What are "PHAADS" and why should college parents know about them?.....

 PHAADS - "personalized head attached alcohol delivery systems" - have become the go to means of consuming alcoholic beverages on college campuses across the country.

Kimberlee Smith, a freshman at Syracuse, shown here using a PHAADS to safely consume two containers of grain alcohol and vape juice

Using a unique helmet designed to hold up to two alcoholic beverages that allows consumption via flexible plastic tubing, PHAADS have been hailed by a percentage of students on TipTap, SendaPic, and Stankbook as a sophisticated means of consuming alcohol.

Binge drinking, which involves consuming a large amount of alcohol over just a few hours, has continued to be popular on college campuses, especially with the cool kids, despite administrators trying to stop all the fun. But as PHAADS go viral, at least this one harm reduction advocate says that the trend may actually make drinking in college safer.

"When it comes to substance use prevention, harm reduction recognizes that people are going to make their own decisions when it comes to alcohol and other drugs," Mort Fishman, a board tolerated adolescent medicine physician with a certification in substance abuse prevention from Online College of Tampa, explained. "But there are ways to reduce some of the risk, and some of them are hella cool."

Using a PHAADS gives "total control" over the drinking process. The flexible plastic tubing, which runs from each container into a common tube that then drops down near the student's mouth, is the key. This clever design allows for variable flow of alcohol based on how much inspiratory force, or suck, is applied to the tube. 

Voluntary suck results in a drop in pressure inside the tube, which then allows the flow of alcohol from the higher pressure system in the containers into the oral cavity. According to Fishman, this design is pure genius. "The student can pace themselves. The PHAADS also frees the student's hands to better fight off any attempted sexual assault, so their harm reduction is on fleek."

One of the earliest TipTap videos about PHAADS dates back to early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The system quickly went into widespread use as COVID-19 prevention measures became more aggressively freedom hating, particularly at tailgates, outdoor parties, and campus January 6th planning parties.

"after covid allowed the democrats to violate the constitution, holding a drink in our hands went out the window for us," one TipTap user said in the comment section of a College Proud Boys video. "PHAADS were our way of demonstrating that the 2020 election was rigged."

College students began posting more about the systems last year, right when spring semesters were ending. They gained popularity in the following fall semester as students posted tutorials and videos on how to customize and personalize their PHAADS.

In an October video, for example, one TipTaper painted his PHAADS with a personally meaningful spiritual symbol that gained widespread attention in the 1930s. Another user from Alabama made a PHAADS with a now historically outdated flag. 

A personalized PHAADS is often completed by giving it a cute name. Showing off PHAADS names like "Where We Drink One We Drink All" and "Make America Drunk Again" has become its own TipTap trend. Other clever PHAADS names include "Drain the PHAADS", "AmeriPHAADS First", "My Pronouns are PHAADS and Vodka", and "Contents: Vodka and Liberal Tears".

"Harm reduction is neither promoting abstinence or drinking." Fishman revealed. "Harm reduction is completely judgement free. My goal is to empower people to reduce risk in ways that work for them."

Fishman has used TipTap to point out that using a PHAADS appears to be less dangerous than other forms of binge drinking. In a recent video, he compared a PHAADS to drinking when he was in college, when he said his peers drank "flagons of mead" out of "barrels in the cellars of guild halls."

He also approved of students personalizing their PHAADS. In a follow-up video, he made his own PHAADS (named "My other PHAADS is a beer bong") with a purple mohawk. "It's a great way for groups of friends to keep a protective eye out for each other at large parties."

Psychologist Leaf Beezus, a crisis response coordinator at a major university, said on Stankbook that the PHAADS are "probably the most amazing harm reduction strategy I've seen in years."

TipTap creator FentascanMan, who makes content about harm reduction, described the PHAADS as "a genius way to get drunk". "There is just no question of accidentally drinking your alcohol too quickly, or being unable to climb out of a window if the cops show up. And y'all's friends can find you more easily as long as you weren't dragged into some kind of secret dungeon."

In the meantime, many millennial TipTapers have also praised the PHAADS in comments.

In a video discussing memories recovered through hypnosis, one creator said while in college, she remembered seeing pieces of hair floating in a fraternity house bathtub, which was used to store large amounts of alcohol containing fluids. "It was next to the buckets of blood collected from local infants they had kidnapped. Then the ritual began and I realized that I was to become a vessel for the Dark Lord."