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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA]
#4708638 - 09/25/05 04:42 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens September 25, 2005 - Boston Globe
Abuse of Dust-Off can prove fatal, authorities say Generations of teenagers have sniffed common household products -- from glue to Whiteout to the propane in cigarette lighters -- for a cheap, easy route to intoxication. But the danger posed by the latest inhalant of choice, a common computer keyboard cleaner called ''Dust-Off," has prompted area police to warn parents and teens that the ''high" could be fatal.
Inhaling the compressed gas can cause brain damage and heart failure by robbing the lungs of oxygen, authorities say.
In March, a 14-year-old boy from Ohio was found dead in his bed with a canister beside him. His death has received wide attention after his father, a police sergeant, posted a cautionary letter on the Internet that has caught the notice of police, educators, and parents.
Last summer, three California teenagers died in a car crash, and a can of Dust-Off was found inside the vehicle. In July, a teenager passed out in a West Hartford, Conn., drugstore after inhaling Dust-Off, then arose moments later to do it again, according to newspaper reports.
In response, Falcon Safety Products, the maker of Dust-Off, released a statement citing the dangers of inhalant abuse and highlighting its efforts to combat the problem. Many stores, including Staples and Wal-Mart, have banned sales of the product to minors.
''One beer is not going to kill you under almost any circumstances, but with sniffing, you never know," said Patrolman Timothy O'Leary, the Foxborough Police Department's juvenile officer.
Foxborough is among the area departments that have circulated a Dust-Off warning. After receiving a Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association advisory this summer, O'Leary passed it along to local school officials.
Teenagers ''huffing" vapors -- or, in the case of Dust-Off, ''dusting" -- is a long-standing problem. Although inhalant abuse declined after the mid-1990s, it has accelerated of late, youth surveys show. According to a 2003 study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, use among middle school students had risen by 44 percent as fewer youngsters viewed inhalant use as dangerous.
Roughly one in four eighth-graders reported trying an inhalant at least once, the survey found, while the practice declined in high school, with older teens beginning to dismiss it as childish.
Alejandro Rivera, program director for Impact Quincy, a substance-abuse prevention program, calls inhalant use ''the silent epidemic" because it receives less attention than teen drug or alcohol use.
Most teens and parents don't appreciate the dangers of inhalants, authorities say. Ashli Doyle, a Weymouth High School junior, said teenagers are aware inhalants aren't good for them, but some feel the rush is worth it. ''People will talk about using air fresheners and other aerosols and say, 'Oh man, we were so messed up,' " Doyle said. ''They think they are being cool, trying something new."
Parents do not typically discuss inhalants with their children, focusing instead on drugs and alcohol. And there is some disagreement on how much of a problem is posed by inhalants, with many area police departments and school counselors contending its use is limited.
Bill Phillips, who talks with students and parents across the state about the dangers of drug and inhalant abuse through his Framingham-based program, ''New Beginnings," said adults are stunned when he tells them middle-schoolers are breathing vapors just for kicks. ''Parents go out of their minds that kids would go to those lengths to get high," he said. ''Dust-Off is the most extreme."
Phillips said he has worked with area teenagers who have entered rehabilitation facilities solely to kick inhalant habits.
Parents' ignorance carries a cost, experts say. If not explicitly told otherwise, youngsters often see inhalants as mindless fun without serious consequences.
''One of the difficulties in inhalant abuse is that youngsters see them as otherwise legal products," said Michael Botticelli, assistant commissioner for substance abuse services at the state Department of Public Health. But while the products are legal to obtain, inhaling them is against the law, he noted.
Inhalants are alluring to youngsters for other reasons, too.
''There's no odor, no residue. It's much harder to get caught," said Howard Wolfe, who directs the New England Inhalant Abuse Prevention Coalition, which works with schools, the courts, and youth groups. ''It's a way to use a drug without getting involved in a drug deal. With inhalants, you can just go to a drugstore."
Dominic DiNatale, executive director of DARE Massachusetts, a drug education program offered by local police departments, said he believes the use of inhalants is far more widespread in more rural areas, as surveys have suggested. ''We know it's out there, but no one really talks about it," he said.
The practice claims more than 100 lives a year nationwide, according to Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition. ''Everyone's talking about meth right now," he said, referring to the stimulant methamphetamine, ''but far more people are using inhalants."
Jeff Williams, the Cleveland-area police sergeant whose son died of chemical asphyxiation in March after using Dust-Off, said the teen didn't think he was doing anything especially wrong or dangerous.
''Kyle had been told by friends that it couldn't hurt him," Williams said. ''He thought it was just a playful thing."
