High school warns parents of students spiking coffee with vanilla extract to get a ‘buzz’
(Meredith) – A high school in Atlanta is warning parents that some students are spiking their coffee with vanilla extract to apparently catch a buzz before school.
Grady High School posted the advisory to its Facebook page saying kids are buying “Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract,” which contains 35 percent alcohol.
School officials said the students have been buying the baking ingredient from a nearby grocery store and mixing it with their lattes before heading to school. In one case, a student had to go to the emergency room after drinking the spiked coffee, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
According to the National Poison Control Center, vanilla extract contains ethanol, the same type of alcohol found in beer, wine and hard liquor.
“The amount of extract called for in recipes would not be dangerous,” the agency said. “But a child who swallowed the contents of a bottle might be at risk for alcohol poisoning.”
It’s unclear how many Grady students have been drinking the extract, but the school advised parents that it’s just “another thing to keep an eye out for.”