New drug: JENKEM

[snopes]

Information Bulletin
New Drug - JENKEM

On 09/19/07 Cpl. Disarro received and email from a concerned parent regarding a new drug called
“Jenkem”. The parent advised their child learned about this drug through various conversations with
several students at Palmetto Ridge High.

Jenkem originated in Africa and other third world countries by fermenting raw sewage to create a gas
which is inhaled to achieve a high. Jenkem is now a popular drug in American Schools.
Jenkem is a homemade substance which consists of fecal matter and urine. The fecal matter
and urine are placed in a bottle or jar and covered most commonly with a balloon. The
container is then placed in a sunny area for several hours or days until fermented. The contents
of the container will separate and release a gas, which is captured in the balloon. Inhaling the
gas is said to have a euphoric high similar to ingesting cocaine but with strong hallucinations of
times past.

Once ingested the onset of the high takes approximately 10 seconds with the most severe hallucinations
happening in approximately 20 minutes. Several articles indicate that the subject immediately passes out
after ingesting the gas then regains a magical/hallucinogenic state within seconds of regaining
consciousness. The high has been described by subjects as a feeling of “being out of it” and talking to
dead people. The feeling of being “out of it” may last for several hours or days.

All subjects who used the Jenkem disliked the taste of sewage in their mouth and
the fact that the taste continued for several days.

Slang terms: Winnie, Shit, Runners, Fruit from Crack Pipe, Leroy Jenkems,
Might, Butthash, and Waste.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/graphics/jenkem.pdf

[queen of the caramels]

D*mn, I spent 10 years working with sewage and never once got high of fermented fumes.

Solvents, on the other hand....

[Bryan With a 'Y']

I took Gen Chem in college, and I certainly don't remember any euphoria. We did diagram the structure of cocaine, though.

As for gas from fecal matter - nah, the lectures were actually pretty good.

[musicgeek]

My first thought was "someone just tried to up the ante on the 'okra parties' forward," but a quick Google search seems to provide corroborating accounts dating back at least to 1999. So all I can say is.... eeeeewww.

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

I don't know about Jenkem being real, but the slang terms seem to have been made up by Chris Morris. Winnits rather than winnie might be better though.

[Enchanting_eyes]

OK, one has to wonder what on earth are people doing ot think of different ways to get high ?

I may have answered my own question. But seriously, this is really gross.

E* No, I think I will pass that on to the next person * E

The story sounds fabricated. I don't think that decomposing human waste could produce a substance that would result in the experience described. If anything, the waste could be contaminated with some other substance or solvent. Unfortunately (for everyone except me) I'm not willing to experiment with a homemade brew myself. But I think you're more likely to be able to make Mountain Dew glow than you are to get "high" from jenkem.

[Beldaran]

No other WoW players in here yet?

The name is what makes me laugh..

"Leroy Jenkins" is an infamous youtube video in which a group of characters are prepping for a fight, and one player is away from their computer. The away player misses all of the instructions and when he comes back he runs in and starts the fight before anyone is ready, getting the whole group killed. He yells "Leeeeeeerrrrrrooooooyyy Jeeeenkinssss!" as he runs in.

I'm sure that given the proximity of M and N on the keyboard, that it started out as a typo.

Anyone else thinking that this is a prank invented by people wanting to have a chuckle at the thought of people actually trying it?

[ThistleS]

I really, really, really don't think this is true.

[Eddylizard]

I have no idea if this is true, but it is known that inhaling hydrocarbons can lead to a 'high' petrol (octane) and butane from disposable lighters and the propellant in aerosol cans since we banned CFC's are sniffed for this purpose. No idea about the effects of methane though, or whether one could get a good dose from a bottle full of decomposing faeces.

While I can't post certain things because they are law enforcement sensitive, this question has been making the rounds in the LE community over the past couple days (hence, raising my suspicion--why is this popping up everywhere at the same time?) However, there is some evidence that this actually occurs--the difficulty is in finding the actual sources--they date back to an alleged incident in 1997. So far, the tentative opinion of the analysts in this discussion is that jenkum is probably real.

