state for the record that if you spend 20 hours in 20-foot seas in a 44-foot boat on an irregular basis, you WILL call Ralph about a Buick at least once or twice. The question is whether or not you let it STOP you. One of the finest coxswains I knew had one of the weakest stomachs, but it never slowed him down, even when the boat he was piloting was rolling severely. The “Coast Guard Cocktail” was a godsend for him.
It’s possible that they’d discontinued it by the time Arkonbey had joined; I also seem to recall someone saying that they were “trying out this new thing”.
Semper Paratus!
May 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am
…or it might have been Scope-Dex.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 am
The reason for the use of the cocktail (mentioned around hour 10 I believe since the craziness began) is that he spent over 24 hours just ‘observing.’ In fact, it’s only at well past hour 39 that he actually goes into action, so even with a sedating effect he’s got the advantage over his targets, both physically and mentally.
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