What Lawyers Need to Know About Butt Chugging
Impatient Millennials can't wait for anything -- and they're certainly not going to wait to get through a six pack of Zima before heading out to a college party. Hence "butt chugging," the concerning practice of consuming alcohol or other drugs rectally, where they can be quickly absorbed into the blood stream.
The days of drinking with your mouth are over, Gramps. Today, sadly, butt chugging is a thing that lawyers need to know about.
Butt Chugging 101
"Butt chugging," sometimes spelled buttchugging or butt-chugging, refers to taking an intoxicating substance rectally, often in order to get drunk or high very quickly. Butt chuggers may use enemas, alcohol soaked tampons, or other means in order to do the deed.
It's not just alcohol either. Some people will butt chug cough syrup, in order to get a dissociative high and meth users have long taken their drugs from behind. Taking pills such as MDMA in this way is known as "boot bumping," according to police officers.
While butt chugging might be new to you, the practice has been around for some time now. It was featured on MTV's aptly-named series "Jackass" in 2006, and even made it in to our 2013 "5 Back-to-School Issues to Discuss With Your Kids" post. (Representative line: "From 'butt chugging' to vampire biting, you'd be amazed by how many dumb things can attract your kid.")
But before you grab the bottle of whisky from your desk drawer and draw the blinds, a word of caution. There's a reason lawyers need to know about butt chugging: it tends to leave people in jail, or worse. Because butt chugging bypasses the boring organs like intestines, it's easy to overdue things, leading to massively elevated blood alcohol content, DUIs, or overdoses.
And because you have to be a bit immature to dump cheap booze up your butt, many of these events involve underage drinkers.
How Dare You Call Me a Butt Chugger!
Butt chugging doesn't just raise criminal law or personal injury issues, however. Take, for example, the case of the University of Tennessee, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Alexander Broughton. In 2012, Broughton ended up in the emergency room after allegedly butt chugging cheap wine, leading to the frat's temporary suspension from campus.
Brighton (and his lawyer) denied butt chugging.
In a blog post entitled "Butt-Chugging Lawsuit?," an editor for the Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law makes the case that Brighton could have had grounds for a defamation lawsuit. And according to at least one news outlet, Brighton was considering suing the university or university police -- though it's not clear if any lawsuit was ever filed.
But if butt chugging continues, there might be a niche practice area in there somewhere.
Related Resources:
- Attention, Butt-Chuggers: Please Do Not Put Alcohol Up Your Butt (Jezebel)
- If You're Reading This, You're Probably Already Drunk (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- How Technology Is Reshaping DUI Defense (FindLaw's Strategist)
- Convicted Lawyer Blames DUI on His Toothpaste (FindLaw's Strategist)
