We Call Them 'The Mouthwash Boys (and Girls)'

[Shabo]

Ewww, ewww ewww. Drinking mouthwash??? That is so nasty! How much of that stuff do they need to drink before it affects them? :ralphs:

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ewww, ewww ewww. Drinking mouthwash??? That is so nasty! How much of that stuff do they need to drink before it affects them? :ralphs:

I don't know how much you have to drink to get a buzz, but I know how much you have to drink to get sick. And the answer to that is "not much."

Really. we didn't GET a buzz. And we put so little into our sugar water that you could barely taste it.

You'd have to have cast iron guts to get drunk off this stuff.

[Tigress]

I remember in middle and high school that our home room teachers would give us little "care packages" every semester, donated by the manufacturer as a none-too-subtle reminder to wash. (We shouldn't have to be reminded, but some people just smelled... bad.) There were coupons, little booklets about health and beauty and free samples of soap, shampoo, deodorant, some "fun-sized" snacks and candy and... mouthwash.

There was always a few kids in the class that would go around asking for the mouthwash. To the point where they would offer up the snacks and candy for trade. I talked to my friends about it and they told me that the losers were drinking it because they thought it would get them high. So, being the non-judgemental angel that I am, I willingly traded my mouthwash for their sugary goodness. Am I a bad person for doing that?

[Shabo]

Not if they got sick from it. Teach the little morons their lesson.

[Andara Bledin]

Ewww!

I can't even imagine trying to do that.

Mouthwash, on it's own, makes me hurl just from the scent. I can't use any of it.

^-.-^

[ArenaBoy]

When I was in high school, a friend of mine swigged (Yes he literally did) half a bottle of cough syrup right before a race. One of my relatives would empty out listerine bottles before his trips to Canada and would drive back with actual alcohol in them claiming it was whiskey if he was searched.

[Zinjadu]

Oh My!!!

I seem to have opened a can of worms, or something, here... I'll try to eliminate some of the confusion,'k?


1. There is alcohol in listerine and our store-brand listerine-type stuff. How much, I don't know, and don't want to know. But there's obviously enough to get drunk/high/wasted/whatever you want to call it. And it's poisoning them - their faces are bloated, twisted and covered in sores. That's the only way I can think of to describe it - it's some ugly. They also have sores on any visible skin.


2. We cannot refuse to sell it to them, because it's considered discrimination if we do. Way back when I got hired, we were told to refuse to sell mouthwash, spray cans of lysol and hairspray to them. Then about 15 years ago, we were told that only if they're visibly intoxicated we could refuse the sale. And now we're told that as long as they're not causing a scene or abusive, sell it to them.


3. We cannot set a limit on how many bottles they buy - that's also discrimination. As long as they have enough money to pay for it, we have to sell it to them.


It's all about 'corporate image', because S______ is so afraid of being sued and getting bad publicity, especially when it involves racial discrimination.


4. I never checked to see what flavour of catfood they were buying. They've stopped buying it now so I'll never know if it was chicken or fish. Must've been a passing fad, or maybe the two just didn't go together very well!


5. They also buy finesse hairspray, but only in the pump bottle. Apparently they mix it with water and drink it.


6. They get their money by panhandling, picking it up in the parking lot, and digging around in garbage cans to find bottles and cans to take in for recycling (there's a depot across the street). That's why they always pay in change and why it's almost always dirty, sticky, nasty stuff.


7. We're not in a bad neighbourhood, so I don't know why they hang out at our mall, or how they get here (lots of walking???). It's not a rich area, but it's definitely not slummy or scummy.


8. They also go to Zellers and Shoppers to buy their supplies. Mall security has kicked them off the mall lot for drinking in the parking lot, inside the mall doors, in the public washrooms.


Now you know most everything you ever wanted to know, but were afraid to ask!

[Bagga]

On TV many years ago we were shown a very articulate, well educated down-and-out teaching how to drink a complete bottle of chlorodyne mixture. Chlorodyne is a chloroform/morphine based stomach remedy. (or was it a very strong cough medicine, I forget)

Apparently the trick is to drink the chlorodyne very quickly then gag it down with a massive gulp of milk, because if it stays anywhere near your taste buds for any length at all you will "waste it"....

These folk seem to apply a great deal of ingenuity and technical research to get their next hit.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Geez, whatever happened to the time honored traditon of raiding the old man's liquor cabinet or getting an older sibling to to get it?

(note: I never had to resort to any of this, mainly because it was not forbidden to me in my parent's house. I could get a drink anytime I wanted. Interestingly, I didn't have problems with alchohol consumption. Heck, I never even got the slightest bit drunk until college, and even then it wasn't a habitual thing.)

[cinema guy]

On the Daily Show there was a brief clip of newsreaders discussing whether you could get drunk on snaitary hand wash, because it contained ethyl alcohol.

[Dreamstalker]

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp

It's apparently true for children, not sure about adults.

[Ringtail Z28]

I seem to have opened a can of worms, or something, here... I'll try to eliminate some of the confusion,'k?


1. There is alcohol in listerine and our store-brand listerine-type stuff. How much, I don't know, and don't want to know. But there's obviously enough to get drunk/high/wasted/whatever you want to call it. And it's poisoning them - their faces are bloated, twisted and covered in sores. That's the only way I can think of to describe it - it's some ugly. They also have sores on any visible skin.

You'd be amazed at the crap kids (and some adults) do for a cheap high.

I remember one kid who came up to me asking if we carried spray cans. He had glassy, almost dead looking eyes and silver paint around his mouth. When I asked him what kind, he replied, after a long pause as the mush that was once his brain struggled to turn over like an old beater, "any kind".

[JuniorMintz]

So, since one one else has asked...

Have you considered offering them vinegar?

[Broomjockey]

1. There is alcohol in listerine and our store-brand listerine-type stuff. How much, I don't know, and don't want to know. But there's obviously enough to get drunk/high/wasted/whatever you want to call it. And it's poisoning them - their faces are bloated, twisted and covered in sores. That's the only way I can think of to describe it - it's some ugly. They also have sores on any visible skin.

The problem is there is wood alcohol, which is poisonous, not ethyl alcohol, which you normally drink. We had this problem where I grew up, which seems to be a similar area. Only it was "trailer trash"-type adults doing it, not kids, teenagers, etc. and you could always tell them at a glace from their face.

Basically, once they got to the point of doing this, there usually wasn't much hope of them turning around.

[Acolyte]

If buying mouthwash just to drink it is so prevalent, why isn't anything being done about it...such as setting a limit like they have for whatever they use to make meth?

Up here, they do put limits on mouthwash, among other things. It's become such a problem that there's limits on mouthwash, vanilla extract, rubbing alcohol (?!?), gasoline (Under 18, you can't get anything bigger then one of those tiny little jerry cans) and basically anything else winos will use to get high.