Several University of Massachusetts students were hospitalized after participating in a TikTok challenge that required them to binge-drink gallons of alcohol over the weekend.
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In Amherst, Massachusetts, twenty-eight ambulances were dispatched after dozens of students became ill after participating in the ‘blackout rage gallons’ challenge during the school’s ‘Blarney Blowout’ event. To stay hydrated, the individual must drink a mixture of alcohol, electrolyte drinks such as Gatorade, water, and flavor packs and place the concoction in a jug.
@kettlebellkel bad day to be a borg at umass #umass #blarney ♬ original sound – kelley
According to MEAWW, the drink contains about a fifth of an ounce of alcohol, which equates to about 16 drinks. According to the Amherst Fire Department, the students had alcohol poisoning, but none of the cases were life-threatening. Police detained two more people for underage drinking.
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After the challenge and students’ hospitalizations went viral on social media, users were saying that the trend was nothing new since the borg drink had been a popular binge drink of college students before TikTok existed. Twitter user @M_Lynx_3000 wrote, “I kinda get maybe the new thing is that each person or small group is making/managing their own Borg vs. the tub of juice and solo cup route But yes mixing grain alcohol and flavor packets of all variety in bulk ain’t new.”
Another wrote, “Why is everyone so shocked by college kids and their BORG like we didn’t all drink Jungle Juice from a communal cooler that we didn’t know the last time was washed in a lead-infested basement in college.”
In a report by Bustle, the BORG drink reportedly has some benefits(not healthy ones, of course), but if an individual makes their own, they don’t have to drink the same thing as everyone else.
“While it’s obvious that drinking a gallon of mixed drinks in one night is not the best idea, there are some positives to the whole thing compared to traditional jungle juice. For starters, BORGs don’t require you to drink from the same germy bucket as everyone else at the party. Instead, you can make yours how you want ahead of time. Plus, you don’t have to share it with anyone you don’t want to, which is a great option considering what the world has gone through over the last few years.”
The University of Massachusetts said in a statement that new students would be mandated to take a course about the safety of alcohol consumption. The event will be assessed to see what transpired in order to prevent future incidents from occurring but the trend has earned over 2 million views through the hashtag #borg.