(NECN/NBC News: Chris Glorioso) - Doctors are growing concerned over a new, potentially dangerous way young people are consuming alcohol by smoking it.
On YouTube, young people turn basements and dorm rooms into laboratories. Theyve discovered a new way to consume alcohol without the calories.
It's called "smoking alcohol." Teens and 20-somethings pressurize a bottle with beer, liquor, or wine in the bottom, then they inhale the vapor.
Sucking in the alcoholic fumes instead of drinking liquid, bypasses the liver and sends intoxicating ethanol straight to the lungs and brain. That's what is so dangerous, says Lenox Hill ER Doctor Robert Glatter.
Glatter said, "The danger, mainly, is that it leads to rapid intoxication in the sense that you don't know you're getting drunk that fast. When people drink the normal sensation they get more and more drunk is to vomit, it's your body's way of expelling alcohol. However your brain can't expel alcohol. So, it's extremely dangerous."
Smoking alcohol can also damage the lining of your lungs.
With such health risks, you might think the intoxicating trick would be strictly underground.
It is not though. We found an entrepreneur selling this "Vaportini" online for $30. It is glassware specifically designed to inhale alcohol.
The product's inventor told us Vaportini is not about getting drunk as fast as you can, it's about enjoying alcohol in a new way.
But Dr. Glatter fears the fad will turn into a fatality if teens don't get the message smoking alcohol is playing with fire.
"I would say do not try this. This is extremely dangerous."