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Two Tennessee teens are dead and two more are in critical condition after they whipped up and drank an awful concoction nicknamed "Dewshine," which is a combination of Mountain Dew and racing fuel:
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NASHVILLE — A second Greenbrier teen has died and two more received medical treatment after officials said they drank a mixture of Mountain Dew and methanol racing fuel last week.
On Thursday, authorities were called to the Franklin Farms home of 16-year-old Logan Stephenson, who was found dead in his bed.
Within minutes, they were called to a second home, on Cemetery Road, because the boy’s best friend had begun having seizures, Greenbrier Police Chief K.D. Smith said.
Authorities have not released the identity of the second teen, but Smith confirmed Tuesday that the medical examiner’s office had notified his department of the second teen’s death that morning. The Robertson County Sheriff's Office also released a statement Tuesday confirming the second teen's death.
Spokesman Ryan Martin said the boy died Monday afternoon, and the Sheriff’s Office was notified later that same day.
“We ask that everyone continue to pray for both of these families as they go through this tragic time,” Sheriff Bill Holt said in the department’s Tuesday release.
Since Stephenson’s death, two other teens have come forward, claiming they drank a similar substance, Smith said.
Four cases from Robertson County have been recorded with the Tennessee Poison Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to medical director Dr. Donna Seger.
Two of the teenagers were treated and released from two different emergency departments, Seger said.
Both teens said they had consumed a mixture of Mountain Dew and racing fuel, she said.
“They thought they knew what it was, that it was a substitute for alcohol,” Seger said. “They thought they would get the same effects as alcohol, but they weren’t aware of how toxic it was.”
Racing fuel, used in drag racing, is made up of almost 100% methanol, a non-drinkable form of alcohol used for industrial and automotive purposes, Seger said.
Initially, methanol can give the same effects as ethanol, which is used in the production of alcoholic beverages, but over time, it can result in symptoms ranging from blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea to seizures, blindness, coma and death, depending on the amount and concentration of the methanol that was consumed, Seger said.
The investigation into the deaths of Stephenson and his best friend are ongoing. Police have not confirmed whether the boys had actually consumed the substance pending autopsy reports from the medical examiner's office, Smith said.
The rumors "are deeply disturbing and harmful to the families that are already going through a tragic time of loss," the release said.
Methanol is extremely poisonous and as little as two tablespoons can be deadly to a child, according to the National Institutes of Health website.
About two to eight ounces can be deadly for an adult, and the success of treatment is often determined by how much poison a person swallowed and how soon he or she received medical attention, the website says.
Heath workers are not aware of how prevalent Dewshine consumption is among Tennesseans, Seger said.
“These two deaths have brought it to our attention,” she said. “We have to try to make sure that adolescents are aware of the toxicity. Kids usually communicate more among themselves, and we need to make more kids aware of this, statewide.”
Health officials at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have notified the Department of Health about the situation, Seger said.
She also said she was not aware of any other cases involving Dewshine consumption outside of Tennessee.
Meanwhile, investigators urged community members to stop posting rumors about the case on social media sites, according to the release from the Robertson County Sheriff's Office.
Robertson County Schools have been closed since before Stephenson's death because of inclement weather, but Schools Director Mike Davis said Tuesday that the system was planning to have extra counselors at Greenbrier High School when the students resume classes.
“Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the parents and family members of these young men,” Davis said. “I think we will make the special effort to inform students of the dangers related to the deaths of these boys. We need to be reminding kids to make good choices.”
The Stephenson family is collecting funds in Logan's memory with a GoFundMe page, saying they will use the funds to educate teens and families about substance-abuse dangers.
This is a picture of the deceased boys, Logan Stephenson and JD Byram:
![[Image: dewshinecomposite_3561010b.jpg]](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03561/dewshinecomposite_3561010b.jpg)
Here is a somewhat biased article from the Tennessean about these kids and the history of dewshine-like drinks:
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Illicit alcohol is as old as Prohibition, both the social and legislated kinds.
It also kills.
