Really upset about a new trend for getting high in teens

[oystergirl]

I just wanted to post this here and get it out of my system because I am simply overrwhelmed with sadness. A friend of mine is a community ambulance volunteer along with being a nurse and she told me today that 8 kids died this weekend in my town. Two died of heroine and xanax over dose but 6 died from a new phenomenon called Butt Chugging.

This bizarre technique involves soaking a tampon with distilled alcohol, like vodka and inserting into the vagina or anus. The alcohol goes directly into the blood stream, bypassing the liver and the idea is to get very high without all those calories.

Six kids. Dead. Because none of them had proper ID's their parents did not know they were dead right away. These are all children under the age of 21.

Please. Talk to your kids about the rammifications of drug use. BE honest with them. They can tell when you are sparying them with platitudes. I have an open line of communication with my two daughters and they know what I have done and have not done and I know what they are up to, no judgement, just honesty. It is hard, certainly...it can be awkward and uncomfortable, but it is so important...because unless you talk to them, they are gonna listen to what their friend's say. Certainly no one says, yeah, this will get you high but there is a 90% chance you are gonna die from it...

ACCKKKK.....thanks for letting me vent...you may have a different attitude about it, and that is your choice...I am simply sad as hell...

[morethanjustamom]

Good Lord! That's scary. Who thinks up this stuff?

[Arigh]

Ah, this is unfortunately not a new thing. People also do it by putting alcohol in their eyes, or a funnel of beer into their anus.

It's not just the bypass of calories people go for, it's the speed at which they can get drunk. Since it bypasses the liver, it's an immediate effect, rather than having to wait. And since it bypasses the liver, you can get alcohol poisoning incredibly easily, but the kids doing it don't realize this.

[Shpongle Spores]

I'll be the first to say that I've used abused some pretty bad substances in my lifetime, but who would ever want to do some of these things? Pouring a shot into your eye? And I don't know why you'd ever wanna stick something up your bum to get high. It's a shame that I'M so disappointed in this behavior I can't even understand it.

[CalvinHobbes]

This is terrible. The middle school in my hometown had an issue with it a few years back, where students did this before going into school. Luckily one was caught by a teacher and all the kids survived, but it's still so terrible.

I hope the families of these children are okay and your town can get through it. It's so, so sad.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Heard about it a couple years back. It's actually covered in the drug and alcohol section of some public school health classes down in SE PA now.

[Waldo]

This will be hard one day with the kids as dad did a thing or two....

Though we didn't really do weird stuff. What is wrong with kids these days, can't they just smoke pot and eat mushrooms? (tongue in cheek, they are just as illegal, but on a danger scale I'd far rather my kids be smoking pot than drinking).

[saretta]

Wow, that is so disheartening. I had heard of the vodka tampon, but not that it could be fatal. I will have to starting talking about this stuff with my sons...

[Morrigainz]

Waldo, I feel the same way! Heck I might even smoke with them! (Mostly joking.)

Seriously it is so sad that these kids are so uneducated that they do these kinds of things to themselves.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

This will be hard one day with the kids as dad did a thing or two....

Though we didn't really do weird stuff. What is wrong with kids these days, can't they just smoke pot and eat mushrooms? (tongue in cheek, they are just as illegal, but on a danger scale I'd far rather my kids be smoking pot than drinking).

This is why I argue for its legalization.

[LRB]

Ugh. So sad. And thanks for the heads-up; I talk to my kids about drinking, but it never occurred to me that I should talk to them about "absorption" too.

(side note: did you know there is no lethal dose of LSD?)

[Waldo]

(side note: did you know there is no lethal dose of LSD?)

You'd have to be crazy to try....

LSD and its close relatives mushrooms have the rather interesting effects of not working the next day and being totally non-addictive, and being so damn powerful that people are afraid to do a lot simply for sanity's sake.

This is why I argue for its legalization.

I think that most younger people do too. Whereas it isn't the case as much with the 50+ crowd, most younger people realize that alcohol, which is perfectly legal, is a far, far, far worse and more dangerous drug. Too much alcohol can lead to a trip to the ER, too much pot leads to Papa Johns and falling asleep on the couch. And when it comes to addiction, there really is no comparison. Driving under the influence is totally wrong, again here though there is no comparison, alcohol is so much worse it isn't even funny.

[aj_rock]

Tons of drugs out there that don't have nearly the capacity for damage that alcohol does.

Don't know if you know the same 50+ year olds that I do Waldo... or maybe it's just Canadia/my city being total potheads.

[Waldo]

Tons of drugs out there that don't have nearly the capacity for damage that alcohol does.

Don't know if you know the same 50+ year olds that I do Waldo... or maybe it's just Canadia/my city being total potheads.

It seems the older people are, the less the people who don't know much about it know. Most who grew up in the 70's and later seem to have a decent understanding of it, whether or not they did it, which doesn't tend to be the case at all for those older, who can be ridiculously ignorant on the subject.

