In one of the latest TikTok crazes, young people at parties introduce viewers to their gallon jugs of alcoholic drinks, to which they’ve given clever names such as “Ruth Bader Ginsborg” and “Brown vs. Borg of Education.”


What You Need To Know

  • In one of the latest TikTok crazes, young people at parties introduce viewers to their gallon jugs of alcoholic drinks, to which they’ve given clever names such as “Ruth Bader Ginsborg” and “Brown vs. Borg of Education"

  • The jugs are called “BORGs” – for “blackout rage gallons" and are made by taking a gallon of water, pouring out half and filling up the rest with someone’s alcohol of choice and a powdered mix of electrolytes and caffeine

  • Using BORGs is billed by many as a safer way of drinking because the water and electrolytes make hangovers less likely, the person consuming the alcohol generally decides what goes into the bottle, and the closed containers protect against someone spiking the drink

  • However, the University of Massachusetts last weekend issued a warning about the trend after the Amherst Fire Department said a pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration resulted in 28 alcohol-related ambulance transports involving college-aged students

The jugs are called “BORGs” – for “blackout rage gallons.” They are made by taking a gallon of water, pouring out half and filling up the rest with someone’s alcohol of choice and a powdered mix of electrolytes and caffeine.

Videos using the #borg hashtag on TikTok have been viewed nearly 85 million times.

Using BORGs is billed by many as a safer way of drinking because the water and electrolytes make hangovers less likely, the person consuming the alcohol generally decides what goes into the bottle, and the closed containers protect against someone spiking the drink.

However, the University of Massachusetts last weekend issued a warning about the trend after the Amherst Fire Department said a pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration resulted in 28 alcohol-related ambulance transports involving college-aged students. Amherst Fire Department and UMass officials said many students were seen carrying plastic gallon bottles.

None of the cases were life-threatening, the university said.

“Literally anybody and everybody was carrying a BORG around,” freshman Tess Mollo told the Amherst Bulletin. “It seems like that was the main attraction” at the celebration.

Doctors warn that the trend is dangerous.

"This all but encourages binge drinking, which is already a significant problem among college-aged students,” Dr. Lawrence Weinstein, chief medical officer at American Addiction Centers, told Health.com.

Some TikTok videos showed people pouring an entire fifth of vodka – about 16 shots – into their BORGs.

“The flavorant can mask some of the effects of alcohol and caffeine itself can mask some of the effects of alcohol, so sometimes then you don't even know or realize how much you've been drinking,” George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Florida’s Poison Control Centers warned earlier this week that the BORG trend could lead to alcohol poisoning among spring breakers.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

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