Talk To Your Children About Butthash
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
A crowning achievement in anti-drug hysteria, jenkem has now been cited by various news outlets and law enforcement agencies as the new teen drug of choice. Jenkem, for those not “in the know”, is made by placing raw sewage into a still made from a plastic bottle capped with a balloon. The mixture is then left to ferment in the sun and the user then huffs the gas produced and captured in the balloon. The high is supposed to be of the hallucinogenic variety and many times more powerful then cannabis.
The actual reality of young jenkem users in this country, huddled behind buildings, the smell of urine and feces in their nostrils huffing extraordinarily potent flatuses, has been called into serious question. What is known is that the first mention of jenkem or, as it is known “on the street”, “butthash” comes out of Zambia in August 25, 1995, from an article in Inter Press Service that describes how destitute, Zambian youths “scooped [sewage] up from the edges of the sewer ponds in old cans and containers which are covered with a polyethylene bag and left to stew or ferment for a week.”
Various sites, including Snopes, have traced the current jenkem scare to Totse.com, “a Web community where content ranges from tutorials on how to make poisonous gas to essays on ‘UFO terrorists.’” It was first posted by a user named “Pickwick” who posted photos of his jenkem set-up.
He has since removed the post containing the pictures, which he insists were staged saying: “I have deleted the pictures, hopefully no weirdo saved them to his computer,” which, as denizens of the ‘tubes could have predicted, fell upon deaf ears. Later, after the internal police memo mentioned in the above clip, he again appealed to the anonymous weirdo’s humanity: “Some kid at my school found it and now he is telling a bunch of people. If my parents find out they will kill me … Please you guys, I’m going to be known as ‘that shit huffer.’ Come on just delete the pictures so they won’t be able to prove anything.”
Indeed, I’m sure it seemed outside the realm of belief to Pickwick, when he posted those photos of himself supposedly chasing the Brown Snake, that anyone could take such a thing seriously. However, one must never underestimate people’s ability to accept even the most irrational statements as fact. And certainly, never underestimate our news agencies’s desire for a good, old-fashioned panic.
Fox News Reports on Jenkem [YouTube] : the nonist : Salon
Categories: WTF, Drugs, Insanity, Africa, Addiction, America
Posted at 1:42 pm on November 9, 2007
14 Comments -
I think that if your kids are even considering this, they need to be smacked up the head for being so utterly stupid.
everyone else needs a smack for being so utterly gullible.
Comment by kimi — November 9, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
Leeerooooy Jenkeeeems!!
Comment by kid icarus — November 9, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Ah, yes. The incredible journalism of Fox News, demonstrated once again.
Comment by Robert — November 9, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
I can pretty much guarantee that nobody has ever called jenkem “butthash” before the crack Fox News fiction squad made the term up.
Comment by Some Internet Guy — November 9, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
The internet has, once again, absolutely crushed my faith in humanity.
Why is it that the internet is such a cesspool of retardation? Sure, there are glimmering visages of hope in the mire, but for the most part, it’s just stupid shit like this and LOLCats.
I blame fluoride.
Comment by Oni — November 9, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
This new report seems like a pretty solid case of case of life imitating art (Brass Eye/The Day Today).
Comment by HyperboreanDude — November 9, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
Is it wrong of me to kind of hope that this actually does take off with the kids these days?
Comment by Mike — November 9, 2007 @ 5:46 pm
No, you talk to your children about butt hash. I’ll be too busy teaching my kids how to sniff glue.
Comment by El Tiburon — November 9, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
I’m not really sure what disturbs me more. The fact that mainstream media is picking this up as a story, or that my coworkers thought I was the best choice as an in office resource to ask about this.
Comment by Joshua Normal — November 9, 2007 @ 8:40 pm
Joshua - go with being the “best choice” as that means that you aren’t like them. It’s a much better feeling than just being one more cubical farm prairie dog.
Comment by Racerabbit — November 10, 2007 @ 2:33 am
The first time I heard about this stuff was a boingboing.net post claiming the stuff was fake. I’m still unsure of its existence, but if it actually is real it’s rather stupid of the media to keep revealing how it’s made in every report.
Comment by Evil Jim — November 10, 2007 @ 4:49 am
I was vomiting hard last night, after some booze excess, with my head over the water cup. Suddenly I saw the virgin mary reflected in the bathroom mirror… Now I now why : i forgot to flush yesterday morning and the whole thing fermented over the day.
Comment by camillomiller — November 10, 2007 @ 8:56 am
What next? Toe-jam tea? People need to get rid of thier demons instead of feed them.
I would offer a word of caution that if one is to partake of the “butthash” they better make sure it’s imported.
And just think after the trip they have hell to look forward to.
Comment by Rich — November 21, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
It is remarkable what people will do to get high… if this isn’t a hoax?
Comment by Chris - Drug Awareness Trainer — March 24, 2008 @ 2:35 pm