Hand Sanitizer: The New Gateway Drug!

Tonight on the Late Show, I’ll ask the question: what was the first item you used to experiment with to get high?

When I was a mere street urchin growing up on the mean streets of Gravesend, Brooklyn…I was aghast one day when I saw a group of kids probably 3 or 4 years my senior huffing something out of a paper bag.

I knew right away they’d stolen the “Ducco Cement” from someone’s garage and decided to “get high!”

In neighborhood parlance, these were kids that “liked to make models”…slang for liking to buy model car kits just to get at the tube of glue!

Fast forward to today.

According to this, doctors are warning parents about a dangerous new trend after six teenagers drank hand sanitizer and ended up in San Fernando Valley emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning.

Teenagers are using salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, doctors said.

And even though there have been only a few cases, the fear is that the fad could spread.

Bottles of hand sanitizers are inexpensive and accessible and teens can find instructions on distillation on the Internet.

The report continues that the liquid hand sanitizer is 62% ethyl alcohol and makes a 120-proof liquid.

A few drinks can cause a person’s speech to slur and stomach to burn, and make them so drunk that they have to be monitored in the emergency room.

Now, for all of you who really think that pot is the gateway drug of choice among kids today…I ask you.

Look around your home.

Don’t you feel there are other things your kids can experiment with to get high?

(Besides the aforementioned “Ducco Cement”, I heard that the rug cleaner “Carbona” ran a close second!)

Pills, liquor, and household cleaners have always been the items you’d worry about.

Now there’s a new scourge!

Comment as you see fit!