In the days surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, East Lansing neighborhoods were filled with Michigan State University students carrying brightly colored gallon jugs.
Commonly known as BORGs, or Blackout Rage Gallons, the homemade drink is popular on holidays and big weekends for MSU sports teams. The size of the jugs students use to create BORGs allows for a dangerous amount of alcohol. The drink is often made by mixing an entire fifth-gallon of vodka, about 17 servings, with water and an additive containing electrolytes, like Mio.
Many students see BORGs as a safer way to drink, because they control what is in their drink and their concoction includes electrolytes. But medical professionals warn the drink can contain dangerous amounts of alcohol, and there have been instances where BORGs have been linked to mass alcohol-poisoning events, including an incident where 46 University of Massachusetts students were hospitalized…