have a single active ingredient – ethanol. At 62% alcohol, the rest of the product consists of scents and gelling agents. This is why they leave the hands dry after use – the alcohol evaporates. By adding salt to the gel, the alcohol precipitates out and can be extracted. What results is a (mostly) alcohol solution at about 120 proof – enough to get a teenager a buzz.
The attraction, besides the cool science (salt extraction and filtering) is the legal nature of hand sanitizers. No one checks ID for purchase. The downside, which teens might not realize, is that all alcohols are not created equally. The alcohol used in hand sanitizers is denatured – it has additives meant to make someone sick if they drink enough of it. And in some sanitizers, not all the alcohol is of the drinking variety. Some include a mix of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol – one test using the method found 10% isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) in the extract.
Finally, the reason this all came to light was a spate of poisonings from alcohol in California. Apparently, five teens hit on this method and drank the result, ending up with a visit to the emergency room. Five isn’t a trend ...".
http://www.12step.com/news/alcohol/hand-sanitizers-and-alcohol-abuse
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This is a harmful substance, clearly. Their response to him poisoning himself - he didn't JUST make beer, that stuff is intended to hurt you so you won't kill yourself with it - is to put him in juvie? If he shot himself, would they hang him?
How about treating him for what ails him? Maybe he really sucks at scoring weed, needs a part-time job to pay for beer, or maybe he was just an experimenting kid. Or maybe he has been bullied and this was the result?
I fail to see how jail is appropriate for the victim of any case of poisoning, unless the purpose is simply to assert authority. That moves the problem out-of-sight instead of working to solve it.
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