Ever heard of smoking alcohol? If not, there’s a good chance the teens you know have. YouTube is awash in clips of youth inhaling vapors from vodka, whiskey, beer and any other sort of alcohol available to them. Because the vapors are so potent, teens can get drunk in seconds.

It’s a deeply disturbing and dangerous trend, according to doctors and other experts. When someone consumes alcohol in a more traditional manner, it takes longer to affect you: The substance is filtered through the liver before it makes its way to the bloodstream. If you consume too much of it, the body has natural safeguards in place that help reduce the risk of being seriously poisoned by the stuff. If you drink too much, for instance, you typically throw up.

When you inhale alcoholic vapors, the alcohol goes directly to the brain. It takes less alcohol to make the user seriously intoxicated; because there’s nothing to vomit, alcohol poisoning becomes far more likely.

“It’s binge drinking in an instant,” says Steve Pasierb, who heads the partnership behind Drugfree.org. “It’s like doing five or six shots into your bloodstream right away.” (“Today“)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and two children. Follow him on Twitter.