Sadly, this week, two Greenbrier teenagers who were caught up in the hype and promise of a cheap high will never see better days.
The teens died after consuming a drink nicknamed 'dewshine,' a mixture of Mountain Dew and racing fuel, which is composed mostly of methanol, a highly toxic substance.
'Dewshine' is a depressing rejoinder that draws on years of history where low-grade alcohol products are mixed with sodas or fruit juice to make them more palatable.
Even the name Mountain Dew comes from an Appalachian moniker for moonshine, the illegal corn and sugar-based liquor that became popular in the South during and after Prohibition, when alcohol couldn't be sold.
Mountain Dew was created in the 1940's in East Tennessee by the Hartland brothers who wanted a citrus-flavored beverage with a caffeine kick as a mixer for whiskey.
They nurtured the lore already popularized by jug bands on the Grand Ole Opry, where musicians would swap suits for hillbilly garb. Mountain Dew went as far as creating a cartoon character named Hillbilly Willy and pushing their motto, "It'll tickle your innards," in hand-scrawled lettering on the bottles and in ad campaigns.
It was a slick and fun way to gain attention.
The scourge
The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had reasons for trying to shut down moonshiners. The "revenuers," as they were called, knew that some producers used less-than-sound methods, allowing lead solder to leach into the product, poisoning the sorry drinkers and causing "jake-legged" thrashing, blindness and death.
Sure, it was easy to paint the story in terms of recalcitrant and independent mountain folk (the original "teapartiers") thumbing their bearded noses at authority, calling moonshine drivers the birth of NASCAR, and making it a proud part of Appalachian culture. When moonshine was good, it was all of those things, but when it was bad, it took the curl out of your hair and suddenly your home was a pine box.
In urban areas, especially among the homeless during prohibition and the Depression, "canned heat" was the cheap, easy, and often deadly way to get stoned. Desperate drinkers would take cans of Sterno, strain them through socks and make "jungle juice" with cheap fruit drink mixers. The problem with Sterno was that it was alcohol denatured with methanol, a poisonous blend that created quick highs followed by sorrowful and painful deaths, chronicled in songs like the "Canned Heat Blues" recorded in 1928 by Tommy Johnson.
Today, however, relentless marketing and promotion of products draws on the romanticized and whitewashed history of moonshine's past. While no standard of identity exists for moonshine, it hasn't stopped dozens of companies from making legal product and calling it moonshine. Their ad campaigns sell rugged individualism, they turn the novelty of overalls and mason jars into naughty fun for folks in button-downs and Tory Burch boots. They hawk pride in the Rebel South, and give you tasty recipes created by mixologists because even they know you won't choke this stuff down without heavy mixers.
Which brings us back to the kids.
It brings us back to sweet soda and alcohol, so codified in Tennessee culture that we have names like Jack and Coke, Dickel and Drop, and now, sadly, 'dewshine.'
What makes this harder, and unfortunate for Mountain Dew and its parent company PepsiCo, is they recently released a new, clear product called just that: Dewshine. The bottle has a hillbilly with a jug. It carries the phrase, "It'll tickle your innards." Advertising says it's "available legally for the first time."
Sadder still, Mountain Dew has evolved into something bigger. It spawned other caffeine-fueled drinks which gave rise to the energy drink explosion. 'Vodka and Red Bull' trips off tongues as easily as 'gin and juice' did fifty years ago.
'Do the Dew' went after skate punks and Warcraft gamers with new brands and partnerships. It went squarely after kids who thrived on risk and danger.
And then, inexplicably, a mixture of racing fuel and Mountain Dew co-opted the name 'dewshine.' And now two teens are dead.
You can't undo the decades and millions of dollars of marketing. This isn't about blame. It's is about a horrifyingly tragic confluence of history and circumstance.
We have closed a deadly circle and it needs to be addressed immediately, before another kid does what kids do.
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What a senseless loss. What happened to strikeouts or acid? Kids gotta mainline racing fuel to get their rocks off? Lord have mercy. . .
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