Jenkem

The name derives from Genkem, a brand of glue which had "become the generic name for all the glues used by glue-sniffing children" in South Africa, where the drug originated and is most popular on the African continent today. In the book ''Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis'' by Emma Guest, the making of jenkem is described: "fermented human sewage, scraped from pipes and stored in plastic bags for a week or so, until it gives off numbing, intoxicating fumes." The process is similarly described in a 1995 IPS report: "Human excreta is scooped up from the edges of the sewer ponds in old cans and containers which are covered with a polyethylene bag and left to stew or ferment for a week." A 1999 report interviewed a user, who said, "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." Fumito Ichinose, an anesthesia specialist from Boston who conducted a study on the effects of hydrogen sulfide gas, or "sewer gas," on mice, informed Salon.com that holding one's breath, choking, or "the inhalation of gases like those produced from jenkem could result in hypoxia, a lack of oxygen flow to the body that could be alternately euphoric and physically dangerous." ==Media reports==

1995–2006 The second media description of jenkem came from an Inter Press Service wire report in 1995. In 2002, Project Concern International Zambia and Fountain of Hope released a report entitled "Rapid Assessment of Street Children In Lusaka", where jenkem is listed as the third most popular drug among Lusaka's street children, following Dagga (Cannabis) and "glue and Dagga" but ahead of "Ballan" (uncured tobacco) and petrol. John C. Zulu, director of the Ministry of Sport, Youth and Child Development in Zambia, said in November 2007 that jenkem usage is less common than glue-sniffing and, "Initially, they used to get it from the sewer, but they make it anywhere ... They say it keeps them warm and makes them fearless." 2007 to present On September 26, 2007, the Sheriff's Department of Collier County, Florida issued an internal bulletin about jenkem based on a TOTSE internet forum post by user "Pickwick", which included purported photos of the manufacture and use. In November of that year, officials at the Drug Enforcement Administration said no reports of jenkem use had been confirmed in the United States. After initially classifying stories of Western jenkem use as "undetermined", Snopes quickly reclassified it as "false". About.com also concluded reports were "based on faulty Internet research". Drug research site Erowid reported, "the jenkem stories that have been circulating in the U.S. media are almost certainly the strange result of a hoax." Jenkem use was reported uncritically by KIMT of Mason City, Iowa, Austin, Texas NBC affiliate KXAN-TV interviewed an addiction counselor, who speculated on its use: "Once it becomes OK with a certain group of adolescents, it becomes OK with a lot more." Australian broadcaster Ninemsn summarized American news reports. A syndicated report published on the web pages of CBS affiliate CBS-47 and Fox affiliate Fox 30, both in Jacksonville, Florida, reported on jenkem and also referred to it by the slang term "butt hash", citing media reports from The Washington Post, the Drudge Report, and Inside Edition. This was also followed up by a Fox 30 televised news segment, in which Captain Tim Guerrette of the Collier County Sheriff's department was interviewed. A Florida syndicated newspaper article focused on the leaked police memo and included interviews with DEA spokesman Rusty Payne, the Palmetto Ridge High School principal, and a spokeswoman for the Collier County Health Department. Jamie Pietras of the Salon website published a long piece on jenkem in 2007. A commentary in The Times-Reporter of Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio, said jenkem was "largely debunked", but that "someone will be stupid enough to try it." The story was also covered with varying degrees of skepticism in the Orange County Register, Evansville, Indiana, Fox affiliate WTVW, and Wichita, Kansas, CBS affiliate KWCH-TV. In 2009, Bettendorf, Iowa, amended its city ordinance regarding illegal inhalants to include organic substances. In 2010, an apartment building in Fort Pierce, Florida, was condemned after police found leaking containers of human waste in a unit. One police official speculated the tenant was manufacturing jenkem. ==See also==