Hand Sanitizer Mix Gets Student Suspended

[pstokely]

Source: KMBC

OAK GROVE, Mo. -- A high school freshman from Oak Grove is in hot water with police and his school for the way he was using hand sanitizer.
There have been reports and YouTube videos from across the country of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer. Poison control centers have described the trend as dangerous, saying it could lead to alcohol poisoning, seizures and unconsciousness.
Police said a teacher saw an Oak Grove student mixing a generic hand sanitizer with water. The teacher took the student straight to the office, where he was suspended. Police are looking into the case.
"We're looking at a referral to the Eastern Jackson County Youth Court for (being a) minor in possession," said Oak Grove Police Chief Robert Muenz. "Understand that it's not right. It's unhealthy. It's not safe."
"It's just Germ-X. They say it's like having alcohol," said a fellow student, who wished not to be identified.



Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/news/31044805/detail.html#ixzz1uWBMmujn

[elleng]

1. 'Minor in possession of hand sanitizer!'

IDJOTS!

[MrSlayer]

2. Weed is cheap.

Why the hell are these idiots drinking hand sanitizer? I don't get people.

[Confusious]

3. Not everyone likes smoking weed nt

[MrSlayer]

6. Then make some cookies or something.

Even a bottle of MadDog would be cheaper.

[reACTIONary]

8. I haven't looked into it, but I bet...

...they aren't. My intuition is that this is more of a sensationalist media rumor and "moral panic". After one or two more news cycles no one will mention it ever again.

[MrSlayer]

10. I asked my kids about it and they said it goes on.

It seems to be the latest fad. They think it's stupid too.

[reACTIONary]

11. Pretty dumb, and a bit dangerious too. Back when I was in highschool...

... there were kids who used to drink NyQuil. Stupidity seems to be a renewable resource.

[Posteritatis]

13. It pretty much is. Seen it come up once or twice, always with lots of vague hearsay. (nt)

[uppityperson]

4. Some types alcohol are deadly in small amounts. Methanol changes into formaldehyde in the body.

1986 back a barrel of it washed up on a beach in Wainwright, AK. Some kids found it, took it to a party. I think several of them died.

It wasn't funny then and not funny now.

[W T F]

5. If they can charge him with minor in possession of alcohol,..........

Can't they also charge the school with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile?

[lastlib]

7. DAY-um! Right in my home town!!!

I'll have to look into this some more! Day-um!

[jtuck004]

9. "... In a nutshell, hand sanitizers like Purell

have a single active ingredient – ethanol. At 62% alcohol, the rest of the product consists of scents and gelling agents. This is why they leave the hands dry after use – the alcohol evaporates. By adding salt to the gel, the alcohol precipitates out and can be extracted. What results is a (mostly) alcohol solution at about 120 proof – enough to get a teenager a buzz.

The attraction, besides the cool science (salt extraction and filtering) is the legal nature of hand sanitizers. No one checks ID for purchase. The downside, which teens might not realize, is that all alcohols are not created equally. The alcohol used in hand sanitizers is denatured – it has additives meant to make someone sick if they drink enough of it. And in some sanitizers, not all the alcohol is of the drinking variety. Some include a mix of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol – one test using the method found 10% isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) in the extract.

Finally, the reason this all came to light was a spate of poisonings from alcohol in California. Apparently, five teens hit on this method and drank the result, ending up with a visit to the emergency room. Five isn’t a trend ...".

http://www.12step.com/news/alcohol/hand-sanitizers-and-alcohol-abuse

___

This is a harmful substance, clearly. Their response to him poisoning himself - he didn't JUST make beer, that stuff is intended to hurt you so you won't kill yourself with it - is to put him in juvie? If he shot himself, would they hang him?

How about treating him for what ails him? Maybe he really sucks at scoring weed, needs a part-time job to pay for beer, or maybe he was just an experimenting kid. Or maybe he has been bullied and this was the result?

I fail to see how jail is appropriate for the victim of any case of poisoning, unless the purpose is simply to assert authority. That moves the problem out-of-sight instead of working to solve it.

[surrealAmerican]

12. It certainly is "unhealthy" and "not safe" ...

... but it is not illegal. Kids do plenty of stupid things, but that doesn't mean they should be charged with a crime.


Kids mostly do things like this because the safer options ARE illegal.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. "Kids mostly do things like this because the safer options ARE illegal."

Exactly.