The Dangerous Trend of Vaporizing Alcohol: Better Known to Many as "Smoking"
Smoking Alcohol
It's a dangerous new way teens and adults are getting drunk and it's going viral. It has been called different names - Vaporizing Alcohol, AWOL (Alcohol Without Liquid), or Free-basing Alcohol. You don't have to drink the booze, you inhale it. The vapors give you an instant high. This new trend is becoming known as the crack-cocaine of alcohol. Teenagers have seen it on YouTube, where hits are exploding into the millions. It's pure alcohol shooting into your brain. Here's the danger: When you drink alcohol normally, the liquor takes time to affect you, first going into your stomach, then slowly processed in your liver, and about 20 minutes later, into your bloodstream. But smoking alcohol is absorbed instantly into the lungs, racing to the brain.
How Is It Done? Currently there are three popular methods that are being used by teens and adults.
1. The first Cloud in a Bottle is done by putting a small amount of alcohol into a plastic bottle, pumping it with air, and sucking in the potent fumes. It can be done with beer, whiskey, vodka, Champagne, the list goes on. And within a few moments, you are intoxicated.
2. The second Vaportini, works by putting your alcohol into the globe, which then rests on top of the pint glass. You vaporize the alcohol by lighting a small tea light at the bottom of the pint glass and, after several minutes, inhale the booze through a straw inserted into the globe. And within a few moments you are intoxicated.
3. The third known as Free-basing, works by putting dry ice into an insulated cup. You pour the liquor over the dry ice and begin inhaling the vapors. And within a few moments, you are intoxicated.
What Doctors Say: Doctors say inhaling alcohol can poison you faster. The normal sensation when you drink and begin to get more intoxicated is to vomit. Vomiting or passing out from drinking is your body's way of preventing an overdose and expelling the alcohol. However, when you inhale alcohol, your brain has no way of expelling it. The lungs and mucous membranes are extremely sensitive to alcohol, and inhaling alcoholic vapor may dry out the nasal passages and mouth, leaving users more vulnerable to infection. Doctors say using dry ice to vaporize the alcohol could have a "toxic" effect on the lungs because of its temperature.
Myths: Teens and adults think it can help them lose weight because they are not drinking. Regardless you are consuming calories. They also believe they can hide their drunkenness from police and parents. It's in their lungs, so it's on their breath and in their blood stream. So you can get a DUI from it. Another myth out there is that smoking alcohol isn't illegal, because you're not drinking. Not true. We checked with criminal defense lawyers, no matter how you consume alcohol it is illegal if you are under 21.
Videos: We have provided a few video links that shows the trend of smoking alcohol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYEfNlMiyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofvkIKaguDg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo13L4gjFuI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTGVM2B9qjU
