Youngsters Use Inhalants More Than Marijuana, Survey Says

Youngsters Use Inhalants More Than Marijuana, Survey Says
More Attention Must Be Paid To Huffing, Agency Says

POSTED: 8:17 am PST March 17, 2005

Experts say a higher percentage of youngsters used inhalants rather than marijuana in the past year.

They say that points to a need for more attention to the problem.

Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, said the dangers of inhalants must be underscored, because they're readily available and legal.

Hair spray, deodorant, nail polish remover and paint thinner all can be dangerous. They are common products that are legal but contain substances that affect how a brain works.

more...
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/family/4293938/detail.html



http://www.samhsa.gov/news/newsreleases/050317nr_inhalants.htm

:)

I've also seen first hand what huffing does. I've seen 22 year old huffers that were bright intelligent kids in High School, now their covered in sores from falling down all the time. I've served warrants on a house that smelled so bad we had to have Haz Mat come in. We had to wade though dog shit and Tolulene cans to get to the back door. The 3 children that were running around in this mess barefooted had to be removed.

... I've only known a couple, but it was definitely as case of "lights barely on, nobody home".

It really is tragic, the government has lied about drugs so much, nobody believes them anymore. When it comes to huffing, believe it, it will destroy your brain.

My last 5 years of teaching was at an at risk school. I had several huffers. Very sad!

Left of Cool

reef is so much more humane on the self and others.

this would go WAY down. Kids use what they can get. They steal liquor from their folks, they buy weed from older kids. When they cannot get that, they huff!

Which would you rather they do?

...kids are price sensitive.

A gallon of paint thinner is only about $2.

but decriminalized cannabis would be cheap. It's the illegality that keeps the price high.
A one ounce tin of pipe tobacco sells for about $4.

Paint thinner is nasty...I couldn't really recommend it :evilgrin:

...but a few bucks will buy you a quart of Acetone or Methyl Ethyl Ketone that'll whack you and your pals into the ozone for weeks rather than a day.

For the non-discerning, non-forward looking, fiscally challenged youth, volatile solvents are hands down the best bargain on the street -- if they don't care about having any brain cells left by the time they're 21 that is :evilgrin:

If they're in the south where those Buffo toads live, then I suppose the toad licking thing is a viable option if you're really bucks-down strapped and are willing to put a lip lock on a toad ;->

And would be again without all the law enforcement heat.

Your giving away your age.

When I was born, the Ink on the Magna Carta had not fully dried.

as fat as my fist were the "order du jour" when I was a smokin' fool :hippie:

Jenn

But if you get caught with more than an ounce you go to jail. Hmmmm...

:)

Throwing a "Just say no" to kids is not going to stop this problem. The drug war continues because of a fiction projected as reality and directed mainly at cannabis, that is number 1 for a reason.

There are real substance abuses that are forcing the criminal justice model to solve what it cannot solve. As long as there is no real discussion on harm reduction policies under a health care model, meth and huffing have no workable solution. There will always be harm from substance abuse, but there does not have to be unwarranted harm from the laws that harm with their penalties, their unworkable solutions, an their projection of fantasy as reality.

Meth and huffing force a real discussion and the last thing the government wants is discussion. Did Kerry or Bush discuss/debate the War on Some Drugs? Of course not. Both parties are in on the failure, waste, injustice and corruption together.

The biggest step that can be made in advancing harm reduction is legalizing cannabis. Think about it.

Well good for them! Marijuana is a much safer substance!!! It's time to legalize it and give kids some accurate information about drugs.

You'll be doing your drug-free kids a favor, getting them used to drug testing in general, reinforcing their submissive behaviors.

If your kids are inhalers, you'll be "saving" their brains as well as giving yourself advance notice that your child will soon be moving on to other criminal behaviors such as theft and other types of serious disobedience, leading to major problems later in their lives. Save your children from themselves!

We, the Ministry of Health, will support your parental efforts; we may even make glues, shoe polishes, and toluene, unavailable for sale without special permits, creating new job vectors in the certification marketplace.

(this was mostly sarcasm)

Anyone find the timing of this government issue news release curious given the steroid frenzy in congress?

See the Netherlands for an example.

They have access to eveything and abuse very little.

We have access to very little and abuse quite a lot.

What a shame, I'd much rather our young people be stoned (use marijuana) if I was forced to make a choice. At least they won't either end up dead, or perhaps worse = brain dead. :(

modeling glue and Carbona were the materials of choice for huffers. Nasty shit, that makes your brain look like swiss cheese.

So does cutting and all the nice little trends American kids have been practicing for 5 years.This has to do with kids thinking they have nothing to live for.Huffing has been big in third world countrys for years.Welcome to Bushland,rent the movie " 13 "

Maybe he was a huffer in his college daze and has no brain cells left. That would explain a lot.

that the son of a bitch ate paint chips as a child.

Those legal inhalents are the good stuff! And chemical companies are making boodles off these addictions, as opposed to small time pushers. Bonus! Inhalent sales provide tax revenues!

/sarcasm

This country is totally fucked up.

Inhalants are dangerous. For the safety of our children, we need to get them to start toking instead!

