inhalants

What are inhalants?

• Inhalants are volatile substances that produce chemical vapors that can be inhaled to induce a psychoactive, or mind-altering, effect.

What are the types of INHALANTS?

• The most common inhalants are items found around your house.. for example glues, nail polish remover, lighter fluid, spray paints, deodarant and hair sprays, whipped cream canisters, and cleaning fluids.

method of consumption

• "sniffing" or "snorting" fumes from containers;
• spraying aerosols directly into the nose or mouth
• "bagging" — sniffing or inhaling fumes from substances sprayed or deposited inside a plastic or paper bag
• "huffing" from an inhalant-soaked rag stuffed in the mouth
• inhaling from balloons filled with nitrous oxide

Prescribed or illegal?

• Inhalants are most commonly everyday products that are abused which then they become illegal
• 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.

how does a person look while on inhalants?

• His (or her) skin may be pale, even bluish.
• An inhalant user usually has a poor appetite and loses weight.
• eyes will be dilated and glassy

Allison was sexually molested when she was a young girl. She felt troubled and ignored and turned to inhaling aerosol spray cans of dust cleaner that she would purchase at office supply stores to numb her pain. After a few years her addiction became crippling.

Diseases or illnesses caused by inhalants

• The chemicals abused by inhalant users affect different parts of the brain
• Inhalant-related damage results in loss of coordination and slurred speech
• Repeated use of spray paint as an inhalant can cause lung damage.
• Chronic inhalant abuse can lead to muscle wasting, reduced muscle tone and strength.

I learned

• that inhalants can be an everyday product
• that one way of inhaling is spraying it in a bag and breathing it in
• that most products have an age requirement to buy because they are most commonly used as an inhalant

reactions

• was surprised that deodorant is an inhalant
• thought it was scary how different the lady looked in the picture
• we need age restrictions on some things to keep kids from using it the wrong way

sources

• http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/inhalants/what-are-i...
• http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/inhalants/are-they-legal.html
• http://www.issues.cc/complaints/substance-abuse/the-abuse-of-inhalants-on-i...
• http://www.inhalants.org/damage.htm