Story of the Day- Jenkem

kids are crazy
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Jenkem or jekem is a hoax (so far as its use in the west) originating from emails sent by users of the 4chan website[citation needed]. It purports to be an inhaled gas which can result in dissociation and hallucinations[1]. It is made from fermented sewage. According to Fountain of Hope, a non-profit organization, Jenkem is used by street children in Lusaka, Zambia as a substitute for ordinary inhalants such as glue or petrol.[1] According to anecdotal sources and still unconfirmed media reports, Jenkem is as of November 2007 in the process of attaining a foothold among US teenagers (see section below).

Psychoactive effects
Its effects last for around an hour and consist of auditory and visual hallucinations[1]. A 16-year-old boy describes his preference for jenkem over other inhalants "With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life."[1] The raw materials are plentiful and freely available in the form of fecal matter from the open sewers of Lusaka. This is then fermented in plastic bottles and the fumes are inhaled.


Media attention

First reports 1995—2004
The first media description of Jenkem came from an Inter Press Service wire report in 1995.[2] In 1999 BBC News then ran a story devoted to this new drug.[1] Then in 2004 the South African weekly investigative newspaper Mail & Guardian included the mention of Jenkem abuse in a correspondent report on the predicament of Zambia's street children.[3] The news reports give no information as to how or when the children first began manufacturing jenkem.


Mainstream media picking up on western use
Snopes (Urban Legends Reference Pages) published a report on October 30, 2007 focusing on the veracity of Jenkem. It's conclusion was to list the phenomenon as undetermined, however citing both a widely circulated trip report from an American teenager posted to the online forum TOTSE,[4] and a leaked alert bulletin from the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Naples, Florida which asserted that "Jenkem is now a popular drug in American Schools."[5] Another website investigating urban legends, About.com has also issued a report, more analytic than Snopes, concluding that the recent media reports that Jenkem is gaining a foothold as a substance of abuse among American youth is doubtful and "based on faulty Internet research."[6]

On November 3, 2007 two mainstream media outlets, television station KIMT of Mason City, Iowa[7] and WINK NEWS,[8] a Fort Myers, Florida broadcaster, reported on the rumours of Jenkem being a new hallucinogenic drug among American high school students. According to WINK News, Collier County Sheriff's Office confirms having issued the drug alert. On November 6, Washington Post columnist Emil Steiner in his OFF/beat blog commented on the Collier Sheriff's Office memo, the Snopes report and the WINK-TV news story apparently introducing his own contamination of the story by reporting the origin of Jenkem to be "Africa and other third world countries." Steiner goes on to report that "a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency insists that 'there are people in America trying [Jenkem].'" The unnamed DEA spokesman stated that the agency had yet to test Jenkem, however volunteering a theory that "hallucinations from methane fumes" are involved. He also labeled any use of Jenkem "dangerous, bad and stupid."[9]

Fox News ran with the story 8 hours after the Steiner Washington Post column entry.[10] There a Washington D.C. DEA spokesman, Garrison Courtney, informed that "We wouldn't classify it as a drug so much because it's feces and urine," Fox also published the Internet alias of the boy who had published a "trip report" in the TOTSE online forum in July. The boy, "Pickwick," in September retracted his story claiming his report "was faked using flour, water, beer and Nutella." He also stated "I never inhaled any poop gas and got high off it [...] I have deleted the pictures, hopefully no weirdo saved them to his computer. I just don't want people to ever recognize me as the kid who huffed poop gas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkem


Jenkem
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Jenkem



New Drug - Jenkem
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/jenkem.asp


New Drug Alert!
Florida sheriff's bulletin warns of purported new human waste high
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1105072jenkem1.html



At the Lusaka sewage ponds, two teenage boys plunge their hands into the dark brown sludge, gathering up fistfuls and stuffing it into small plastic bottles. They tap the bottles on the ground, taking care to leave enough room for methane to form at the top. A sour smell rises in the hot sun, but the boys seem oblivious to the stench and the foul nature of their task.


