Media Coverage

National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week is March 16-23 and it appears that several communities around the country are already bringing up this issue.

In Central Maine, the Morning Sentinal published an article called, "In Plain Sight: Kids Getting High On Stuff Found In Most Homes". They featured a 21-year-old named Brian Buzzell II who began using inhalants at age 13. His story is an ominous warning of what dangers can be found with inhalant abuse:

Brian Robert Buzzell II of Waterville has permanent memory loss and slurred speech as a result of huffing.

Now 21, he first used inhalants at 13, while an eighth grader at Lawrence Junior High School in Fairfield. He and eight schoolmates bought whipping cream cans at local supermarkets and used them to get high. The cans' pressurized propellent, nitrous oxide (N20), is an intoxicating agent.

They stashed the cans in their backpacks. Between classes, they'd race to the bathroom and huff, Buzzell said.

"I was like a vegetable. When I'd go into my next class, I'd stare out into space. I wouldn't do the work."

Buzzell, who stopped huffing at 19, said while he was getting high he would have sudden nose bleeds, frequent headaches and blurriness in his eyes.

"I could hear something in my head. It felt like my brain cells were dying -- a popping sound. I was 15 when I started noticing memory lapses.

Now, Buzzell said, he will be in the middle of a conversation and forget why he placed the call. "It happens all the time," he said.

His mother, Dawn Buzzell of Fairfield, took him to doctors when his memory problems surfaced, he said.

"A doctor at the emergency room said I was killing my brain cells." Chest X-rays showed his lungs were congested from heavy smoking and huffing.

Withdrawal from inhalant use was difficult, Buzzell said. Symptoms included shakes, cold and sweating, vomiting and diarrhea.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Inhaling or 'Huffing' Legal Products - Lethal Results", parents are warned to keep on the lookout for aerosol products that are disappearing at a suspicious rate. One woman's air conditioner needed repairing often and her whipped cream canisters were emptied. The article also highlights Sgt. Jeff Williams, who describes the warning signs of inhalant abuse in a child.

Elsewhere in Virginia - the News Virginian published an article about "City Teenagers Sniffing Inhalants; Officials at Loss On Prevention". It details the statistics of students in the Waynesboro-Staunton area who are abusing inhalants, as well as questioning how much children should be told about them.

The Voices Newspaper of Connecticut offered information about an upcoming seminar for parents on March 18th that focuses on different drug and alcohol risks to children, as well as information about inhalants.

"The substances we talk about in this program are all available in the house," [Jennifer DeWitt] told Voices. "Inhalants can be found under every kitchen counter, alcohol is available in the fridge, the garage or in the bar and prescription medications are available in the bathroom medicine cabinet."

Lots of time, she said, parents look for signs of illicit drug use, but they're not aware of the dangers to be found at home.

"We give parents and other adults education about what these substances are," she said, "how kids use them to get high, signs to look for that kids are using these substances and specific language to use when talking with them about prevention."

The program will also describe Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome as well as conduct a question and answer session after the forum.

The Tuscaloosa News of Alabama featured a letter to the editor entitled "Educate to Stop 'Huffing'", written by Lois Palecek, the executive director of PRIDE, an organization devoted to keeping kids drug-free. The letter begins,

Dear Editor: If you think 'huffing' is just something the Three Little Pigs had to watch out for, the wolf may come knocking at your door. Huffing, bagging and sniffing are terms for inhalant use, a cheap, legal and easy way that young people in Tuscaloosa get high.Parents are often out of the loop when it comes to inhalants. Children discuss it and practice it: adults stay in the dark.

The week of March 16-23 is National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week. PRIDE of Tuscaloosa supports effort to educate parents and young people about this deadly practice.The goal? To take the 'silent' out of this silent epidemic. Most parents know to talk to their kids about marijuana, date rape and drinking because they have enough knowledge about these issues, but inhalants are an informational blind spot.

The letter continues to provide information about PRIDE as well as resources available about inhalant abuse.

NBC 12 in Virginia raised awareness for informational meetings for parents in the article, "Dangers of Inhalants: Prevalent in Middle, High Schools". ABC 3 brought it up as well.

The Associated Press wrote an article called "Inhalant Abuse Target of Groups, Gov't." It listed the statistic collected from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in which students were questioned in 2001 and 2002, and when asked if someone could die from sniffing products like gasoline or hair spray, 68% of students answered 'yes' in 2001 versus only 56% in 2002.

Hopefully March 16-23 will see more create more media and parental awareness about inhalant abuse.