UKC

My daughter has had her meths confiscated on her way into a festival site. The Crowd Control Engineer suspected it might be used for getting 'high'. He wasn't persuaded by the presence of a Trangia or raw sausage and bacon.

I am not aware that it is possible to use industrial purple meths for getting high. Can anyone enlighten me?

In reply to BigHairyIan:
Working in a paint shop I can tell you that there are many things that I sell that could get you high, however Methylated Spirit is not one of them.
I have heard of people drinking it, due to its high alcohol contains but now they put a chemical in it to try and stop people doing that.
I would guess that if you mixed it with a lot of other items it COULD POSSIBLY get you high, but if you're smart enough to be able to do that, you're not dumb enough to get it confiscated.

In reply to BigHairyIan:

It's a mixture of ethanol and methanol plus a purple dye so it would get you drunk but you really wouldn't want to drink it, same as alcohol hand gel, aftershave etc...

Also, 'Crowd Control Engineer', that's a jumped up title if ever I heard one.

In reply to BigHairyIan:
It's mostly ethanol with a bit of methanol added to make it undrinkable and a purple dye as a warning.

So yes it will get you pissed, but you'd soon go blind and mad due to the methanol. Just another ignorant stuffed hi vis shirt. But that is another rant for another thread.

In reply to andic:
The methanol is Pyradine and as you say it is used to create a bitter taste and therefore make it undrinkable.

In reply to BigHairyIan:

Tell her it goes down better with a dash of brown lemonade

In reply to BigHairyIan:
He probably left his own at home so was was on the lookout for someone elses to steal

In reply to andic:

You'd have to drink hell of a lot for the methanol to have that effect. The pyridine would have you puking long before that. But otherwise yes, you can't get high. (Butane stove would be a better bet...)

In reply to BigHairyIan: I drink it on a regular basis...

and no did for the drink harmful not by the drink to me, should is be fine not no good drink...

fizzzzzzzzzz badger

In reply to BigHairyIan: I've been at festivals that don't allow gas cans but do allow meths. Go figure.

In reply to BigHairyIan:

It's all a weeze to make sure you can't cook your own food and have to buy from the catering vans

In reply to BigHairyIan:

It'll get you pissed if you're desperate enough but it tastes vile and it's harmful because of the high methanol content.

jk

In reply to BigHairyIan:


Tramps do, but it makes them blind, methanol is the chemical name for "wood alcohol".

In reply to BigHairyIan: name and shame - which festival site?

You used to have to sign the poisons register in Scotland when you bought meths in a chemist, because of the problems with meths drinkers, so it isn't an entirely made up problem, but the bouncer sounded like a tit nonetheless

In reply to BigHairyIan:

I have seen what happens when a bottle of Wilkos meths is passed around a group of kids after school. Puking until you bleed isn't really my idea of a high...

Methanol is not pyradine! Pyradine is a nitrogen containing hetrocycle. Methanol is ethanol with one less carbon atom. Pure ethanol is poisoness in itself. As Already mentioned Methylated spirits is just close to pure ethanol with a small amount of methanol in to prevent people drinking it as methanol is very poisoness.

Maybe there are worries of fires etc as people die everyyear in burning tents. However I'm not sure what the festival organisers expect people to cook on.

In reply to toad:

Any bouncer with such a stupid job title sounds like a tit regardless...

Neil

In reply to Robbiobaby:

Gas presumably. Or to buy their outrageously expensive bacon butties...

Neil

In reply to Neil Williams: I've been to a lot of festivals with a trangia, an msr and various gas burners and never had a problem, but then I don't go to the big commercial monsters. The big no-no are usually barbecues, and I can see why you don't want unattended charcoal fires everywhere, but trangias are dead straightforward and relatively safe.

In reply to BigHairyIan:

The 'crowd control engineer' (wtf?) sounds like a prize bell-end to be honest.

Anyway, since when did you have to take your drugs in to festivals, are they really that crap these days?

In reply to BigHairyIan: All festivals tend to be different. I've worke dsecurity at one where we had to go around and put everyones disposable BBQs out because they weren't permitted. Felt like a right killjoy, especially when they were perfectly safe. At the same festival, gas, petrol and alcohol stoves were fine. A year later I went to the download festival as a punter where gas and petrol stoves were prohibited but meths and disposable BBQs were fine (although I had to argue that the trangia burner and fondu sets were ok, despite a whacking sign saying trangias were ok). The arguement in both cases was safety. In reality the rules were made by a bloke in a office who had to put something down on a risk assessment, who probably had little experience of any of the above.

The whole festival cooking situation is a complete joke and you have to take it as it comes, and be prepared to produce paperwork from their pre-festival admin documents at the gates. Most of the security staff couldn't tell meths from white spirit, nor know what a trangia is or that gas stoves are purpose designed for camping (shock horror).

In reply to balmybaldwin:


That would be my suspicion; either food stalls, or, surprisingly, a stall selling meths, in very familiar-looking bottles (i.e. those just stolen from festival-goers). That or our CCE is simply a jobsworth tw*t, just like the jobsworths tw*ts at airport security who confiscate gas burners (e.g. Pocket Rockets) when there's no gas cylinder attached, and less residual gas in the thing than is produced by the tiniest fart.

A butane gas cylinder is a much better way of getting high. Or dead. Were they confiscating gas cylinders as well?

Definitely name and shame.

In reply to BigHairyIan: Likely to go blind first. Crowd Control Engineer gets a vote for Mr Job'sworth of the year.