They are manufacturing "Jenkem", a disgusting, noxious mixture made from fermented sewage. It is cheap, potent and very popular among the thousands of street-children in Lusaka. When they cannot afford glue or are too scared to steal petrol, these youngsters turn to Jenkem as a way of getting high.



"It lasts about an hour", says one user, 16-year-old Luke Mpande, who prefers Jenkem to other substances.



"With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life." Friday, July 30, 1999
http://historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com/alcohol_and_drugs_history/jenkem/index.html



Police Warn About New Drug Made from Raw Sewage
http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/11077771.html
A very dangerous and somewhat new drug is causing police to send a warning to local parents. Investigators say kids are getting high off a drug called Jenkem. The drug, made from fermented feces and urine, hasn't been found in our area yet, but police think it could be here soon.
Police say Jenkem is a fad they're hearing about from other law enforcement agencies. It starts as an attempt to get high.

"It's basically someone taking raw sewage and letting it ferment," explained Metro Special Operations Police Captain Robert Hammer. "Then there's a gas that expels off of that and they inhale that gas."

That gas causes hallucinations. Dr. Tom Sweeny works in the ER at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. He says the typical hallucinogen gives a sense of euphoria and a heightened sense of awareness. The rush is followed by sedation.

Even though doctors and police say they haven't seen any local cases of people who have taken Jenkem, they say they do see quite a few young adult males in the emergency room who take hallucinogens. Symptoms can vary, depending on what drugs the patient took.

Dr. Sweeny says the immediate symptoms are lower blood pressure, a decreased heart rate and lowering respiratory drive. It is possible for someone to stop breathing after taking a hallucinogen.

Jenkem can cause all those things to happen, but the long term effects are worse. They include brain damage, stroke-like symptoms, even destroying bone marrow to the point of developing leukemia. All of those things can happen from getting high off human feces and urine.

"That's the very question that we have," said Captain Hammer. "Why you would ingest something into your system that's that nasty? You would have to ask those folks that are doing it."

Some signs a person might be taking hallucinogens like Jenkem are if they're acting nervous, jittery, experiencing tremors or have dilated pupils. Police say it can also be smelled on a person's breath since it's something they're breathing to get high.

Doctors and police say for parents to keep their kids away from things like Jenkem and other hallucinogens, they should pay extra attention to their kids.

That means they should wait up for them at night and not let their kids go to bed until they have seen them and smelled their breath.



Jenkem: The New Recreational Inhalant Among High Schools
Inhaling Human Feces Fumes
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/421734/jenkem_the_new_recreational_inhalant.html

Recreational and street drug use continues to be a leading cause of health concern for many high school students. As parents, we often struggle to manage the various activities of our children, with the risk for drug and alcohol abuse only compounding to that problem.

For many teenagers, the use of "cheese" and other homemade drugs has become wildly popular. With media campaigns, however, many parents are keeping abreast of the street drug patterns, the symptoms of the newest street drugs, and can work to identify when their child may be at risk.

Just as quickly as parents become familiar with street and recreational drugs, there is always something new on the horizon. The latest "craze" in recreational and street drugs among high school students is an inhalant known as "jenkem". As a noxious gas that can be created right in your own backyard, you may be surprised to learn that project is not intended for a science project at school but, instead, the development of a new recreational drug for your child and his high school friends.

Jenkem is also commonly known under the names of Winnie, mighty, butthash and even devil's chocolate. As an inhalant of noxious fumes, jenkem is created using human feces and human urine, fermented in a jar, capturing the gas in the top of the jar or in a balloon, and then inhaling the fumes to elicit a high.

While quite a disgusting thought, it is important to understand the health risks involved with inhaling jenkem. Because many bacterial, fungal and even viral infections are passed through human feces and urine, your child may be placing themselves at risk for disease; disease well beyond that of a complication with inhaling feces fumes.

