Posted on 05/29/2013 5:04:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In an effort to gain a greater buzz for fewer calories, some young drinkers are inhaling their liquor - either pouring it over dry ice or 'freebasing' it and sucking up the vapors. Either way, going around the stomach and liver is incredibly risky, doctors say.
Allen isn't the only one inhaling his drink. A smattering of YouTube videos depicts the trend mostly among young men, some of whom boast about the extreme nature of the high.
In January, Chicago bar Red Kiva hosted a "freebasing alcohol" event featuring a device called the Vaportini, which retails for $30 plus shipping. Users heat a small amount of alcohol in a glass ball over a tea light, then suck the resulting vapors through a straw.
Inhaling alcohol is an insidious trend, particularly among college students who may be looking for more extreme ways to get high, said Dr. Harris Stratyner, regional clinical vice president of Caron Treatment Centers in New York. He has also seen it gain popularity among college-age men and women who may restrict calories before a night of partying - what's popularly known as "drunkorexia."
Whether it's "smoked" using dry ice or inhaled as a vapor, consuming alcohol in this way is "unbelievably dangerous," Stratyner said.
YouTube videos like this clip from Nub TV depict young men attempting the trend and reveling in the 'extreme' high.
"When you inhale alcohol, it goes directly into the lungs and circumnavigates the liver," he told the Daily News. "The liver is what metabolizes alcohol, but when you inhale it, it goes directly from the lungs to the brain."
The lungs and mucous membranes are extremely sensitive to alcohol, Stratyner said, and inhaling alcoholic vapor may dry out the nasal passages and mouth, leaving users more vulnerable to infection.
Additionally, inhaling alcohol can lead to deadly alcohol poisoning more readily than sipping your drink.
"One of the things that prevents alcohol poisoning is that you usually vomit," Stratyner said. "When you circumvent the stomach and go straight to the lungs, you don't have that ability."
Stratyner first saw the trend pop up in 2004 and said it has escalated in the past year and a half.
"This is a stupid, highly dangerous thing to do," he said. "The fact that youngsters in particular can purchase the equipment for a relatively cheap price...this has to be made illegal."
Really?....
Wait until they rediscover the alcohol enema....
Idiots will “huff” anything......Gasoline, lighter fluid, chemicals of all sorts......just for a buzz...
It’s how the Darwin principle keeps the planet as tidy as possible but it takes far too long...
ping
Ian Flemming’s Vesper Martini:
3 shots Gordon’s
1 shot 100 proof Vodka
1/2 shot Blonde Lillet
Combine, shake over ice
Serve with a large, thin slice of lemon peel.
Pretty good stuff, but I wouldn’t want to even THINK about inhaling it!!
I’d have about nineteen brain aneurisms!
(It’s actually better if you stir the above recipe.
More potent -not as watered down with the ice.)
Don’t. Just drink. And eat. Steak and stuff.
Alcohol enema’s is Darwinian justice. Cleans the gene pool out. Long trip on a short road.
Or Ether... which is pretty much exactly the same general anesthetic as ethyl alcohol. That's why alcoholics were nearly impossible to anesthetize safely using ether back in the day... the safety margin between unconsciousness and death was just too small because of their tolerance for the drug.
It's also VERY explosive... one static spark and your a crispy critter.
I know it exists, what I meant was wait until it becomes the new widespread ‘fad’.
Butt chugging...LOL!
Stupid, highly dangerous things should remain legal if they only affect the Darwin candidate.
/johnny
Only.
/johnny
Heh heh. If you hadn’t mentioned that...
I was gonna.
(Not that I have any first hand experience or anything.)
I have in all honesty considered getting “Do Not Enter” tattooed tramp stamp style.
Just to upset the rectumsexuals.
I think I would take the alcohol enema over snorting alcohol fumes a choice I’m sure I’ll never have to take. The best way to get a buzz and save calories is just simply not eat all day... two birds with one stone.
/johnny
Why not? Laws have worked so well in the past. /s
i bet this thread takes off. And I am not even under the affluence of inkcohol to recognize it.
Having Chrons Disease, I have a lifelong ‘ass’ociation with GI docs. When I was 17 my doctor was a young woman ... which as you can imagine, made for some rather less than manly moments during the colonoscopies...
One day I looked her straight in the face and said “I’ll never be gay”.
The woman about wet herself laughing ;)
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