;-)

to show how the asthma rate is going up. (ie legal drugs vs illegal):silly:

He began his spiral downward in military school where drugs were hard to hide yet a can of Brasso was mandatory to keep things shined. He came home for the summer and his behavior was out of control. We took him to a counselor and then a psychiatrist, had him tested for drugs which turned up negative, and the professionals diagnosed him with a behavior disorder.

For a year, the family went through hell. I can't begin to tell you how much inhalants will change a person's personality. The whole time, we didn't have a clue he was huffing. It only takes a minute to get high and then it's short-lived. There are over 3000 products on the market you can inhale, many are probably sitting under your kitchen sink.

Finally, my son admitted to us what he was doing. We immediately tried putting him in an inpatient program but insurance wouldn't pay for it. We then went to the state to see if we could get funding for him, they turned us down too. I BEGGED them to please reconsider the fact that inhalants were so easy to obtain and impossible to supervise someone who's addicted to them. He needed to detox before he could even begin to recover.

We had to settle for an outpatient drug program which was like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. He was very addicted and he never did detox.

After his death, I was astounded to learn how very little the drug counselors knew about inhalants. None of those who worked with my son were aware of just how serious an addiction it is and this is prevalent throughout the United States.

If you're a parent of a child between the ages of 12-16, know that 1 in 5 children of this age have at least tried inhalants. Know the signs of inhalant abuse and seek help immediately before it's too late.

Drunk or disoriented appearance
Paint or other stains on face, hands, or clothing
Hidden empty spray paint or solvent containers and chemical-soaked rags or clothing
Slurred speech
Strong chemical odors on breath or clothing
Nausea or loss of appetite
Red or runny nose
Sores or rash around the nose or mouth

I was very outspoken in my community after this happened and went to almost every junior and senior high school and spoke directly to the students about the dangers of inhaling. I know of 2 kids who came forward and admitted to inhaling after learning what happened to my son and I worked with their parents to make sure they got the necessary treatment to overcome their addiction.

You really have to be a strong advocate for your child when it comes to getting help for them. Hindsight is 20/20 and I will always feel I failed my son when he needed me most. Going public with his story and raising community awareness was a great healing source for me, but it took many years for my family to reach a sense of normalcy once again.

Thank you for your post. And thank you for helping to spread the word about the dangers of inhaling.

Knowledge on this issue is key to prevention.

Sadly most people have never been around huffers so they don't recognize the symptoms.

30 years ago my roomie crashed his car, bad. ICU for 6 weeks. He shared a room with a 15 year old kid who had been huffing acetone. At first the kid just looked a little sick, but as each day went by he lost a little more life till right at the end he was nothing more than a shriveled, barely breathing being.

One of the worst things I've ever seen.

I just never figured out why kids do such things. I guess I'm lucky I was never interested, and after seeing that kid, it was never even a question of maybe.

I'm 62, and I've heard about sniffing glue and aerosol stuff for years, but I never realized it really did any harm.

I also used to paint cars as a hobby. I painted several dozen cars with laquer primer & paint, never wore a mask, and NEVER got a high from it either!

I guess I sound very stupid to all of you, but what exactly do these "huffers" do to get a high from paint, hair spray and stuff I'd find under my sink?

I'm 13 years younger than you and was raised at a time when only the dregs of society inhaled. Today, it's very commonplace, especially with children because it's cheap, easy, and considered "cool." There are several websites devoted to huffing and they all give a pretty good explanation of exactly how the kids get high.

Inhalants are breathed in through the nose or mouth in a variety of ways. Abusers begin by inhaling deeply; they then take several more breaths. Abusers may inhale, by sniffing or snorting, chemical vapors directly from open containers or by huffing fumes from rags that are soaked in a chemical substance and then held to the face or stuffed in the mouth. Other methods include spraying aerosols directly into the nose or mouth or pouring inhalants onto the user's collar, sleeves, or cuffs and sniffing them over a period of time (such as during a class in school). In a practice known as bagging, fumes are inhaled from substances sprayed or deposited inside a paper or plastic bag. Alternatively, the fumes may be discharged into small containers such as soda cans and then inhaled from the can. Users may also inhale from balloons filled with nitrous oxide or other devices such as snappers and poppers in which inhalants are sold.

http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs07/708/#How

and it never had any effect on me. If you've ever been in a closed garage while someone was spraying an entire car, both primer and several coats of laquer, it sure is a heavy concentration of tolulene. Putting a saturated rag in your mouth is worse than stupid! That shit's leathal! I just don't understand the vapors, and how they can actually give anyone a euphoric high.

Cheaper and easier to get and how many of you old timers sniffe the newly printed ditto machine quizzes?
Why are they sniffing? No hope for jobs and a life let alone social security. Stay in school and maybe you can flip burgers at Wendy's or Mac Do, etc. because you can read the screen. Soon will be out-sourced since screen info can be transmitted to India, will still need lower, lower, lower paid to cook burger and give to customer .....
Ah! yes! Where to go? A BRANCH OF THE ARMED FORCES, IF YOU SURVIVE 10 YEARS OF SERVICE AND CAN READ YOU CAN TRANSFER TO A PRIVATE CORP WITH MORE BUCKS!
Oh! lost brain function and 3 limbs amputated .... tough titty .... PTSD ... GO DIE IN THE STREETS!
LONG LIVE CORPORATE AMERICA! (SARCASM).

It's legal and accesible-they are just laying around the house.