"Sniffing sewage" as many drug prevention trainers refer to jenkem, can elicit specific hallucinogenic responses. Individuals who create this noxious gas, using sewer waste or their own human feces, commonly report the fumes elicit a feeling of euphoria, dissociation, in addition to strong hallucinations. What once began on the streets of Africa, has made its way into high schools across the United States.

As you manage your high school student's daily activities, and work to stay aware of the latest health risks associated with drug use, like that found in "cheese", remember that illicit drugs are evolving. In this current change of drug scene, many high school students are turning to inhalants and the use of their own human feces may provide just the high they are looking for in a new noxious gas known as jenkem.



World: Africa
Children high on sewage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/406067.stm

At the Lusaka sewage ponds, two teenage boys plunge their hands into the dark brown sludge, gathering up fistfuls and stuffing it into small plastic bottles. They tap the bottles on the ground, taking care to leave enough room for methane to form at the top. A sour smell rises in the hot sun, but the boys seem oblivious to the stench and the foul nature of their task.


They are manufacturing "Jenkem", a disgusting, noxious mixture made from fermented sewage. It is cheap, potent and very popular among the thousands of street-children in Lusaka. When they cannot afford glue or are too scared to steal petrol, these youngsters turn to Jenkem as a way of getting high.

"It lasts about an hour", says one user, 16-year-old Luke Mpande, who prefers Jenkem to other substances.

"With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life."

Symptom of poverty

Sniffing sewage is a symptom of the desperate plight of Zambia's street-children. There are thought to be some 75,000 in the country as a whole - a number that has doubled in the past eight years.



With the Aids epidemic affecting an estimated one in four adults in urban areas, and the government's harsh privatisation policies throwing thousands out of work, it is the children who have suffered the most.

Sikwanda Makono is an education specialist at the Ministry of Health. "Now that the economy is going down, we see more and more of our younger boys going into the streets.

"And girls too. If you drive around at night, you see very young girls looking for men, to merely get something to survive."

Abandoned

The children can also no longer rely on the extended family, once the backbone of African life. This traditional safety net is now on the verge of collapse.

Children are sent out onto the streets to earn a living, or treated cruelly by relatives already struggling to support their own families, or simply abandoned by parents, who cannot afford to feed and clothe them.

Victor Chinyama of the United Nations Children's Fund in Lusaka says it is imperative that the Zambian government gets to grips with this problem.

"So far, one doesn't get the feeling that this has been recognised as priority, or as a problem that needs to be nipped in the bud," he says.

"This problem is on the rise and the sooner it is dealt with, the better."

Temporary respite

Substance-abuse offers a temporary respite in an otherwise harsh world.

Nobody knows exactly where the idea for making Jenkem came from, but it has been used by street-children in Lusaka for at least two years. Nason Banda of the Drug Enforcement Agency is not proud when he says that it is unique to Zambia. He shudders when he sees the boys at the sewage ponds, scavenging for faecal matter to make Jenkem.

"It's unimaginable" he says. "It hits right at the heart to see a human being coming down a level, to be able to dip his hand into a sewage pond, picking out the material and not caring about anything but the feeling of getting high."



Jenkem - Drug Warning
Netlore Archive: Forwarded bulletin from Collier County Sheriff's Office in Naples, Florida warns that a new homemade intoxicant called Jenkem, consisting of the gases emitted by fermenting human feces, is now 'a popular drug in American schools'
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_jenkem.htm
Comments: The Collier County Sheriff's Office in Naples, Florida has confirmed issuing this internal bulletin on September 26, 2007. However, Sheriff's deputies admit they know of no confirmed instances of Jenkem use in their jurisdiction, and when WINK-TV News questioned several students at a local high school, all said they had never heard of the substance, let alone tried it.

No credible evidence has been put forward to show that Jenkem use is widespread or popular anywhere in America.

For that matter, it is impossible to find evidence that Jenkem use is widespread or popular even in Africa, where, according to the few mentions one finds in 10 years of news coverage, the practice of huffing gases emitted by fermenting human waste was born. Every source describing this phenomenon specifies just one geographic location -- the slums of Lusaka, Zambia -- as a hotbed of Jenkem activity, and there only by desperate street kids who can't afford to sniff glue or gasoline.

