Determined to get around bans on alcohol aerosolizers, young people are snorting vodka, a so-called “Chilly Willy” that experts say could kill.
“Some young drinkers are snorting vodka through the nose to get drunk more quickly in a new fad that can be very dangerous. Simply put, the alcohol goes directly to the brain, rather than being absorbed by the liver,” said Michael Gimbel, drug addictions educator with Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore City.
The phenomenon has spread through videos on the YouTube file-sharing site and Buzzfeed, and according to one BBC report, bartenders in Derby, England, saw patrons get so drunk they passed out almost immediately after snorting.
“While we aren?t sure how much is being done here in Maryland or the U.S., we need to educate the public and the bars about the dangers,” Gimbel said.
Depending on how persistent the drinker ? or snorter ? is, it could be fatal, said Dr. Christopher Welsh, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and an addictions specialist at the university?s medical center.
“It?s a much quicker way of getting a huge concentration of alcohol to your brain,” he said
“The trick would be keeping it in your nose long enough for it to be absorbed.”
More likely, he said, young people are jumping on the bandwagon as a test of machismo.
Welsh, Gimbel and others in the field have confronted many similar fads in the past ? alcohol inhalers have been banned in most states, and drinking hand sanitizer for the ethyl alcohol content landed at least one Maryland inmate in the hospital.
“Once it?s on YouTube, it can spread very quickly,” Welsh said.