[WizardTrip]

Wow! Never heard of this. Things that people are capable of coming up with can sometimes baffle me, and I'm not exactly innocent by a stretch. Just makes me curious who was the first to come up with it and try it! Almost sounds like some form of hazing at a fraternity....hell, come to think of it, that may even be how something like this began.

In the end, could not agree more. These kids died because they obviously didn't have an actual understanding of alcohol poisoning. So sad!

[shutterpillar]

This is ridiculous. I was a pretty wild teenager, but I don't think I would have ever gone to those type of (embarrassing) lengths just for a quick high. It seems to me like it might be pretty awkward to sit around with a group of friends that you know are all sitting there with tampons in their bums.

P.S. - I am another supporter of legalization of marijuana. It just completely baffles me that alcohol is perfectly legal, but marijuana isn't.

[Bumblebee4]

Waldo, I feel the same way! Heck I might even smoke with them! (Mostly joking.)

Not that I'm taking you really serioius Mir but as a parent of an adult child now I can say that my son, who still loves his pot, never got into anything stronger because every time he lit up he felt he was rebelling against his parent. Whereas the kids he smoked with as a teenager and the parents either smoked with them or allowed all the kids to gather in the garage to smoke, those kids in general went on to do much harder drugs because it was what it took to be a rebel. Kids have to rebel during their teens and the more you condone the harder they have to reach for a shock value.

Just my 2 cents.

[killerBsaturn]

Surprized you people believe this crap. http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/vodka.asp

[Shortkaik]

Not that I'm taking you really serioius Mir but as a parent of an adult child now I can say that my son, who still loves his pot, never got into anything stronger because every time he lit up he felt he was rebelling against his parent. Whereas the kids he smoked with as a teenager and the parents either smoked with them or allowed all the kids to gather in the garage to smoke, those kids in general went on to do much harder drugs because it was what it took to be a rebel. Kids have to rebel during their teens and the more you condone the harder they have to reach for a shock value.

Just my 2 cents.

This is an interesting point. Although I'm not sure I'd say kids have to rebel, I do think it depends on the kids/adults/their relationship. I didn't really rebel as a kid/teen. Seeing how alcohol/drug use affected those very close to me was enough to know that rebelling in that kind of way just wasn't worth it to me.

[LRB]

Surprized you people believe this crap. http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/vodka.asp

Why wouldn't we? Came from a longtime, active forum member with a friend who seems to have had first-hand experience. Is it possible the kids got the idea from some urban legend, and made it reality?

Hey, Oystergirl, was your friend involved in any of the attempts to treat or revive the teens? Or was this one of those friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend things that can get passed around a community? It'd be great if you don't need to be as upset/worried as you are.

[andygates]

Surprized you people believe this crap. http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/vodka.asp

So Oyster, did you get pwned or are you trolling us?

[shutterpillar]

Surprized you people believe this crap. http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/vodka.asp

I am not sure if this method actually works or not... never tried it. BUT teenagers might think it does, and they WILL try it. Hence the reason for oystergirl's post... this happened in her neighborhood. It DOES happen and teens WILL try it if they think it will get them drunk. I dont know whether they died of alcohol poisoning or something else related to this method of trying to get drunk, but the point is they did die, according to Oystergirl's friend. And for me, that is enough reason to talk to my kids about what a dumb idea it is when they are old enough for these talks. (Right now they are only 4 and 6).

[shutterpillar]

And hopefully I will have raised my kids well enough that they will know that sticking an alcohol-soaked tampon in your a** is just a bad idea in general.

[Tiara]

Disgusting!!!The world is pretty screwed up!!

[katscratch]

I've talked to my kiddo about the effects of all sorts of things on our bodies since before he could speak, because for me it's not about "drugs" but making good choices period. This food gives you energy, that food tastes good but you'll feel like crap, soda is teh evil but delicious etc etc. As he's gotten older we've talked about the physiological effects of different drugs on the body from caffeine to NSAIDs to meth, and the times I've drank more than I should have I've been very detailed in how I feel. An unintended side effect of these conversations when he was younger was essays for grade school titled things like "My Mom The Coffee Monster" and when hearing the Bloody Mary ghost story for the first time blurting out "That is SO not a TRUE story, everybody knows Bloody Mary is a drink!" ....he also was the kid in his first "sex ed" class that brought up his disappointment that they discussed male anatomy in its entirety but not female "Um shouldn't girls know they have more than a vagina, I mean the clitoris seems pretty important"

This is obviously just my opinion, but I feel like we should talk about ALL that stuff: making it taboo until a certain age or making it a Subject i.e. The Sex Talk gives it more power and makes it more likely kids will turn to their peers for more information. I used age-appropriate language, but no subject has ever been off limits. Some of this "working" is definitely due to my kiddo's personality, but a little bit is that I set the precedent for honest dialogue a long time ago. That's ME, though, and my n=1 kid. I'm definitely the weirdo in my peer group when it comes to parenting choices, and they are absolutely making their best choices for their own families