A 14-year-old student at Killian Middle School in Lewisville picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer from the desk of his reading teacher, rubbed the gel on his hands, and then smelled it. According to the teacher, he "inhaled heavily."
The student said he sniffed it because it "smelled good." But the school authorities claimed he sniffed it because he was trying to get high. They gave him an in-school suspension, and then proceeded to file criminal charges against him.
WFAA.com reports:
Joni Eddy, assistant police chief in Lewisville, said Friday that hand sanitizer has become a popular inhalant. "That is the latest thing to huff," she said.
She said officers felt they were acting properly when they pursued the case against Mr. Ortiz's son under a complex state statute governing volatile chemicals that could be abused.
"The charge said he was using the product other than its intended use," she said. "Huffing hand sanitizer is certainly using it for something other than its intended use."
Hand sanitizers usually contain a high percentage of ethyl alcohol, a flammable liquid used in a wide range of industrial products and alcoholic beverages.
Thankfully, common sense eventually prevailed and prosecutors dropped the charges. As far as I know, it's not possible to get high by "huffing hand sanitizer." Unless, perhaps, you were to do it to the point that it deprived you of enough oxygen. I'm not sure what strange rumors the police were believing when they pursued this case. The WFAA article includes a statement from the National Institute on Drug Abuse debunking the hand-sanitizer-huffing rumor:
Shirley Simson, a spokeswoman for the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington, said in an e-mail that the agency had no data about hand sanitizers being abused as inhalants. She noted, however, that there have been news reports of some people drinking hand sanitizers for their alcohol content.
It reminds me of the recent
Jenkem scare, in which Florida police issued a bulletin warning that local kids were getting high by sniffing the fermenting gas from human sewage.
Comments
The whole thing is blatantly ridiculous, almost as bad as the 'kids-are-taking-cough-syrup-to-get-high!' story (God forbid a kid might have a cough and need syrup). Some adults seem to think that all kids do is try to get high all the time, and that must be stopped!
Besides, you get a far bigger hit off smelling those markers they use on whiteboards!
Huh? That is all they do! At least, it's all I did...
Seriously, though - it's perfectly plausible that the kid really was trying to get a high. Just because it's not possible doesn't mean he knew that. Dried banana skins, anyone?
Hand sanitizers are one of those huge cons, like bottled water, where somebody's gotten rich by creating a nonexistent "need" for something everybody got along without until now. They don't get your hands any cleaner than washing them with soap and water.
As stated before by someone...I never heard of anyone getting high from rubbing alcohol.
some people seem more affected by fumes than others- personally sniffing sanitizer gives me a headache but one of my tablemates loves it.
sanitizers harmless, but you know what they say... all kids think about is sex and getting high.
Personally, i am more likely to be researching for senior prank :coolsmirk: and it will NOT be planting a garden.
but i will remember not to do it infront of my teacher....😊hehe but i wonder what happens if you drink it....lol....will you get really high or drunk???
On the other hand, saying some kid is going to 'huff' hand sanitizer is absolutely ridiculous. I really question how in touch with reality the staff of this school must be... Not to mention that people seem to fail to understand that while occasional use of hand sanitizer is beneficial, its constant use will be, in the long run, much more dangerous... just wait until it force evolves a bacteria resistant to sanitizers... just saying.