Teens are turning to a new trend to get high: drinking "dewshine," a mix of Mountain Dew and racing fuel.
Brandon Short of White Sands Treatment Center is hearing from patients seeking treatment for other drug addictions about their experiences with dewshine.
"It doesn't sound like a good idea. It sounds like you could also call it 'Mountain Doom,' maybe? Or 'Choke-a-Cola,'" 20-year-old Jake Wilson said.
"That's crazy. I can imagine the dangers of it," Cape Coral High School student Laura Moreno said.
It's cheap, accessible, and easy to disguise, but extremely dangerous.
"Even little amounts can be very toxic and fatal in most cases when consumed," Short said.
Short said several patients at White Sands Treatment Center say they've tried it, and they're usually in their late teenage years.
"It's a very fast high," Short said.
But the fast high comes with a price: headaches, dizziness, mania, amnesia, kidney failure, even death.
"It will kill you. It may not kill you the first time, but eventually it will cause some serious long-term effects," Short said. "I had one patient who had it, was on a vent. He made it, but he can't use part of his brain because it can cause irreparable brain damage."
Short's patient is one of the lucky ones: two high school students in Tennessee died after drinking dewshine.
Moreno said she'd never heard of it, but doesn't believe it should be swept under the rug.
She thinks teens shouldn't be allowed to purchase racing fuel.
"If it continues getting worse and stuff, they should regulate it. Be a certain age or be with a parent," Moreno said.
Short has a message for teens considering trying dewshine:
"It's a scientific experiment that you should not take," Short said.
He said racing fuel is very potent and has a distinct smell, so someone drinking dewshine may smell like petroleum or acetone, and may be confused, sensitive to light, or slurring their words.
