I thought I'd heard everything, until I heard THAT!

The BBQ Pit
1

This is in the Pit so I can swear.

Last week I was attached to a family doctor in Dublin. He told me a little story, about one of his former patients.

This man had a history of Emphysema, caused by heavy smoking, and was also a problem drinker. On a routine house visit, to check on his condition now that he had been newly prescribed a home nebuliser, the doctor arrived a little earlier than expected.

The patient was stting with his feet up, watching television, with his nebuliser on and a cigarette in his hand. After warning the patient about the dangerous fire hazard that is smoking while using a nebuliser, he was further alarmed to notice the smell of alcohol emanating from the patient. The patient denied drinking, but on further questioning admitted that he had been using the nebuliser in a way not intended by the manufacturer.

That’s right folks, this guy had been nebulising Brandy!

Not only that, but he had been smoking while inhaling fumes of almost pure alcohol.

What kind of fucking hold must alcohol and tobacco have over you when you’re obviously smart enough to work out how to nebulise Brandy, but not that you could easily cause an explosion in the process by smoking while doing so.

I know that drinking and smoking were probably the only pleasures this guy had, and suspect that he really hadn’t thought it through. I don’t feel anything but pity for him.

So you know what, I pit the fuckers who make all the noise about the damage illegal drugs are doing to society, but conveniently ignore the damage that tobacco and alcohol are doing, because they’re legal, and taxable and totally different. Fuck off.

Cigarettes are harder to give up than heroin and alcohol is at the root of most public order offences, many violent crimes and a large percentage of psychological problems. Stop letting the hospitality and drinks industries control your policies, and actually do your jobs.

2

What’s *nebulise * mean?

3

Make into a spray. In other words he was inhaling his Brandy with his Oxygen in his portable breathing machine.

4

Nothing like turning your respirator into a carburetor, then putting a hot ember near your exhalations. The better to blow yer damfool head off…

5

Now, that´s one possible scenario for spontanous human combustion; and we wouldn´t have heard the end of it from the quacks.

6

Who, exactly, is not doing their jobs with reference to smokes and booze because the hospitality industry has go their hooks in them? :confused:

7

And how does the damage caused by two addictive drugs negate that caused by others?

Regards,
Shodan

8

No cites, but I have read more than once about people getting major burns from smoking while on oxygen. Seems almost as (if not more) stupid as nebulizing alcohol while you’re smoking! :slight_smile:

9

You know, I’ve got a nebulizer. I wonder what the physical effects of nebulizing various liquids would be?

Soda? It’s carbonated, so it might be interesting. Wine, for alcohol. What else could you nebulize? Juice?

10

Future Darwin Award Winnner.
I should get a shirt with that on it.

11

I’m just pissed off with Irish culture with regard to drinking and smoking in general, and in particular the poor job the government does to educate and protect its citizens.

The smoking ban is a start, but it almost didn’t go through because of pressure from publicans.

The fact that people here consider 10 pints only a slightly heavy drinking session for a man, rather than a fairly heavy binge tells you a lot.

I know other drugs cause damage, but alcohol and tobacco are used fairly universally, and their negative effects, especially of alcohol, are played down for fear of further damaging our famous pub culture, and eating into the profits of our tourist industry.

The patients I’ve seen in the hospitals who are there because of their drinking and smoking are treated by their families as if it is some moral failing on their part which got them addicted to “harmless” substances. Because, “sure everyone drinks, so it must be yer man’s fault.”

We have all the hard hitting ads on tv about smoking, but a wishy-wishy “don’t see a great night wasted” campaign that is funded by Diageo- the giant drinks company which owns Guinness.

I’m just sick of it.

The health professionals are doing what they can, but it needs a huge shift in the attitude to drinking to sort out a lot of our issues, and that isn’t going to come without a lot of funding and backng from the government. They just couldn’t be bothered, as long as the taxes keep rolling in, and the tourists keep coming to drink Guinness.

I know this isn’t terribly coherent or well-argued, but I’m reaching the end of my tether, and I’m not quite jaded enough to start taking out my ire on the alcoholics and smokers.

12

So instead you save it for the social drinkers of the world?