Williams said the coroner's report concluded that Kyle's heart stopped immediately after he had inhaled the Dust-Off, with a chemical in the product found in his bloodstream.
He said he hoped Kyle's death warns people to the dangers of inhalants, and pointed to the many e-mails he has received from teachers who had read his letter to their classes, and from students who said they had tried inhalants but never would again.
Those messages provide some small measure of consolation to a father who said he consistently reminded his son about the dangers of drug use. ''Kyle knew never to do drugs," Williams said. ''He just didn't know not to do this."
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Mezcal
Registered: 08/11/05
Posts: 1,980
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: veggie]
#4709019 - 09/25/05 09:09 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Ugh... I just found a can of this sitting on the ground at Hampshire College (MA). I thought nobody was stupid enough to mess with that.
Don't inhale brain-damaging gasses, people.
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baraka
Registered: 07/15/00
Posts: 10,768
Loc: hyperspace
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: Mezcal]
#4709227 - 09/25/05 10:17 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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a type of freon is the propellent in these things. yuck.
Ith as a relly complicated freonish name. Can't be healthy.
-------------------- This is the only time I really feel alive.
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: veggie]
#4709334 - 09/25/05 10:48 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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''One beer is not going to kill you under almost any circumstances, but with sniffing, you never know," said Patrolman Timothy O'Leary, the Foxborough Police Department's juvenile officer.
Quite the name the patrolman has! Nonetheless, it's not exactly legal for teenagers to be drinking beer, though it would be much safer. Go figure!
''Parents go out of their minds that kids would go to those lengths to get high," he said. ''Dust-Off is the most extreme."
A can of drugs is sitting on your desk. It's cheap, easy, and a quick and enjoyable high. How is that going to extreme lengths?
''Everyone's talking about meth right now," he said, referring to the stimulant methamphetamine, ''but far more people are using inhalants."
Is that true? Does he have the numbers to support that assertion with?
''There's no odor, no residue. It's much harder to get caught,"
Clearly they've never tried huffing gasoline or a gas by-product!
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: Mezcal]
#4709335 - 09/25/05 10:49 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Do you go there or know someone who does?
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Ekstaza
stranger than most
Registered: 04/10/03
Posts: 4,324
Loc: Around the corner
Last seen: 11 months, 11 days
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: dblaney]
#4709422 - 09/25/05 11:30 AM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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I know someone who wrecked his truck huffing dust-off driving to work. He's lucky to just have cronic back pains, now. If he hadn't of been thrown from the truck, he would be dead.
-------------------- YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ANY GIVEN DRUG ISN'T THE DEFINITIVE MEASURE OF THE DRUGS EFFECTS.
Edited by Ekstaza (09/25/05 05:04 PM)
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Mezcal
Registered: 08/11/05
Posts: 1,980
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: dblaney]
#4709903 - 09/25/05 01:12 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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I know people there.
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: Mezcal]
#4710057 - 09/25/05 01:54 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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Oh alright, is it supposed to be a good school?
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Mezcal
Registered: 08/11/05
Posts: 1,980
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: dblaney]
#4711063 - 09/25/05 06:22 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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It's a nice place. I am studying science so it's not for me, but I have met many openminded individuals there.
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coda
Banjo Goiter
Registered: 03/20/01
Posts: 8,750
Last seen: 11 months, 22 days
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: Mezcal]
#4717043 - 09/26/05 09:17 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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jesus christ, kids were doing this shit while I was in high school. They're just finding out about this now?
-------------------- To get really high is to forget yourself. And to forget yourself is to see everything else. And to see everything else is to become an understanding molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe. And I think every human being should be a conscious tool of the universe. . . . -JG i really am glad you came back to us instead of taking the other path. *hug* -A_S (RIP your final words to me will never be forgotten) Don't fuck with the laughing jesus.
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biglo
Shroomery BabySitter
Registered: 11/22/02
Posts: 603
Loc: US of A
Last seen: 8 years, 7 months
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Re: A warning flag against latest fad 'high' for teens [MA] [Re: coda]
#4733926 - 09/29/05 09:42 PM (18 years, 5 months ago) |
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''Parents go out of their minds that kids would go to those lengths to get high," he said. ''Dust-Off is the most extreme."
Dust-Off is the most extreme! EXTREME!!! It'll make you and your parents go out of their minds!!!
Sounds like an advertisement to me. If only they'd tell kids smoke some pot, don't huff. Oh wait, that would be sending the wrong message, all drugs kill you and/or ruin your life.
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