"the first person in America to huff his own shit"
July 30, 2007 4:49 PM   Subscribe

The lengths some people will go to get high. Jenkem or jekem is a drug made from raw human sewage, apparently most prevalent in Africa. (Mildly NSFW.)
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim (54 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
I found a few passing references to it in decent sources that tend to make me think this is real, but no promises.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:51 PM on July 30, 2007


Substance-abuse offers a temporary respite in an otherwise harsh world.

Truer words were never spoken (or, rather, written).
posted by MarshallPoe at 4:54 PM on July 30, 2007


Am I really out of the loop or is the user in that first link roughly 13? Seeing pictures of a kid getting high on his own shit really wasn't pleasant.
posted by Shutter at 4:56 PM on July 30, 2007


Man, that stuff is the shit.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:57 PM on July 30, 2007 [4 favorites]


tend to make me think this is real, but no promises.

So this might or might not be a hoax, but you decided to post it anyway?
posted by dersins at 4:57 PM on July 30, 2007


This is fake right? Please tell me this is fake.
posted by chairface at 4:57 PM on July 30, 2007


Shutter: Yep. At the end he writes that his friend who was watching him told him he considered getting "an adult."
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:58 PM on July 30, 2007


Chase it with some FU (5-MeO-W)
posted by prostyle at 5:00 PM on July 30, 2007


I can't wait for this to take off, and for the government to crack down on septic tanks.
posted by mullingitover at 5:02 PM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


It sounds so much like a hoax that it's very hard to believe, yet ... did the BBC get pranked (rechecks URL/certificate)? I dunno, but it definitely gives it more credibility.

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for the links.

I'm not sure what else to say other than life is awful hard sometimes ... and that curiosity is a powerful force.

And god bless totse.

So this might or might not be a hoax, but you decided to post it anyway?

Well, duh. How else will we learn if it is or not? Take charge!
posted by mrgrimm at 5:04 PM on July 30, 2007


Nothing radically new here. Huffing methane from fresh cow plop (using a coconut shell with a hole it in, etc.) has long been a cheap way for kids to get high when there's nothing better on hand.
posted by porn in the woods at 5:10 PM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


I'm a little skeptical of any drug that Erowid doesn't have any information about. I'm just old-fashioned that way...
posted by clevershark at 5:14 PM on July 30, 2007


I wish we could flag parts of the "Real World" as Offensive Content.
posted by freebird at 5:14 PM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


Here's some of the passing references I found. They don't add to the post, but they all mention that African kids are huffing shit.

AP
NYT
UNICEF
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:15 PM on July 30, 2007


I LOL'd.

While I live in mild fear of a potential employer having the google-fu to link me to questionable and often drug related data I placed on the internet in my younger years (or this year for that matter), I rest easy knowing that there is no picture containing both my face and a heaping helping of scatdope.

The kid has guaranteed himself either a life of shame and menial labor or a place among the stars of shock comedy, depending on how well he can spin it. Here's hoping he has the charisma.
posted by bunnytricks at 5:17 PM on July 30, 2007


For the love of God, somebody helivac some silver cleaner to these poor kids!
posted by The Straightener at 5:18 PM on July 30, 2007 [2 favorites]


..."yeh, this is some pretty strong shit, man, i wouldn't recommend you take more than a half in one go, unless you know what you're doing..."
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:18 PM on July 30, 2007


This was somewhat enjoyable, it made me feel like nothing really mattered.

I suppose this is an inevitable side effect of realizing that you just inhaled the gas from your own fermented poop on purpose... I imagine that this is not unlike what a lot of "actresses" in bukkake films must feel.
posted by clevershark at 5:21 PM on July 30, 2007


Where does the word come from?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:27 PM on July 30, 2007


Huffing is for girls.

For best effect they need to cook those turds up and shoot 'em in the mainline.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:44 PM on July 30, 2007


wow. god bless humanity.
posted by geos at 5:48 PM on July 30, 2007


Wasn't there an episode of X-Files about this?
posted by solipsophistocracy at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2007



Wasn't there an episode of X-Files about this?


