Strange, dangerous and even horrifying trends are nothing new to alcohol-crazed teens. The latest—using hand sanitizer to create a substitute for hard liquor—isn’t even surprising. After six teens from San Fernando Valley, Calif. were hospitalized in the past few weeks, doctors and authorities across the U.S. have taken it upon themselves to warn parents of the dangers of keeping hand sanitizer in their houses.
The trend is, quite frankly, laughable. After all, the image of an underage kid squirting smelly gel into their mouth does not inspire serious thought. At least when cough syrup was trending the product was meant to be ingested. But using a cleaning product? It sounds neither appetizing nor safe, perhaps because it’s not.
Officials say the trend is more dangerous than the typical shot of liquor not only because of other chemicals mixed into hand sanitizer, as one would expect, but due to the intensity of the drink. Liquid hand sanitizers are usually 62 percent ethyl alcohol which, according to officials at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, results in a concoction around 120 proof. Compare this to the average shot of vodka, which is only 80 proof, it is easy to imagine why so many kids have been hospitalized. A few sips yield a very drunk teenager.
In California alone, 2,600 cases of overdose due to hand sanitizer have been recorded since 2010. A meek number to be sure, but a growing one. While hand sanitizer usage is not exactly popular at UW-Madison yet, with parties like Mifflin and Halloween drawing hundreds of minors to the city, one can expect it will find its way here eventually.
Part of the reason hand sanitizer is becoming so popular is because it is so easily accessed and it can’t really be regulated by authorities. If a teen walks into a drugstore and buys a few bottles of cough syrup, it raises heads, but two jumbo jugs of hand sanitizer barely attract attention. The instructions for distilling hand sanitizer can be found online, though some kids simply drink it straight from the bottle, so there are very few barriers a motivated teen will meet. There is no need for fake ID, theft or illegal purchases. This means the issue is left to minors’ common sense, which seems to be failing them presently.
All of this asks the question: why are teens going to such extremes for a drink? A big part of the problem is the taboo of alcohol: the way parents so easily say ‘no’ and dismiss the problem as if does not exist. Kids cannot be open about alcohol consumption, therefore conversations about safety are not happening as frequently as they should. For years there have been petitioners and lobbyists begging for a lowered drinking age, citing issues like this one as grounds to change the limit. It is possible this new trend is, in fact, a sign that we should.
Making alcohol legal to a broader range of ages would diminish the attraction of drinking and encourage safer usage. As most of us Badgers know, underage drinking happens all the time and people are less likely to seek medical attention or report crimes for fear of a citation. While there are laws in place to protect victims who engage in underage drinking, the fear still exists, and there are still more dangers out there.
Many underage drinkers maintain the “take what you can get” mentality, accepting literally whatever alcoholic beverage is offered to them and drinking as much as they possibly can. Poor decisions are made and oftentimes teens are left with regrets. If the drinking age were lowered, the novelty of alcohol would be lessened, if not eliminated completely, and many youths would not go out and party as hard as they do now. In any case, as a college campus resident, it seems as if there are more important things for the police force to focus on than crashing parties and ticketing underage students.
Kate is a freshman majoring in English and Spanish. Please send all letters and feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
