Repost huffing

This little girl in question died. 

Huffing, sniffing, dusting and bagging

A friend of mine called today and told me of a concern her neighbor had with her daughter... apparently the girl is huffing. She can't seem to get help and I informed my friend sadly that there is no non-medical detox. Just like with heroine addicts that require methadone in order to stop or they will die, huffing detoxes need to be watched by a qualified treatment center or medical doctor, or so I am told.

Now for those of us (like me) who are rather uneducated on the topic I will list a couple of definitions:

Huffing – when a chemically soaked rag is held to the face or stuffed in the mouth and substance is inhaled (usually gasoline)

sniffing – inhalant drug that can be done directly from containers, clothing, plastic bags or rags saturated with the substance or even from the product directly

bagging- putting spray paint in a bag and putting it over one's head

dusting - inhaling “computer duster” to get high. (Contrary to popular belief this is NOT air in a can)

Inhaling substances for a high has a lot of danger to it. Did you know it can cause cancer and leukemia? Have you ever heard of “Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome”? That is when the heart beat becomes erratic and rapid causing the user to go into cardiac arrest. That can happen the very first time you use an inhalant drug.

Just like alcoholism inhalant addiction is just that... an addiction. And just like with alcoholism an addict will go to any length to get their fix. Some will even spray the inhalant onto their clothes or soak clothing in the substance to be sniffed so they can carry their drug of choice for use later. Unlike alcohol this sufferers high will only last a few minutes, forcing the addict to keep huffing, sniffing or whatever to prolong their high.

As a parent myself I have to say here I would be stumped and without a clue if I had not done research on this topic for a friend. Today's drug paraphernalia is not the simple bong of yester-year. Today's parents have to look for soda cans, rags, clothing, plastic bags, paper bags... and the list goes on. It's quite frightening and over-whelming just reading the info and so I can certainly sympathize for that parent and of course the addict.

My advice to this woman would be... get her to an ER quickly and have her Baker-acted if you have to. This stuff is too scary to screw around with. Even as an addict myself I wouldn't want a high that kills you the first time. The attraction to that is way above my head. But then more then likely it is the exact same mind-set that we alkies have. Our friends died in car wrecks but it could NEVER happen to me... right? Know what? It does. Statistically 15% of suffocation deaths in the US are linked to inhalants... what makes that statistic even more tragic is that most inhalant abuse deaths are attributed to other causes and therefore remain unreported and hidden. Scary stuff!

That's my side of it,

Angel