Woman Arrested and Three People Cited After Huffing Incident

Via: Kajo Radio

Azalea, Oregon: Public safety officials were alerted that multiple individuals were observed using inhalants inside a vehicle parked at a store. Once officers arrived, a woman was arrested due to a prior probation violation for assault. She was also cited for unlawful possession of inhalants. Two other individuals were cited for public consumption of alcohol. 

Man Huffs and Passes Out While Driving

via The Metro West Daily News

Police reported that a man was drunk and high from huffing computer duster and crashed twice into guardrails. Police believe the man was unconscious while operating the vehicle, and was found passed out with alcohol and ten canisters of duster in his car. He was taken to a medical center after being arrested.

Police Arrest A Pennsylvania Man for Huffing

via https://www.indianagazette.com

Police in Indiana, Pennsylvania arrested a 30-year-old man for huffing canned air inside of a bathroom. The man, who was also under the influence of alcohol, locked himself inside the restroom and refused to leave. He faces a misdemeanor charge of inhaling toxic releasing substances and a citation of public drunkenness.

Indiana Man Arrested for Huffing Outside Local Walmart

Via News and Tribune in Indiana:

This past Sunday, a 39-year-old man was arrested for inhaling toxic vapor and public intoxication, after police found him lying on the ground outside of a Walmart in Clarksville, Indiana. The man was in possession of two cans of dust cleaner, one of which was empty. Police report the man smelled of alcohol, and was confused at the time of questioning.

The man failed two failed sobriety tests, and reported a .17 blood-alcohol contest during a portable breath test.

Missouri Man Under the Influence Stabs Man in Homeless Camp

Via News-Leader.com in Missouri:

A recent huffing incident in a homeless camp in Springfield led one thirty-eight year old man to stab another man in the camp on Tuesday night. According to police, the man had consumed seven, 24-ounce beers and huffed gasoline fumes before attacking. The man also seemed to experience hallucinations in which he was unable to accurately describe the incident.

Charged in the past with four felony convictions, the man is being held in Greene County Jail on charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action. This carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

First-Time Teen Alcohol, Drug Use Peaks in Summer

via webmd.com

This article gives statistics on the peaking numbers of teenagers who are more inclined to try drugs and alcohol. Summer has proven to be the prime time for risky and dangerous behavior among youth.

Car in Ditch after Huffing and Driving

Via the Republican Herald in Pennsylvania:

Two young women were taken to the hospital after a huffing-related car crash.

The driver lost control of the vehicle, crashed into a building, and the vehicle landed upside down in a ditch. Police discovered the crash while on patrol, and both women had to be removed from the car by emergency responders.

The driver had passed out after “huffing air duster” while driving, and the passenger had swallowed a bag of crack cocaine after the crash. In addition, both women admitted to consuming alcohol, and police found marijuana in the car.

Charges against the young women are pending.

Man Huffs and Drives after AA Meeting

Via CarmiTimes in Illinois:

An Illinois man was arrested this week for a DUI after he drove his car into a ditch.

Police received reports of a vehicle in a ditch, and when they arrived on the scene, they saw a man standing by the car. As the officers approached, they saw the man throw a container into the ditch. When police retrieved the container, they discovered it was dust cleaner.

The man admitted to huffing the canister and drinking. He said he “had to have something” because he had just left an “AAA” [sic] meeting.

Police say he failed field sobriety tests, and later a breath test revealed a blood alcohol content of .093.

Teen Dies After Night of Drug Binge

Via AJC in Georgia

A 15-year-old boy died after a night of inhaling dust cleaner, smoking marijuana, drinking bourbon, and ingesting prescription medication. He and a 14-year-old friend had partied that night beginning at 5:30 PM. The 14-year-old went inside his house after 10PM, assuming his friend would walk to his own house a few blocks away. The friend awoke the next morning to find the 15-year-old still in his backyard, not breathing and unresponsive. The exact cause of death has not yet been determined, however, any one of the illegal substances could have caused the death.

Island Teenagers to Take Part in Drug Survey

via: Isle of Man, EU

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) will soon launch its 2011 questionnaire.

ESPAD's 2007 survey showed:
- 17 % of those surveyed used inhalants, which is also about twice the ESPAD average.

- 93% of those surveyed had consumed alcohol within the last 12 months, and 61 percent had been drunk during the same period.

- 24% of those questioned who had smoked cigarettes in the 30 days before the survey,, which was slightly below average.

-34% of the students said they had used cannabis during their lifetime and the proportion reporting use of drugs other than cannabis - 16 per cent - was more than twice the mean.

- 12% used pills in combination with alcohol.

Arrested Man Was Abusing Inhalants

From the Freemont Tribute in Nebraska:

On Friday night, police officers arrested a man after receiving a phone call from a woman at his residence. The woman, whom he threatened to burn with a blowtorch, said the man was abusing inhalants and alcohol which may have sparked the incident.

The man is being held for several charges with his bond set at $3,000.

Driver In Fatal Crash Sentenced

From The Daily Item in Pennsylvania

The 22-year-old driver responsible for causing a fatal wreck last January was sentenced Tuesday in Snyder County. Jessica Curry admitted to huffing computer duster prior to “swerving into oncoming traffic and striking another vehicle head on” in an accident that killed her 20-year-old friend and passenger Jason Noll, and left a 56-year-old woman wheel chair bound.

