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 dblaney
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 Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens 
#3930497 - 03/17/05 12:54 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens
By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Over a million American teenagers intentionally inhale the vapors of common household products like hairspray, shoe polish and glue each year and the number is rising, government officials said on Thursday.
Kicking off a week of activities designed to alert parents and children to the dangers posed by inhalants, White House drug czar John Walters said recent trends were unacceptable.
"As drug use overall has gone down in this country, we have had an increase in inhalant use," Walters said.
Inhalants commonly sniffed, or "huffed," by children as young as eight include gasoline and lighter fluid, spray paints, cleaning fluids, paint thinners and other solvents, degreasers, correction fluids, hair sprays and odorizers.
"These substances are everywhere in our lives. We have almost 23 million people who have abused inhalants in their lifetimes. The problem is pervasive," said Westley Clark, director of the center for substance abuse at the Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites).
Jessie, a 17-year-old from Indianapolis, said she became hooked by sniffing the helium used to fill balloons for weddings and parties.
"They told me, stay away from cocaine, stay away from heroin. They never said stay away from inhalants," she said at a news conference with Walters.
Jeanette Smith, whose 17-year-old son, Jimmy, died last year after inhaling butane, said, "He didn't know it could kill him and we didn't know he was huffing."
More than 2 million people said they huffed in 2003, of whom 1.1 million were aged 12 to 17, said Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Society, citing results from the 2002 and 2003 national survey on drug use and health.
In 2002, over a million people huffed for the first time, of whom 833,000 were aged 12 to 17.
The health effects can include brain and neural damage, convulsions, deafness, impaired vision, depressed motor skills and death. The social effects, surveys show, include behavioral problems, other drug use and delinquent behavior.
Stephen Pasierb, president of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said survey data showed awareness of the dangers of inhalant use had fallen significantly among young people and that parents were failing to educate their children about the dangers.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st...gs_inhalants_dc
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"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
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Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: dblaney]
#3930500 - 03/17/05 12:55 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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So now instead of using illegal drugs that pose minimal physiological risks, kids are turning to household items that are very dangerous at best, and at worst, outright lethal.
What are you going to do about this one, Mr. Walters!?
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"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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 delta9
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Posts: 5,390
Loc: California
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: dblaney]
#3930895 - 03/17/05 02:34 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Helium and butane? I mean WTF?
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delta9
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
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Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: dblaney]
#3932126 - 03/17/05 07:15 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I wonder if they include the mostly harmless inhalants like nitrous in those statistics?
If so, they'd be extremely skewed, as most many here on the Shroomery and countless kids have used nitrous oxide, which is, for the most part, completely safe is used correctly, and should not be grouped in with inhalants.
I don't say this without reason either, in high school every pamphlet I read on inhalants said nitrous oxide was included, and then said symptoms from inhalants like nitrous oxide and sniffing glue/ huffing gas were all and one.
Nevertheless, if this has no spin factor, it just shows to go how effective prohibition is. Outlaw mostly harmless marijuana and kids inhale lethal substances to get a kick.
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So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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dblaney
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Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: Ravus]
#3932354 - 03/17/05 07:54 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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They seem to include Helium in there, so hell I wouldn't be surprised if they included oxygen and nitrous.
--------------------
"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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motaman
old hand
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 6,047
Last seen: 16 days, 2 hours
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: dblaney]
#3932632 - 03/17/05 08:49 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
so hell I wouldn't be surprised if they included oxygen and nitrous.
lol....
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http://heffter.org
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: motaman]
#3934220 - 03/18/05 05:52 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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--------------------
"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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dr_gonz
Registered: 08/18/03
Posts: 44,654
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.
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delta9
Active Ingredient
Registered: 10/28/04
Posts: 5,390
Loc: California
Last seen: 13 years, 5 months
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Re: Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens [Re: dr_gonz]
#3936150 - 03/18/05 02:36 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! MICKEY MOUSE!
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delta9
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