Jeff Williams to Speak at Virginia Hospital

From Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia:

Jeff Williams, a father who lost his son Kyle to inhalant abuse, will be in Virginia Monday for a discussion at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters.

Inhalant Use: Is Your Child at Risk? 7-9 p.m. Free

• CHKD Health and Surgery Center, Oyster Point, 11783 Rock Landing Drive.
• Sgt. Jeff Williams, an Ohio K-9 officer who lost his 14-year-old son to inhalant use, will explain what inhalants are, how they are abused, the damage they do, signs and symptoms of use, and how to talk to your child about it.
• Co-sponsors: CHKD and Kohl's Department Stores.
• Call 668-7500 or register online at www.chkd.org/classes.

Williams Speaks to Schools in Kentucky

Sgt. Jeff Williams spoke to crowds comprised of junior high students, high school students, parents, counselors, and police officers for two days last week in Glasgow, Kentucky. The state has made efforts to counter the high inhalant abuse rate in some areas by inviting speakers to talk to schools and community leaders.

Williams says that what he wanted to get across was to, "in plain language, relay the most important information" - the most important information being what inhalants are, signs of inhlanat abuse, as well as the potential consequences. He says that he wants to counter all of the bad information that kids hear from their peers and get the real information out there.

Every child is going to be faced with a choice of whether or not to use inhalants. It's no longer a question of 'if', he says. Parents avoid discussing inhalant abuse with their kids because they "don't want to teach them", so they don't talk to them. Williams is in favor of giving children the real facts, the dangers, and the consequences so that they are able to make an informed decision.

Sgt. Jeff Williams is a police officer from Indiana who has become active in the inhalant community after his son Kyle died in 2004. Last December he was unanimously elected to the ACE Board of Trustees. 

Inhalant Abuse Prevention Awareness Institute

This conference, presented by the Virginia Inhalant Abuse Prevention Coalition, was held on March 12th in Staunton, VA. The Coalition consists of a group of concerned prevention professionals and educators who are dedicated to raising awareness of inhalant abuse by providing factual information and resources in an effort to decrease inhalant use across the state.


On the night of the 11th, an inhalant prevention summit was held and included all the leaders in the field. Wayne Frith, the facilitator for the evening, engaged the participants on how to utilize the most effective strategies to spread the message at both the community and the national level.

It went very well and a number of interesting topics were presented, such as:

The Tragedy of Inhalant Abuse - this the first topic, presented by Sgt. Jeff Williams. He spoke about losing his son to inhalant abuse and played several YouTube videos to highlight children's exposure to inhalants as being cool.

Inhalant Abuse Basics - Dr. Robert Balster of the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University explained what are inhalants as well as why and how they are abused.

Communities in Action - representatives from three different communities shared their approaches to inhalant abuse.

Teaching Kids About Inhalants - the updated Inhalant Abuse Prevention Manual was used to explain the principles for teaching young people about inhalants.

ACE was glad to be a part of this conference and to have our Inhalant Prevention Kits handed out to all attendees.

We'll be working with the Coalition for the next two years as they reach towards their goal of decreasing inhalant abuse in Virginia by 2009.

Virginia SAFE Presentation

The Midlothian Exchange highlighted the story of Sgt. Jeff Williams in its article "Parents' First Defense Against Inhalants". Sgt. Williams spoke on March 12th at CJW Medical Center to parents, educators, and officials at a presentation from SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment). Says Sgt. Williams,

“Parents have to step in and say, ‘no’ … The movies have made it fun. They didn’t tell them they could die,” Williams said after showing a number of posted Web site videos of kids taking repeated “hits” from household products. “It metabolizes within two minutes. After two minutes, you can’t test and find it in the system.”

However, one can find a number of the abused items in the kitchen, the garage and sprinkled in everyone’s household for every day use. There are over 1,400 household products that contain a range of gases such as propane and refrigerant that 9, 10, and 11-year-olds have been known to use to get high. Williams admits that locking up all the items will not alleviate inhalant abuse. “We’re stuck with it and have to educate and teach our children why not to do it,” Williams said. “It’s not compressed air.”

“These chemicals are poisonous when introduced to the human body,” he said. Williams added that parents are the first line of defense for their children when it comes to looking for signs of abuse. “When they have multiple household products without a reason … You know something is up, because they’re not dusting,” he said.

Adolescents will also overuse perfume, cologne, and breath mints to mask the odor of solvent-based inhalants, he added. However, the biggest challenge for parents is when they catch children using household products. “You need to avoid exciting or stressing the person out,” Williams said.

The article also provided a link for parents to take online training about inhalants.