17-Year-Old Dies in Michigan

The online newspaper of Monroe County, Michigan ran a story yesterday about Michael Crowder III, who died after inhaling computer duster in early December. He was found by his grandmother in the bathroom with a bag, the cleaner, and a belt. His mother said that she

"talked to her son many times about drugs. She told him about teenagers smoking pot and even snorting cocaine. But they never really talked about dusting because, frankly, she didn't know such a practice existed."I didn't realize what it was," she said quietly." [...]

"Everybody talks about cocaine and heroin and methamphetamines and alcohol," Ms. Feamster said from her mother's home in the Carleton Mobile Home Park. "But Michael wasn't interested in doing drugs. He was very, very educated on drug use. We talked about it."

Ms. Feamster, Michael's mother, has begun to speak out about inhalant use so that young people realize what a dangerous game it can be.

"It's Russian roulette. It really is," Ms. Feamster said. "And I have to talk about it. Maybe somebody will listen to me."