There's a new rumor floating around news stations and on the Internet that teens are smoking coffee beans in order to get a "caffeine high." Yet this particular rumor may just be that-a rumor. The news station that ran the story, a Las Vegas ABC affiliate, was unable to find any youths who had actually done the activity.
The rumor was that teens were getting their caffeine fix through smoking coffee beans. The news station called it "a dangerous trend" and that it isn't a necessarily new one, but that the activity had spiked in recent weeks. In fact, the news station stated that there were websites popping up that teach kids how to roll their own "caffeine stick." Symptoms from smoking caffeine were reported to be trouble breathing, dizziness, vomiting and hallucinations.
Yet it seems as if this "trend" is no trend at all. According to Social News Daily, smoking caffeine isn't actually a real story. The site reported that Monday was the first time "bean heads" and "caffeine sticks" were even mentioned online. In addition, the practice of smoking coffee wasn't mentioned before then either on social media.
That's not all, either. The websites that reportedly teach kids how to create caffeine sticks are mostly satirical, according to Time. In addition, there aren't any youtube videos that show people smoking caffeine; the only ones that pop up are a kid offering coffee flavoring advice to those making homemade toy cigarettes and a man smoking coffee out of his pipe (with a very unimpressed review of it), according to Time.
So is coffee smoking sweeping the nation? It doesn't seem likely. Kids are more likely to get their caffeine high from sodas and energy drinks rather than trying to smoke it. It turns out that this "trend" isn't actually a trend at all.
