Someone Needs to Tell Our Teenagers Condoms Aren’t For Snorting
A disturbing trend among young people has reemerged, and someone needs to tell our teenagers condoms aren't for snorting.
A potentially life-threatening practice is making the rounds called the "condom snorting challenge." As crazy as it sounds, they shove a condom up their nose and, if all goes well, they pull it out their mouth. The video above is somewhat disturbing.
For starters, it's disgusting to watch, but more importantly, it is extremely risky behavior.
Experts tell CBS news the biggest danger is that it is a choking hazard. What if it gets stuck? They say even if it doesn't get stuck, the condom could damage nasal passages and sinuses, and lead to bacterial or fungal infection.
Why would kids want to do this? Of course, I suppose we could ask that question about lots of things kids do nowadays. Risky behavior is nothing new in the teenage world whether it's car surfing, the choking game, or abusing household products to get high like cough syrup, nutmeg, hand sanitizer, and various cleaning supplies.
I'm not sure who thinks this stuff up, like, who was the first kid to stuff a latex condom up his nose? And how is it possible that somebody else witnessed that condom snorting and somehow thought it would be a good idea to try it.
I would like to think that teenagers in the Grand Valley are smarter than American's average teens, and that they are not participating in the practice of condom snorting. But, nothing would surprise me at this point. Parents should definitely be having a frank conversation with their teens.
I am reminded of my own younger days and some of the risky behavior I engaged in:
* Jumping off the roof of the garage on to the trampoline below (about a four-foot drop)
* Shooting at the neighbor kid with a BB gun
* Trying to smoke a weed ( not pot, a real weed!)
*Picking a fight with my older, larger, and stronger big brother
Of course, that was all before the age of 10. I think by the time I reached high school I had gained a measure of wisdom and my risky behavior was limited to daring to disrupt Mr. Wooley's lecture in Colorado History, and dropping pennies off the top floor of a 20 story hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.
Risky behavior has always been with us, and it shall remain until the end of time. But, I'm hoping that some of these kids who seem to have the answer to gun violence in schools will use their voice to proclaim the proper use of condoms and to squelch this latest dangerous craze of condom snorting - before it turns fatal.