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Thursday, February 28, 2008

What is huffing?

Inhalants are breathable, chemical vapors, when inhaled through the nose or mouth, produce mind altering effects. Everyday household products are being used by kids to get a quick high. By either "huffing" or breathing in these fumes from a rag soaked with the substance, "bagging" or inhaling the fumes from a plastic bag, or by inhaling directly from the open container. These products are inexpensive, easily available, legal and second only to marijuana when it comes to adolescent drug use.

The most common products used are felt tip markers, air freshener, white out, bleach, airplane model glue, nail polish remover, hairspray, gasoline, spray paint, cooking spray, cleaning fluids, and aerosol cans such a whipped cream and "dusters" which are the small cans of compressed air used to clean computer keyboards, for example.

Facts:
-Over 2.6 million children, aged 12 – 17, use an inhalant each year to get high.
-1 in 4 students in America has intentionally abused a common household product to get high by the time they reach the eighth grade.
-Inhalants tend to be the drug that is tried first by children.
-59% of children are aware of friends huffing at age 12.

What to look for
Material signs such as chemical odors on the breath or clothing, signs of paint or other products on the face or fingers (including typewriter correction fluid used as nail polish), spots or sores around the nose or mouth, gasoline or paint-soaked rags in a child's room, used spray paint cans in a child's room or other peculiar location, empty or partially-filled butane cigarette lighters, and missing household products.
In my daughters room, I found little sandwich baggies, the insides covered with spray paint.
Please note that these material signs are important to note because many of the physical symptoms may not last very long.

The effects of inhalant abuse
Inhalants can cause intoxicating effects. Sometimes lasting only minutes or even hours if the inhaling is done repeatedly. At first the teen may feel slightly stimulated, but with each inhalation the inhibitions drop and and if they continue they can lose consciousness. The effects of abusing inhalants are numerous and exceedingly dangerous.

Kids can die at anytime from inhalant abuse, including the very first time, which is known as Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome. Inhalants damage the brain and other vital organs such as the kidneys, liver and the heart. The number of deaths each year directly related to inhalant abuse is unknown since most are attributed to other causes.

Short term effects are severe mood swings, excitability and irritability, violent behavior, abdominal pain, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, headache, nausea, hearing loss, limb spasms, muscle weakness, fatigue, and lack of coordination. You may notice glazed or watery eyes, slurred speech, loss of appetite, and problems in school.

Long term effects are central nervous system or brain damage. Some serious but potentially reversible effects include liver and kidney damage. Death from inhalants is usually caused by a very high concentration of fumes. Inhaling from a paper or plastic bag or in an enclosed area greatly increases the chances of suffocation. Heart failure and death is especially common from the abuse of fluorocarbons and butane-type gases.

Street names
Here you can find a list of street names for inhalants. At my daughters school they call it "dusters" from the cans of compressed air for computer cleaning. "Dusters" was not on this list.

Please join this forum where students, teachers, parents, and others can share their experiences with inhalant abuse.


Fact for the day:
Experimentation of drugs drops by almost 50% if a child is educated by both their family and their school.

Sources
Inhalant.org
Whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
Ncadi.samhsa.gov

1 comments:

Visions Adolescent Treatment Center said...

Thanks for the info Mrs. C you are definently top notch. Our simple blog is humbled in your shadow. Here's our latest entry on the same topic.

http://visionsteen.com/blog/2008/03/dusters.html

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