I would not be surprised at all. My friends and I watched a lot of X-Files recently and it seemed like one out of three of them involved hallucinogenic drugs. Off the top of my head, I can think of the one where the government sprayed a town with a fear-inducing variant of LSD, the one where Mulder's apartment water supply was spiked with LSD, one with an ancient fungus that made people trip & attack each other to spread, one with mushrooms that made you trip and see (real) ghosts, one with scopolamine, and one where Scully gets a tattoo with ergot in it that makes her trip.

Chris Carter was probably huffing jenkem before any 13 year old kids.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 6:07 PM on July 30, 2007


Shit... is there anything it can't do?
posted by grytpype at 6:20 PM on July 30, 2007


wow. just wow. who thought of this first.
posted by Mr_Zero at 6:22 PM on July 30, 2007


This seems like something they would do in prison, if they knew about it.
posted by Afroblanco at 6:23 PM on July 30, 2007


wow. just wow. who thought of this first.

that's what i thought when i heard that smugglers working the India-Pakistan border route lubricate their donkeys' asses with vaseline, because apparently this makes it impossible for them to bray (and thereby to alert the border patrols to their whereabouts)...
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:03 PM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


One word: Gummo.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:03 PM on July 30, 2007


Ahem. Excuse me. Gummo.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:06 PM on July 30, 2007


Gummo is such a great movie. What can I say? It's got something for everybody.

Still can't put my finger on what exactly makes the bathtub scene so incredibly disgusting
posted by Afroblanco at 7:10 PM on July 30, 2007


This is horrible, horrible, horrible. We've not advanced - we're worthless. If children in the world today are reaching their hands into sewage to get high - to see their dead mothers - we're a worthless species .... this is absolutely unimaginable.

Once, when I was in Iquitos, Peru, I saw something horrible. It led me into ministry, eventually - they have open sewers in Iquitos. It's kind of a wretched place, the river has been retreating from the docks for twenty years and the city will dry up soon... They have open sewers passing into the center of the city. And my friend and I heard that in the center of town is a huge landfill where all the garbage collects after the rain floods the city. The people there build their houses on stilts to get above the trash - truly amazing. We decided to check it out. We walked toward the center of town, and the closer we got, the wider the sewers became. Eventually, we saw people walking around in the sewers. Before we ever got to the landfill, I saw two young children, a boy and girl, no older than ten or eleven, with a dead dog. The dog was floating in the sewer and they were pulling strips of meat off of it and stuffing it in a plastic bag.

This isn't simply sad - this is a failure on the part of every single human being on this planet with a dollar to spare.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:25 PM on July 30, 2007 [6 favorites]


Jenkem is going to be my new band.
posted by klangklangston at 8:23 PM on July 30, 2007


So I'm guessing we can all agree now that there is no god. No? Really? You think god is there? Awsome.
posted by nola at 8:29 PM on July 30, 2007


This seems like something they would do in prison, if they knew about it.

If anyone reading this winds up in prison, really desperate to get high, I want them to try this and think of me.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:41 PM on July 30, 2007


This isn't simply sad - this is a failure on the part of every single human being on this planet with a dollar to spare.

I wish there were simple answers to the world's problems. For example, if there was an organization called Stop the Children From Sniffing Fermented Shit, I would paypal them $25 right the fuck now.

But as it is, who would be the best recipient of my money if I wanted to stop this sort of thing?
posted by Afroblanco at 9:03 PM on July 30, 2007


...
posted by phrontist at 9:07 PM on July 30, 2007


This isn't simply sad - this is a failure on the part of every single human being on this planet with a dollar to spare.
Interesting take. I have maybe a few hundred dollars to spare at this point in my life. I give old and unused clothes and household items to Charities.

I failed when, exactly, according to you, to stop the fermented shitgas afficionados??

P.S. In addition to dollars, there are pounds, dinars, euros, sheckels and so on. To spare. Not to mention to the detrimental effect of African kleptocracies.
posted by longsleeves at 9:09 PM on July 30, 2007


Does mean they're going to outlaw crap now? Because it's going to take some serious thought to come up with a good place for the stash.
posted by JHarris at 10:13 PM on July 30, 2007


I have an ex-wife named Jen and later had dated Kym. I am reminded of the time we spent together.
posted by robot at 10:44 PM on July 30, 2007 [2 favorites]


Actually, prisoners here have more options than that. There's maybe nutmeg from the cafeteria, or skunky wine made from the jelly packets at breakfast. And that's *if* drugs don't get in from the outside, which, well, happens every day.
posted by trondant at 10:53 PM on July 30, 2007


So I'm guessing we can all agree now that there is no god. No? Really?

