Lean is thought to have developed in
Houston around the 1960s, when
blues musicians would take
Robitussin and cut it with
beer. Later, when
wine coolers came onto the market, they substituted for beer. Codeine-based cough syrups were also turned to as an alternative to
pentazocine/tripelennamine ("T's and blues") after the pharmaceutical industry added
naloxone to its constituent drugs, effectively blocking their potential for abuse. Lean remained a local phenomenon in Houston until the 1990s, when the American rapper
DJ Screw released several tunes mentioning the drink in his
mixtapes, which were extremely popular in the Houston area.
Popularization publicly spoke about quitting lean after learning about how his music influenced teenagers to try the drug. Houston producer DJ Screw popularized the concoction, which is widely attributed as a source of inspiration for the
chopped-and-screwed style of
hip hop music. where musician
Big Hawk said it was consumed as early as the 1960s and 1970s, becoming more widely used in the early 1990s. Because of usage by rap artists in Houston, it became more popular in the 1990s. Its use later spread to
other States in the South. In 2004, the
University of Texas at Austin found that 8.3% of
secondary school students in
Texas had taken codeine syrup to get high.
Notable incidents of use DJ Screw, who popularized the codeine-based drink, died of a codeine–promethazine, Valium, and PCP overdose on November 16, 2000, several months after the video of
Three 6 Mafia's single debuted.
Big Moe, a DJ Screw protégé whose albums
City of Syrup and
Purple World were based on the drink and who has been described as having "rapped obsessively about the drug", died at age 33 on October 14, 2007, after suffering a
heart attack one week earlier that left him in a
coma. There was speculation that lean may have contributed to his death.
Pimp C, a widely influential rapper from
Port Arthur, Texas, and member of the rap duo
UGK, was found dead on December 4, 2007, at the
Mondrian Hotel in
West Hollywood, California. The
Los Angeles County Coroner's Office reported that the rapper's death was "due to promethazine-codeine effects and other unestablished factors." Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Coroner's Office, said the levels of the medication were elevated, but not enough to deem the death an overdose. However, Pimp C had a history of
sleep apnea, a condition that causes one to stop breathing for short periods during sleep. A spokesman for the coroner's office said that the combination of sleep apnea and cough medication probably suppressed Pimp C's breathing long enough to bring on his death. In September 2006,
Terrence Kiel, a
San Diego Chargers player, was arrested during practice for the possession with intent to sell prescription cough syrup for use in making the drink. Kiel was caught trying to ship a case of syrup to a friend via
FedEx. Kiel was charged with two felony counts of transporting a controlled substance and three counts of possession for sale of a controlled substance. On July 8, 2008,
Johnny Jolly, a
Green Bay Packers player, was pulled over in his car by the police for playing excessively loud music in a nightclub parking lot. The officers found a
Dr Pepper bottle in a holder next to two Styrofoam cups containing soda and ice. The case was dismissed, but charges were refiled in December 2009 after the Houston Police Department acquired new equipment that allowed the police to test the evidence again. Jolly faced a possible maximum sentence of up to 20 years in jail, but as a first time offender he would be eligible for
probation. On July 5, 2010, former
Oakland Raiders quarterback
JaMarcus Russell was arrested at his home in
Mobile, Alabama, for possession of codeine syrup without a prescription. He was arrested as part of an undercover narcotics investigation. Russell was booked into city jail and released soon afterwards after making his bail. On June 11, 2013, just days after being robbed at gunpoint in San Francisco, rapper
2 Chainz was arrested at
Los Angeles International Airport on charges of possessing promethazine and codeine (the primary ingredients of lean) along with
marijuana.
Mac Miller, who died of a drug overdose not involving lean, spoke openly of his addiction to lean. On April 7, 2015, Swedish rapper
Yung Lean, while living in
Miami Beach, Florida, and recording his second studio album
Warlord, was hospitalized at
Mount Sinai Medical Center due to an overdose stemming from an addiction to
Xanax,
cocaine, and lean. On December 8, 2019, American rapper
Juice WRLD died from acute
codeine and
oxycodone poisoning, just six days after turning 21. ==Commercial products==