Snorting Alcohol For Quick High Dangerous

Press release
Alcohol Advisory Council
February 17 2004

If New Zealanders pick up on snorting alcohol for a quick high, this will just add to the problems caused by New Zealand’s culture of binge drinking, says the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC).

“This is a silly gimmick and potentially dangerous to the individual in the short term as well as the long term if the practice is persisted with,” says ALAC Chief Executive Officer Dr Mike MacAvoy.

“People indulging in this practice are just setting out to get drunk.

“This sort of instant hit fits in with New Zealand’s and indeed Britain’s dangerous culture of binge drinking,” says Dr MacAvoy.

“It is all about getting as high as you can in the shortest space of time.

“By using this method the act and enjoyment of drinking is taken away and despite claims to the contrary so is the taste of alcohol as taste depends on both the tongue and the nose.”

“Fortunately, the cost of these devices - said to be around four thousand New Zealand dollars - may inhibit their use.”

Dr MacAvoy was commenting on a report from London on a new craze for inhaling alcohol.

Drinks including vodka and absinthe can be "snorted" into the nose or inhaled into the mouth through a tube using a new device known as an Alcohol Without Liquid (AWOL) vaporiser.

Scientists estimate that the effects of the alcohol can be felt much quicker as it is directly absorbed through blood vessels in the nose or lungs -- bypassing the stomach and liver.

ENDS

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