I didn't believe either, until I started huffing jenkem. Now I'm up close and personal with him on a regular basis.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:20 PM on July 30, 2007


Next: arguments on stoner forums about which mammal produces the dopest shit.
posted by Anything at 11:43 PM on July 30, 2007


'Crack Pipe' takes on a whole new meaning.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:58 AM on July 31, 2007 [1 favorite]


I'm glad they've discovered this. They have no homes, no hope, no help, they live in the shit and trash of others, but at least they've found a way to turn shit and trash into brief bursts of happiness. It's probably killing them, but what isn't?
posted by pracowity at 2:12 AM on July 31, 2007


This post has really put me off the cup of weasel coffee I just made.
posted by jack_mo at 2:44 AM on July 31, 2007


mrgrimmm > did the BBC get pranked
They are not infallible - see the alleged three-headed frog - and even well-meaning organisations can propagate drug horror stories. This stinks of urban myth: if this were true, you'd expect accounts of similar effects in sewer and sewage farm workers.
posted by raygirvan at 3:24 AM on July 31, 2007


That's some good shit.
posted by rhizome23 at 3:34 AM on July 31, 2007


I'm going to be the first American to try jenkem made of panda shit. Thank you metafilter for your guidance.
posted by saysthis at 4:27 AM on July 31, 2007


You know, when I first began reading this I thought, "how sad and pitiful," but then it began to sink in. If there is anyone on this earth that has a more shitty existance than an African street kid, I have not heard of them. These kids deserve an escape, even for a few fleeting moments, from the pain, the hunger, the sadness, the disease and the death that those they face every day. Some spoiled, fat, western college fuck on his soft couch with his 52 inch plasma screen and a bong worth more than these kids will see in their short lives is a waste of weed. He gets high so that Triple X becomes sooooo awesome, while these kids get high to see their dead mothers.
posted by Pollomacho at 5:19 AM on July 31, 2007 [1 favorite]


There's maybe nutmeg from the cafeteria

Have you actually tried to get high on nutmeg? Do you know how much it takes? Way more than Malcolm X makes it sound I can assure you.
posted by Pollomacho at 5:20 AM on July 31, 2007


While huffing jenkem can be effective, I hear that it's far more potent when taken in suppository form.
posted by skammer at 9:06 AM on July 31, 2007


Wow, Metafilter is just like Slashdot. None of the things that are supposed to be "funny" are actually funny.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:35 AM on July 31, 2007


It takes 10-12 nuts. The LD50 ain't that far off. And I hear that the audio hallucinations are outstanding.

Note: this comment refers to nutmeg, not jenkem.
posted by imperium at 1:35 PM on August 1, 2007


" two teenage boys plunge their hands into the dark brown sludge, gathering up fistfuls and stuffing it into small plastic bottles. They tap the bottles on the ground, taking care to leave enough room for methane to form at the top. A sour smell rises in the hot sun, but the boys seem oblivious to the stench and the foul nature of their task...

"It lasts about an hour", says one user, 16-year-old Luke Mpande, who prefers Jenkem to other substances.

Sniffing sewage is a symptom of the desperate plight of Zambia's street-children. There are thought to be some 75,000 in the country as a whole - a number that has doubled in the past eight years
."

This post has haunted me for days now. It's unbearable to think about the misery that caused kids to seek this to self-medicate for the task of simply being alive and trying to survive in their circumstances. Incredibly sad. I want to help in some way and have decided to send some money to this organization, SOS Children's Villages in Zambia

SOS Children in Zambia
SOS Children's Villages of Zambia Trust, Plot 20092, Great North Road, P.O. Box 37907, Lusaka, Zambia
Tel: +260/1/242 730 or +260/1/242 731
Fax: +260/1/242 732
email: ncozambia@soscvzambia.org.zm
www.soscvzambia.org.zm

Here is the page about how to donate.

May they those homeless orphaned street kids rest in peace or find some way out of their misery.
posted by nickyskye at 11:31 PM on August 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


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