Cheese (recreational drug)

Cheese is a heroin-based recreational drug that surfaced in the United States in 2005 and came to the media's attention after a string of deaths among adolescents in Dallas County, Texas.

Cheese is formed by combining heroin with crushed tablets of certain over-the-counter cold medication, such as Tylenol PM. Such a cold medication contains acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, and the antihistamine diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl. Cheese may contain a 2% to 8% heroin purity level; an 8% purity level is, in some cases, enough to start an addiction in a user of Cheese. The powder is snorted instead of being injected.