If a person is addicted to alcohol and he ends up in prison, one might expect that it’s a hard row to hoe. No doubt he will receive some assistance from the health officials at the prison, but the one thing he will not receive in his daily rations of food is alcohol. Cigarettes, yes. Drugs? Not legally. But alcohol is pretty much out of the picture. It’s a time when they have to learn to live without this substance that has ruled their lives.
Enter some enterprising inmates over in Bluffdale (and isn’t that a great name for the place where “fake” alcohol was being made?) An October 5, 2011 story tells how several inmates in the Utah State Prison decided to brew alcohol inside of a plastic bag. They kept it somehow hidden from the guards. The story didn’t give out their recipe, but after twelve of the inmates consumed some of it, they all ended up with Botulism. Eight of them were taken to a local hospital and the other four were under medical observation at the prison.
According to a Department of Health website, food-borne Botulism “is a serious illness caused by a nerve toxin made by the bacterium, Clostridium botulinum. (A toxin is a poison that is released by some bacteria). Eating food that has the botulism toxin causes food-borne botulism. It often involves improperly processed home canned foods.”
Botulism is caused by bacteria that grow in the food (or in this case, the drink which was likely made from some sort of fruit) and the symptoms show up within 12-36 hours after the item is consumed. This is long enough for someone to continue partaking and think that nothing bad is going to happen.
The website goes on to say that “all types of botulism produce symptoms that affect the nervous system. The classic symptoms of botulism include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth and muscle weakness that goes down the body, first the shoulders, then upper arms, lower arms, thighs, calves, feet. If untreated these symptoms may progress to paralysis.”
These twelve inmates should be thankful that they were able to receive care quickly. Hopefully they’ll realize that going off the liquor is a better deal than getting poisoned by making their own.
