The response to the question, “Can you get drunk on Listerine?,” glossed over too readily the fact that Listerine can be used as a way to be in possession of alcohol in places where it otherwise would be forbidden. I specifically remember a middle school teacher, who was very popular, who from time to time would take a shot of Listerine during class - and yes, would swallow it. Knowing Listerine had alcohol in it, every once in a while I’d tease him about being an alcoholic. A few years later, I realized that I was almost certainly right. He apparently went from being frequently voted the most popular teacher to being the worst most grumpy Vice Principal.
My son says he and a buddy got drunk on mouthwash in Afghanistan one time. I swear I taught that boy better…
To be fair, I’d think that being Vice Principal would make anyone grumpy.
Listerine is 26.9 percent alcohol by volume. Yes you could get drunk on it. I’m sure there’s better drinks, though (I keep thinking you would throw up, reducing the alcohol content of your stomach rapidly), and you can get vodka that is 38% alcohol if you wanted to get drunk faster.
Link to article: Can you get drunk on Listerine? How about vanilla extract? - The Straight Dope
It doesn’t seem like Cecil glosses over that aspect, devoting a couple of paragraphs to the why of attempting to get an alcohol fix this way, but keep in mind the question wasn’t about the why it in the first place.
When I was getting my EMT training, I did an observation in a local ER. A guy turned up with severe abdominal pain after drinking Listerine (or some other kind of mouthwash). I don’t know how much he drank, but you could smell it halfway across the ER. Why he drank mouthwash instead of the kind of vodka that comes in plastic bottles, I don’t know. The guy admitted to being an alcoholic, so maybe he was in some setting where he couldn’t get away with having a bottle of booze lying around but he could sneak a bottle of Listerine in. But that’s just speculation.
A 1.5 liter bottle of Listerine Antiseptic Mouthwash (21.6% alcohol) costs $5.99 at Target today. A 1.5 liter bottle of Up & Up Antiseptic Mouthwash (also 21.6% alcohol) costs $2.94.
I honestly don’t know how much a comparable bottle of vodka costs (don’t forget all the sin taxes that don’t apply to mouthwash).
I’m guessing that the vodka is significantly more?
When you get to the point where you need alcohol constantly, does this matter to people? Or at that point do people just say “the hell with the money”?
Again, I didn’t say he didn’t address the topic, but he dismissed it and glossed over it pretty quickly. He talked about one case of a crazy person in an emergency room, but he didn’t talk about the more obvious case of an alcoholic using it as a way to take a drink at a workplace. This I would think would be the more obvious case than someone doing it because they mistakenly think Listerine is cheaper than cheap vodka.
Cheapest 80-proof (40%) vodka is around $10 for a 1.75 liter bottle around these parts. Call it $6/liter, so $2/liter mouthwash is a bit cheaper.
It’s probably more significant that, in something like 30 states, off-premises distilled spirit sales are restricted to liquor stores.
Alcoholics don’t use mouthwash to get drunk so much as to take the symptoms away when they can’t get booze. Drinking the amount required to get actually drunk wound likely cause other problems like stomach pain, throwing up, etc.
But if you really got a problem, it will def reduce your obvious symptoms, like the shakes, aggression etc.
Up here in Canada, where the sin taxes are higher, vodka costs at least double that. When I was working at the 7-11, we had to keep mouthwash behind the counter. I was working graveyards, and it was a nightly occurrence that I would have to decline a sale of mouthwash to a homeless drunk. Given the way that some of those drunks reeked of mint, they were definitely drinking it.
An alcoholic neighbor described to me a night with his friend, who was drinking mouthwash. I asked why and was told “It’s easier to shoplift”.
For these guys, it wasn’t about getting drunk any more, although they liked getting drunk. It became about feeding the craving, stopping the shakes. They couldn’t go very long without alcohol, and they’d pretty much consume anything that contained it.
My friend Charles was a drunkard confined to a wheelchair; I used to go on errands with him sometimes as his push-along dude and general assistant. One day I accompanied him to Walgreens to have a prescription filled. He directed me to wheel him down the dental-care and mouthwash aisle, “now stop here a second” --yep, he grabbed a bottle of Listerine, uncapped it, took a *big-ass swig * out of it, put it back on the shelf, turned around and grinned at (mildly mortified) me, “Now let’s go get my meds!”
While cost maybe a factor, mouthwash is much more readily available than beer, wine, or liquor. It’s also inconspicuous and legal so it might now raise eyebrows to most to see someone buying it or say, keeping it in their desk.
All excellent points, but elbows nailed it. If you’ve ever seen someone with the DTs, you’d know they’ll ingest almost anything to make it subside, even for a few minutes.
I’d also note that that column is from 2005, these days, mouthwash is so passé, hand sanitizer at 75-95% ethyl alcohol has much more kick and is EVERYWHERE and FREE in public restrooms, hospitals, bars, restaurants, etc…
Ooooo, hand sanitizer hell, yum.
On my first trip to the Psych Ward we had a guy who was jonesing so bad he drank liquid soap. They had to tie him down and inject enough Benadryl to last a Normal all hayfever season to get him to sleep.
A friend was on Shore Patrol duty and hauled in a recruit who had drunk two bottles of Listerine bought at the MCX. After he sobered up the kid was politely asked to leave the Marine Corps and never return.
I always thought that flavored vodkas were for young adults who had started out on cough syrup. “Kids, did you like Robitussin? Try our wild cherry vodka!”
Just curious, what city was this teacher in? I had a middle school teacher that did the same thing.
Can you be sure it was Listerine in the bottle, I know of plenty of kids who used the old vodka and food colouring in the mouthwash bottle trick to smuggle alcohol into high-school dorms, your teacher may have been doing the same thing
I know this is a two year old post… but I always assumed that hand sanitizer was methyl alcohol. You learn something new every day. (It’s certainly safer, if someone really wanted to misuse hand sanitizer.)
I ran out of alcohol at a party once when I was underage and I drank a few shots of Listerine.