Parenting Daily

In a staffing meeting with probation officers a few months ago, I learned of a new drug making news across the nation. Since I live in a region known for high methamphetamine usage, I was filled with dread at hearing about this new drug. Keep reading for 10 facts about jenkem. And be forewarned, some of this is going to make your stomach turn. But you need to know about it because the ingredients to make it are accessible to everyone, including your teen. 

1. It’s made from human feces and urine. That’s right. Let’s just get that part over with. No, I’m not kidding.
2. Jenkem seems to have originated in third-world countries, where raw sewage was scooped or scraped into plastic bags or bottles and kept closed for a period of about a week, then opened to release noxious fumes, including methane gas.
3. The fumes lead the user to feel a numbness and experience sight and/or sound hallucinations.
4. The dangers for jenkem usage are the same as the dangers associated with huffing—the inhaling of gases/fumes from products such as glue, aerosol cans, and paint thinner. These dangers include: lack of oxygen flow to the body, headache, nausea, vomiting; even death.
5. Inhaling jenkem leaves the user with the taste of sewage in their mouth, sometimes lasting for days. Therefore, you should be able to smell it on someone’s breath if you’re close enough.
6. Jenkem usage does not YET seem to have a foothold in America. However, in my opinion, it is dangerous to assume that it won’t ever gain popularity. That mistake has been made time and time again with different drugs across the nation. The general population tends to think that something is too disgusting, too dangerous, etc. for a drug to ever become popular. That is why it seems as though drugs “explode” onto the scene—because people ignore the possibility that humans really will take those risks to escape or numb themselves to reality.         
7. According to a WSBT TV report (http://www.wsbt.com/news/11077771.html), the long-term effects of jenkem usage can include: “brain damage, stroke-like symptoms, even destroying bone marrow to the point of developing leukemia.”
8. A widely circulated email, originating sometime in late 2007, speaking of jenkem usage being tried by high school students in Florida has been deemed a hoax. (http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/jenkem.asp) However, please remember that jenkem *is* real. The hoax part was that the teens were using it. They were not, at that time.
9. Jenkem also is referred to as: butthash, fruit from the crack pipe, cheese, Winnie (yes, I believe as in Winnie the Pooh), and devil’s chocolate.
10. The “high” from jenkem lasts about an hour for the user.

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