PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Examples/Other Names:
Paint thinners, degreasers, gasoline, glues, correction fluids, felt-tip marker fluids, spray paints, deodorant and hair sprays, vegetable oil sprays for cooking, fabric protector sprays, laughing gas, butane lighters, propane tanks, whipped cream dispensers and refrigerants.
Street Names of Inhalants:
Air blast, Ames, Amys, Aroma of men, Bolt, Boppers, Bullet, Bullet Bolt, Buzz Bomb, Discorama, Hardware, Heart-on, Hiagra in a bottle, Highball, Hippie crack, Huff, Laughing gas, Locker room, Medusa, Moon gas, Oz, Pearls, Poor man's pot, Poppers, Quicksilver, Rush Snappers, Satan's secret, Shoot the breeze, Snappers, Snotballs, Spray, Texas shoe shine, Thrust, Toilet water, Toncho, Whippets and Whiteout.
SIDE EFFECTS
- Slurred speech
- Drunk, dizzy or dazed appearance
- Inability to coordinate movement
- Hallucinations and delusions
- Hostility
SIDE EFFECTS
- Apathy
- Impaired judgment
- Unconsciousness
- Severe headaches
- Rashes around the nose and mouth
Side Effects:
Prolonged sniffing of these chemicals can induce irregular and rapid heartbeat and lead to heart failure and death within minutes and Death from suffocation can occur by replacing oxygen in the lungs with the chemical, and then in the central nervous system, so that breathing ceases.
LOND TERM EFFECTS
- Muscle weakness
- Disorientation
- Lack of coordination
- Irritability
- Depression
Long term Effects:
Serious and sometimes irreversible damage to the heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and brain, memory impairment, diminished intelligence, hearing loss, bone marrow damage
deaths from heart failure or asphyxiation (loss of oxygen),
the chronic use of inhalants has been associated with a number of serious health problems, sniffing glue and paint thinner causes kidney problems. Sniffing toluene and other solvents causes liver damage. Inhalant abuse has also resulted in memory impairment and diminished intelligence.
How its used:
Users inhale the chemical vapors directly from open containers (“sniffing”) or breathe the fumes from rags soaked in chemicals (“huffing”). Some spray the substance directly into the nose or mouth, or pour it onto their collar, sleeves or cuffs and sniff them periodically. In “bagging,” the user may inhale fumes from substances inside a paper or plastic bag. Bagging in a closed area greatly increases the chances of suffocation.
Where it comes from:
The inhaling of fumes from chemicals such as incense, oils, resins, spices and perfumes to alter consciousness, or as part of religious ceremonies, dates back to ancient times in Egypt, Babylonia (present-day Iraq), India and China.
According to some researchers, inhaling gas vapors to alter one’s state of consciousness was practiced by priestesses at the Oracle of Delphi1 in ancient Greece.
In the early 1800s, nitrous oxide, ether and chloroform were the anesthetics used commonly as intoxicants.
Nitrous oxide was regarded as a cheap substitute for alcohol and was popularized by the British scientist Sir Humphry Davy. He held nitrous oxide parties and coined the word “laughing gas” in 1799. Noting the anesthetic effects, Davy proposed that the gas could be used for operations, although this was not tried for another half century.
The use of anesthetics for recreational purposes continued throughout the nineteenth century in Europe and the US. Ether was used as a recreational drug during the 1920s Prohibition era, when alcohol was made illegal in the US.
In the 1940s, recreational use of solvents, primarily gasoline, became popular.
Abuse of inhalants in the United States increased in the 1950s and is now widespread among adolescents. By the 1960s, the practice of solvent sniffing had spread across a wide variety of commercial products including paint and lacquer thinners, nail polish remover, shoe polish, lighter fluid, spray paint and others. In more recent years, glue and gas sniffing has become a widespread problem among homeless street children in South Asia, Mexico, Eastern Europe, Kenya and other areas around the world. Street kids use these inhalants to numb the pain of hunger, cold and desperation. Gas and spray paint sniffing is also common in remote regions in Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific Islands.
Prescribed V. Illegal
Although inhalants are not regulated under the Controlled Substances Act, thirty-eight states in the US have placed restrictions on the sale and distribution to minors of certain products that are commonly abused as inhalants. Some states have introduced fines, incarceration or mandatory treatment for the sale, distribution, use and/or possession of inhalant chemicals. Laws also exist in some US states prohibiting the recreational inhalation of nitrous oxide. Some communities in Western Australia and South Australia have passed local laws making petrol sniffing an offense.
Who typically abuses drug:
People tend to abuse different inhalant products at different ages. New users ages 12–15 most commonly abuse glue, shoe polish, spray paints, gasoline, and lighter fluid. New users ages 16–17 most commonly abuse nitrous oxide or “whippets.” Adults most commonly abuse a class of inhalants known as nitrites (such as amyl nitrites or “poppers”).
Statistics:
A US survey, combining data from 2002 to 2006, found that an annual average of 593,000 teens aged 12 to 17 had used inhalants for the first time in the year before they took the survey. More than 22.9 million Americans have experimented with inhalants at some point in their lives. One state in the US averaged more than 3,800 emergency room visits and 450 hospitalizations a year due to inhalant poisonings, according to statistics released in 2008. By the time students in the US reach the eighth grade, one in five will have used inhalants. In 2007, inhalants were the substance most frequently abused by youth aged 12 or 13.
