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
No comments:
Post a Comment