Yes, I understand that there are alcoholics out there, and I hope that they find the treatment they need. Furthermore, there are always going to be the hardcore 0.16 - 0.2 BAC drunk drivers…but you know what; I hate them as much as you do, if not more because they give the neo-prohibitionists the ammo they need to try for more draconian and unrealistic BAC limits, beer taxes, sobriety checkpoints that infringe on everyone’s rights…you get the idea.

But I’m sick and fucking tired of responsible drinkers being stigmatized as some sort of great evil that has to be conquered, either by social pressure or government intervention. You hear about the alcoholics and the drunk drivers, but there’s never much talk of people who enjoy a pint or two with friends after a long day of work…it’s just not sensationalistic enough. Well, I am one of those social drinkers, and I certainly don’t consider myself an alcoholic in any way, so please leave me and the millions of other social drinkers in the world out of your fucking little rant.

Incidentally, you want changes in attitudes towards drinking? How about the attitude of some Americans that drinking is this horrid evil that people should avoid…would that suit you? That instead of teaching our children responsible consumption of alcohol we should try to teach them not to drink it? You know what this leads to…college students killing themselves with alcohol poisoning because they don’t know how to drink responsibly and have to binge whenever they get the chance. That’s a prime example of government intervention at its finest (mandating raising drinking ages to 21).

13

I wish I had anything more worthy to contribute than a simple “yeah, abstinence is a goddamned joke that does more harm than good” agreement, but you said what I’d want to say.

WARNING: Anecdotal evidence bastard hat ON.

I grew up in a family where a little alcohol was never a bad thing. Wine with dinner? Doesn’t just have to be for the parents, the 12 year old kid can have a glass. Can learn to drink responsibly (rules were extra-tight about driving between 16 and 21 when at home. Namely, if you have a drink with dinner, you don’t drive at all that night, no matter how fine you feel), and understand that there are laws, there are punishments, and there are outcomes far worse than any legal judgment if you play it stupid (some unfortunate classmate tragedies helped reinforce this, unfortunately). The law was there, was understood, was found arbitrary and lacking by two intelligent adults and one intelligent minor, who established reasonable and respectful guidelines together, and the minor has since grown up to be a responsible (and largely quite sober) adult.

I fully expect posts criticizing my parents’ parenting now, and I’m sure that this was an outcome specific to my family and its larger dynamic that would not necessarily work generally, but the spirit behind it was my true point. Respect the use of alcohol, and especially its potential effects, from an early age, and the seemingly obligatory college bingeing will be far more optional, as well as far less desirable.

14

I’m inclined to say ‘let him do what he wants’. Sure, there are faster ways to suicide, but he’s obviously happy with the one he’s chosen.

15

The oxygen coming through a nebulizer is not compressed to the same extent as that coming out of the pure oxygen tanks, and is not a fire hazard when additives are included. In fact, they are mostly used WITH things like salbutamol and other drugs to aid the breathing of those affected. Brandy is not going to be a greater fire risk to the user than any other medium, and most of the alcohol is going to be vapourized away anyway.

I’d tell him he’s wasting his bucks putting it through the machine. Much better to quaff a couple of drams straight.

:smiley:

16

When Fang was little, I used to joke about putting Jack Daniels in the nebulizer to help him sleep. Just to see the shocked looks on people’s faces.

Someone actually did it. Wow. Not that he had much in the way of lungs to begin with, were there any left?

Your parents were sensible people. My father would allow us wine with nice dinners after we turned 16. We were offered a beer when we came home from college. We were - under no circumstances - allowed a drink outside the house. While he thought the law was stupid and unfair, it was the law and should be respected.

17

[anecdote] Same with my Italian aunt, Only Mostly Dead (love the username). The people whose parents allowed them to drink in moderation when they were young are the ones who will say frankly that they don’t see the point of getting falling-down blacked-out throwing-up drunk on the weekend. [/anecdote] It seems that absolutely preventing underage drinking may set it up as this forbidden pleasure which creates the universal drink-only-to-get-drunk college mentality.

18

This guy’s not the first one to nebulize alcohol.

C’mon, nobody remembers the 15 minutes of flap last year about the AWOL machine?

19

Nebulise this, alcoholics of the world.

WHOA! Who needs brandy?

20

A doctor went to a patient’s house? You think this is routine? Wow. I can barely get a freaking appointment with my doctor.