[Bryan With a 'Y']

Good gracious, you mean my effluent has a street value?

I've just been giving it away!



Now, huffing inhalants is a big problem up here, and I don't mean to minimize the impact this practice could have on someone if true.

But this still made me chuckle:

Originally Posted by Matt H.

...the difficulty is in finding the actual sources...

Like, with both hands?

[queen of the caramels]

Originally Posted by Bryan With a 'Y'

Good gracious, you mean my effluent has a street value?

I've just been giving it away!

Depends, in many places you pay as either part of your water bill( in the UK at least) or to a septic-tank emptier.

Originally Posted by Bryan With a 'Y'

Like, with both hands?

Well, we have flashlights, but no map.

[Bryan With a 'Y']

Originally Posted by Matt H.

Well, we have flashlights, but no map.

Could you use a lead?

[Enchanting_eyes]

Originally Posted by Bryan With a 'Y'

Could you use a lead?

Hell I can scan pictures from my Colonoscopy. Really its all nice and pretty inside there. Plus as an added bonus I have a picture of the section of the colon they took out of me.

E* damn that colon of mine.*E

[Bryan With a 'Y']

Originally Posted by Enchanting_eyes

Hell I can scan pictures from my Colonoscopy. Really its all nice and pretty inside there. Plus as an added bonus I have a picture of the section of the colon they took out of me.

E* damn that colon of mine.*E

A friend that had that done refers to hers as a semicolon.

[moonfall]

I vote fake, although I would not be surprised if someone read this and tried it. Perhaps this is one of those "self-perpetuating" legends that only become true after the UL becomes popular?

I'm no expert on the subject (only took Intro Chem, never Gen Chem heh), but I doubt rotting wastes produce any substance (or at least enough of one) to cause a high. Urine contains ammonia, which IS hazardous when inhaled, but it contains such a small amount of ammonia that you'd have to be breathing a lot of pee to feel any effects.

[queen of the caramels]

Originally Posted by moonfall

Urine contains ammonia, which IS hazardous when inhaled, but it contains such a small amount of ammonia that you'd have to be breathing a lot of pee to feel any effects.

To be precise urine contains urea(CO(NH2)2) which breaks down

CO(NH2)2 =H2O= 2 NH3 +H2O

IIRC decomposing (human) sewage will give off Methane(CH4), ammonia (NH3),Carbon oxides (CO, CO2), some votatile fatty acids, simple hydrocarbons ethane etc Some sulphuric compounds and rarely phosphine compounds.

Here's a vote for "Fool's Errand" of the year.

That anyone in law enforcement would take this seriously is frightening, unless the concern is that foolish kids will expose themselves to dangerous bacteria while attempting to "get high." I don't think there is anything that decomposing feces and urine could produce that would intoxicate anyone in the manner described.

People have been exposed to decomposing feces and urine throughout history, and there's no record of intoxicating effects. There is also extensive evidence that humans really really really like intoxicating substances. They know that eating this or that root will intoxicate you, they know that these leaves must be combined with that vine and cooked for hours to intoxicate you, they know more ways to intoxicate you than you have time to read about. If sniffing decomposing feces and urine produced a high like cocaine and allowed you to speak with dead people, I'm pretty sure we'd have known about it for a long, long time.

Today there are outhouses and other portable toilets at construction sites, fairs, concerts etc that have failed to produce intoxicating gases (which at the last Pitchfork music festival would have been a welcome surprise after waiting in line for 30 minutes to enter a plastic portable chamber of stench) despite being filled with gallons of festering feces and urine and sitting out in the summer sun.

Fun fact footnote: The primary psychoactive agent in psychedelic mushrooms (which are extremely common in many areas of the United States, and generally easy to come by for many teenagers) is excreted largely unchanged in the urine of those who ate the mushrooms. Appropriately timed, consuming this urine will result in the same intoxication as eating the mushrooms. This strikes me as a much better bet than sniffing "jenkem."