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Smoking Alcohol is a thing

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http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/05/smoking-alcohol-the-dangerous-way-people-are-getting-drunk/


Smoking Alcohol: The Dangerous Way People Are Getting Drunk

Whatever happened to taking shots? Any sort of excessive drinking is dangerous, be it via beer bongs or pouring shots into the eye socket. But now some drinkers are taking it even further and “smoking” alcohol. The questionable practice, which has potentially scary consequences, has various permutations.

An individual can pour alcohol over dry ice and inhale it directly or with a straw, or make a DIY vaporizing kit using bike pumps. The alcohol of choice is poured into a bottle, the bottle is corked, and the bicycle pump needle is poked through the top of the cork. Air is pumped into the bottle to vaporize the alcohol, and the user inhales.

In 2004, the U.S. saw a brief emergence of the trend with the availability of the AWOL (Alcohol Without Liquid) device, but the product was quickly banned in the U.S. and lost its following.

Nearly a decade later, clinicians are seeing evidence that the practice is gaining some traction — and not just among college kids and adolescent risk-takers. It’s popular among people who want to lose weight and don’t want the calories that come from consuming alcohol. “People think it is a great way to get the effects of alcohol without gaining the weight because alcohol has an enormous amount of empty calories. You can’t be ingesting a lot of alcohol if you’re on a diet and want to lose weight,” says Dr. Deni Carise, the deputy chief clinical officer at CRC Health Group, a treatment and educational program provider for individuals struggling with behavioral issues, chemical dependency and eating disorders. “I think adolescents are also particularly susceptible to this because it is novel and exciting.”

In Fox’s KCTV-5 coverage of the trend, a North Texas man, Broderic Allen, says he stopped drinking to lose 80 pounds and started smoking alcohol to avoid calories:

When alcohol vapor is inhaled, it goes straight from the lungs to the brain and bloodstream, getting the individual drunk very quickly. Because the alcohol bypasses the stomach and liver, it isn’t metabolized, and the alcohol doesn’t lose any of its potency.

Drinkers feel the effects almost instantly, but the risks are also much higher. People who smoke their alcohol are at a much greater risk of getting alcohol poisoning and potentially overdosing. When people drink too much alcohol, they tend to vomit. Getting sick is one of the ways that prevents an alcohol overdose, but when alcohol circumvents the stomach and liver, the body can’t expel it.

It’s also much harder to know just how much alcohol you’re consuming in one sitting if you’re not stringently measuring. If a cup of alcohol is poured into a bottle and then vaporized, the drinker cannot tell if they are inhaling a few sips or the whole cup, since the liquid remains in the bottle.

“It’s also terrible for your lungs and nasal passages,” says Carise. “Your lungs are not meant to inhale something that can turn back into a liquid. When you think of liquid in the lungs, you think of drowning.”

The prevalence of the trend is unclear, since there are no current studies tracking the cases, says Carise. But like other drinking fads, YouTube videos of drinkers inhaling and smoking alcohol have increasingly popped up online.

The trend is also picking up in the bar scene, with vaporizing methods like the Vaportini, which is legally sold in all 50 states. The site boasts: “This has the advantage of no calories; no carbs, no impurities and the effects of consuming alcohol are immediately felt, making it easier to responsibly imbibe.”

Fortunately, these beverages are usually consumed in a wide glass, so the effect is not as concentrated, says Carise. Still, she finds the concept disturbing. “It is amazing what our culture will do to get drunk,” she says.

Youtube
 
If you light a shot of ~80 proof alcohol on fire and use an upside down wine glass to catch the fumes then quickly cover the opening with a paper napkin, you can puncture the paper napkin with a straw to snort the fumes and get fucked up faster.

Y'all is welcome.
 

sangreal

Member
Getting drunk without the calories sounds very relevant to my interests

e: just ordered a vaportini; thanks OP

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butt chugging, injecting alcohol, and drinking it out of someone else's ass have inhaling pretty much beat down as horribly bad ways to ingest.

We forgot about eye shots. I'd inhale over doing an eye shot any day.

Now there's a great thread of what would you rather: Butt chug or eye shot? Gotta pick one.
 

odiin

My Apartment, or the 120 Screenings of Salo
So what happens to the liquid? Does that evaporate too, or is it just the alcohol content? If I smoked a Hendrick's and then had someone drink it, would it pretty much just be Juniper flavoured water?
 

TxdoHawk

Member
I have a Vaportini. I'd be genuinely impressed if someone could overdose using one of these things. A couple of things to note:

- Half a shot of alcohol produces a ton of vapor. It's not like you can just take one quick hit of it and ingest an entire shot's worth of alcohol at once. If you were really, really aggressive, you might finish that half a shot's worth of vapor in 10 minutes, and it wouldn't be pleasant.

- The effect is pretty mild compared to the traditional methods of getting drunk. You feel relaxed and mellow, kind of "loose"...and it wears off very quickly.
 
I have a Vaportini. I'd be genuinely impressed if someone could overdose using one of these things. A couple of things to note:

- Half a shot of alcohol produces a ton of vapor. It's not like you can just take one quick hit of it and ingest an entire shot's worth of alcohol at once. If you were really, really aggressive, you might finish that half a shot's worth of vapor in 10 minutes, and it wouldn't be pleasant.

- The effect is pretty mild compared to the traditional methods of getting drunk. You feel relaxed and mellow, kind of "loose"...and it wears off very quickly.

Do you use yours often?

I just have a hard to imagine these being any more than an occasional novelty. Something fun to show people every now and again, but for your general casual drinking....I'd feel dorky pulling this thing out everytime I had friends over. I can't see it being as big of a problem as that news story makes it out to be.
 
Thought the thread title meant they were cold smiking alcohol to impart a smoky flavor. I'm disappointed.

Considering I actually like the taste of most liquors this kind of misses the point for me.
 

Menelaus

Banned
This is a pretty old practice...at least I've known about it for a few years. The concept of vaping around here is actually pretty widespread.

It's an amazing feeling. You go from completely sober to drunk off your fucking ass in seconds...then back to completely sober in minutes.
 

RobotHaus

Unconfirmed Member
Why not just give blood then go drinking? Less blood means less alcohol needed to get drunk! Plus helping out people.

But dang, what's so boring about everyone that we have to keep putting crap in us to have fun? I mean we're getting to the point where we're trying to efficiently get messed.
 

Menelaus

Banned
Why not just give blood then go drinking? Less blood means less alcohol needed to get drunk! Plus helping out people.

But dang, what's so boring about everyone that we have to keep putting crap in us to have fun? I mean we're getting to the point where we're trying to efficiently get messed.

Dang, ancient Egypt, why you got wine?
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
I want to do this. I don't understand the no calories aspect of it. Doesn't alcohol transfer into your blood before it's used as energy? Isn't smoking it making it go from your lungs to your blood?
 

xenist

Member
First of all, mad props to the "Ewww alcohol, get high on life" brigade. My first laugh of the day.

Second, drink like men you fucking pussies.
 

KPJZKC

Member
This was a growing trend in the UK like 12 years ago, I remember having to do an article on it shortly before my GCSE's.

Have always meant to build a vaporiser, but never got around to it/was afraid of blowing up my apartment.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Hell yeah. Drinking that weed and smoking that beer.

lol last weekend a buddy of mine was showing me that he actually did make a weed drink. Something about soaking an ounce of really good weed in vegetable glycerine for a long time (like 2 months) and then heating it up. I didn't want to try it though.
 
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