Lean or purple drank is a polysubstance drink used as a recreational drug. It is prepared by mixing prescription-grade cough or cold syrup containing an opioid drug and an anti-histamine drug with a soft drink and sometimes hard candy. The beverage originated in Houston as early as the 1960s and is popular in hip hop culture, especially within the Southern United States. Codeine/promethazine syrup is usually used to make lean, but other syrups are used.
Lean (drug)
Ingredients for creating lean, including codeine-promethazine cough syrup, Jolly Rancher candies, and Sprite. Note the label on the bottled syrup, printed with instructions on how to prepare the lean. Some of the syrup has been decanted into a plastic container.
A spoonful of promethazine/codeine syrup showing the characteristic purple color
In 2019, rapper Future publicly spoke about quitting lean after learning about how his music influenced teenagers to try the drug.
Polysubstance use or poly drug use refers to the use of combined psychoactive substances. Polysubstance use may be used for entheogenic, recreational, or off-label indications, with both legal and illegal substances. In many cases one drug is used as a base or primary drug, with additional drugs to leaven or compensate for the side effects, or tolerance, of the primary drug and make the experience more enjoyable with drug synergy effects, or to supplement for primary drug when supply is low.
Polysubstance use
Ayahuasca being prepared in the Napo region of Ecuador
A spoonful of promethazine/codeine cough syrup showing the characteristic purple color that gave rise to the name purple drank.
Tranquillizers, sleeping pills, opiates and alcohol. Opioid-related deaths often involve alcohol.