(Etymological note: The word "Jenkem" may be a corruption of "Genkem," which is the brand name of a glue manufactured in South Africa reputed to be very popular among drug users. In some places "Genkem" has come to refer generically to any form of glue or solvent inhaled as an intoxicant.)

Bulletin is based on faulty Internet research

I could find no media references dated prior to the issuance of the Collier County Sheriff's bulletin mentioning Jenkem use at all in the United States. The closer one examines this document, the more it appears to be the product of faulty Internet research.

The illustrations, consisting of photos of a glass bottle marked "Jenkem" containing a brownish liquid that looks like raw sewage, one of them showing a teenage boy in a blue T-shirt apparently inhaling fumes from that bottle, seem to verify the claim that young folks are indeed huffing Jenkem these days. But where did these images come from? They were originally posted, I discovered, in a forum called "Better Living Through Chemistry" on Totse.com. The thread in which they were posted, titled "I Am Trying Jenkem Tomorrow," was initiated in June 2007 by an individual nicknamed "Pickwick," who regaled his readers with a detailed narrative of his alleged experiences making and huffing Jenkem.

"I became probably the first person in America to huff his own shit gas," Pickwick boasted in a June 13 entry. "After breathing it in I immediately felt that I was passing out. I did not even have time to spit before I became unconscious. When I woke up my spittle had oozed out of my mouth and down my chin. I asked my friend how long I was out for. He said for about a minute, and that he had repeatedly tried to wake me but I would not wake up. During this short conversation I began to feel light dissociative effects come over me, accompanied by buzzing in my ears. The feeling got stronger and stronger until I felt like I was in a dream."

Hoax images turned up in Collier County Sheriff's bulletin

The trouble is, it wasn't a dream. It was a hoax. Three months later, a contrite Pickwick admitted, "Yes, I faked it. The poop was really flour and water dough rolled in Nutella. The piss was beer and water. The pictures of it after it fermented were of a completely new bottle. I never inhaled any poop gas and got high off it. I have deleted the pictures, hopefully no weirdo saved them to his computer. I just don't want people to ever recognize me as the kid who huffed poop gas."

Shortly thereafter, several of those images turned up in the Collier County Sheriff's bulletin in support of the claim that Jenkem use is taking hold in America. (The rest are still cached on Google.com.)

'Chocolate Rain'

Mr. Pickwick's fabricated testimony got around, too. It was quoted on the satirical Website Encyclopedia Dramatica (beware, this site contains offensive language) in its own rather imaginative wiki article on Jenkem, which also boasted -- in revisions pre-dating the Collier County Sheriff's bulletin -- the complete list of alleged slang terms for Jenkem cited there ("Butthash," "Winnie," "Runners," etc.), as well as the now-familiar, unsupported claim that the drug is currently popular with American school children.

How anyone managed to confuse this Website, a loose-knit repository of sophomoric, racist humor, with a credible source, I don't know. The "Jenkem" entry actually goes on to attribute the drug's alleged popularity in the United States to -- and I quote -- "the success of 'Chocolate Rain' [last summer's runaway YouTube hit by Internet phenom Tay Zonday] whose lyrics implicitly refer to the practice and social effects of Jenkem abuse."

According to Zonday, the song is about racism.

Unreliable sources

It is plain to see that directly or indirectly, the author of the Collier County Sheriff's bulletin based his or her presentation on faulty Internet sources, borrowing photos from a message board posting that was later admitted to be hoax, and quoting invented "facts" from a Website noted for its far-out satirical chicanery. At bottom, the only thing demonstrably true in the bulletin -- insofar as it has actually been reported in usually-reliable sources -- is the claim that Jenkem, a homemade drug consisting of the fumes of fermenting sewage, originated in Africa.

Are kids in Iowa, Washington, or Florida doing it? I really, really doubt it.