Alcohol Inhalation: The Lethal Party Activity Sweeping the Nation

Have you heard about the new not-drinking game that’s sweeping the country? It’s called alcohol inhalation, and unfortunately, it can also sweep you right off your feet and into the nearest funeral home. Alcohol inhalation is hailed as a new way to get drunker faster without the dreaded calories that are contained in beer, wine, and liquor. The trend is particularly popular among young people, those who are extremely careful about their weight, and alcoholics who have eroded the lining of their stomachs. Dr. Deni Carise, the deputy chief clinical officer for the CRC Health Group, told CBS News that there are multiple ways to turn alcohol into vapor. You can drop a carbon dioxide pill into a container with alcohol, put pressurized air into a liquor bottle, or pour the drink of your choice over dry ice. Recently, the Vaportini has become easily and quite legally available online. This device, which costs about $35, heats alcohol to temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The vapor which the evaporating liquid produces can then be inhaled with a straw.

When people breathe in the alcoholic fumes, all of the alcohol goes through the lungs and directly into the blood stream; the buzz is faster and more intense. A faster buzz and no calories? Could anything be better? And if the buzz wears off faster, you can still have a great night out and sober up quickly in time to drive home, right? On the contrary, scientists warn that alcohol inhalation is extremely dangerous. First, it can severely dry out your lungs and nasal passages, making them liable to serious infection. More immediately, it carries a serious risk of overdose. It is much harder to judge how much you’ve consumed when you are breathing in your alcohol rather than drinking it. Also, because the alcohol goes into the respiratory system rather than the digestive system, your body’s natural defense mechanism – nausea and vomiting – is not triggered. Most significantly, because it bypasses the digestive system, the alcohol enters your blood stream at a far more concentrated level than it would if you were drinking it.

Steve Oberman, a Tennessee DUI attorney and guest blogger for DUInewsblog.com crunches some numbers to put the dangers of alcohol inhalation in concrete terms. Normally, three drinks – that is three beers, three shots of liquor, or three four to five ounce glasses of wine – would be enough for the average sized man to have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%, the legal definition of drunk. However, inhaling three drinks has an effect that is almost eight and a half times as powerful. Where drinking three shots of vodka would give you a BAC of 0.08%, inhaling it would give you a BAC of 0.6674%. To put this in context, a BAC of 0.35% is considered the lethal limit. Inhaling three drinks gives you two times the amount of alcohol needed for fatal alcohol poisoning. To make matters worse, many instructional websites (yes, they exist) tell potential alcohol inhalers to use 70 proof alcohol for their first hit. After inhaling the equivalent of one 70 proof alcoholic drink, you could already have a BAC of 0.2225%, nearly three times the legal limit. As Oberman rather snarkily puts it, “This stuff will put you six feet under, and not in the ‘I’m on a HBO show!’ kind of way.”

Despite these warnings, some people persist in alcohol inhalation. For many, it is an addiction. Others do it because they mistakenly assume they will not get caught. Minors might inhale alcohol thinking that, because they are not technically drinking, they are not doing anything that could get them in legal trouble. Some might assume that inhaled alcohol will not show up on a drunk driving test, so inhaling allows them to go out and still drive home. On the contrary, a BAC level shows up equally, whether the alcohol was inhaled or quaffed. Think of it like drugs, which show up on a controlled substance test, whether they were shot, snorted, or smoked. But chances are, if you engage in alcohol inhalation, you will be far too inebriated – assuming you’re still alive – to even make it out the door with your keys in hand.

About the Author:

Kimberly Diego is a criminal defense attorney in Denver practicing at The Law Office of Kimberly Diego. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and her law degree at University of Colorado. She was named one of Super Lawyers’ “Rising Stars of 2012” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Colorado” for 2012 and 2013 by The National Trial Lawyers. Both honors are limited to a small percentage of practicing attorneys in each state.  She has also been recognized for her work in domestic violence cases.