Curry was “sentenced for homicide by vehicle” after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide, illegal use of solvents, two counts of driving on the wrong side of the road, and a seat belt violation back in September. Authorities recovered several cans of dust remover from Curry’s vehicle at the accident scene.

At the request of Jason Noll’s family, Judge Harold Woelfel Jr. “rejected the state’s request for a state prison sentence of up to seven years” and instead “imposed a county jail term of less than two years.” Noll’s family wanted Curry to “have the chance to turn her life around” –even granting her their forgiveness for Jason’s death.

According to court documents Curry was an avid ‘huffer’ who would get high with her mother on a regular basis (who is now in a state mandated drug treatment facility). Along with serving her term in county jail, Curry will serve six years of probation- requiring her to enroll in a drug treatment program and abstain from using alcohol and drugs. Moments before her sentencing Curry addressed the court stating, “I’m really sorry…I’m not a bad person…I just made a mistake.”

California Healthy Kids Survey Statistics

From The Manteca Bulletin in California

Middle school and High School Students in Ripon County, California are annually adminstered the California Healthy Kids Survey; a self-report assessment targeting risky health behaviors. The state-wide survey specifically addresses issues related to drug and substance use, violence, crime, as well as physical and mental health. The Ripon Unified School District has released the following inhalant use statistics: among 7th graders 5% of the student population admitted to using inhalants in their lifetime, as did 5% of all 9th graders surveyed. Interestingly, 13% of all 11th graders surveyed reported past inhalant use, with 72% using alcohol, and 39% using marijuana.

Driver Arrested For Sniffing Duster

From The Hingham Journal in Massachusetts

On October 7th Police were dispatched to a local intersection after receiving reports that a man was passed out in a vehicle alongside the road. Upon arriving at the scene, officers found a 29-year-old male extremely disoriented and clutching a can of dust remover. Officers were able to coax the man into an ambulance.

The 29-year-old reportedly admitted to “sniffing from the can” and was exhibiting common symptoms related to excessive inhalant use. The man was arrested for “operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs, operating a vehicle to endanger, and operating a vehicle with an open bottle of alcohol in the car.”

Party Mom To Face Manslaughter Charges

From FirstCoastNews.com in St. Johns County, Florida

A Florida mom who has been accused of hosting several house parties where teens allegedly drank alcohol, smoked marijuana, and inhaled nitrous oxide appeared in court last week. 51-year-old, Diane Santarelli, “was indicted on two counts of manslaughter and four misdemeanors after two intoxicated teens left a party she was supervising and died in a car accident” last January. The manslaughter charges are second degree felonies, each punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

On January 12, 2009, 18-year-old Jessy Pitts and his 17-year-old passenger Taylor Brennan were killed when Pitts crashed his car into a guardrail while on the way home from a party hosted by Santarelli.

According to court documents Santarelli provided minors with alcohol, marijuana, and nitrous oxide ‘whippets’ over the course of several parties held in her home between September 2008 to January 2009.

Santarelli’s attorney argues that while his client illegally provided drugs and alcohol to minors, she is ultimately not responsible for the deaths of Pitts and Brennan, as both teens willingly got behind the wheel of a car despite being intoxicated. However, the prosecution attests that by directly contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Santarelli is to blame for the fatal crash.

The presiding judge made no motion to dismiss the felony charges last week, despite pleas from Santarelli’s attorney. The case will reconvene in court on December 1st.

Nitrous Oxide Triggers Fatal Fall

From The Lansing Journal in Michigan

According to East Lansing police, a 25-year-old man is dead after he fell and hit his head while inhaling nitrous oxide in his apartment Saturday night. Witnesses disclosed to authorities that the victim, identified as William Andrew Briton of Ortonville, was consuming large quantities of alcohol and ‘huffing’ nitrous oxide up until his fatal fall- “falling forward and striking his head while inhaling nitrous.”

Rescue workers were unable to resuscitate Briton at the scene. County medical examiners conducted an autopsy yesterday to determine Briton’s exact cause of death. Additional details will be released as they become available.

High Teens Crash Lawnmower

From Fox 2 News WJBK in Detroit, Michigan

Two Fraser teens are facing several criminal charges after they stole a riding lawnmower and crashed it into a police squad car while high. The suspects- 17 and 18 year-old males are accused of stealing a lawnmower and driving it to a local convenience store to purchase a can of aerosol to ‘huff.’ While on their way home, the teens high from ‘huffing’ aerosol crashed into a police cruiser just before sunrise last Saturday. Damages are estimated at a couple hundred dollars. No one was injured in the collision. Both teens face felony charges of receiving and concealing stolen property, malicious destruction of police property and underage consumption of alcohol.

Additional details as well as a video documenting the incident can be found at http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/20674927/.

Tragic Case of 'Chemical' Russian Roulette

From the Warren Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio

A fatal car accident in Champion Township, Ohio is being attributed to “intoxication by inhalants.” Authorities have determined that a can of aerosol computer duster contributed to the August 3rd crash that claimed the life of a local teenager, and seriously injured two others.

The teens, acquainted through various athletic teams were on their way to grab fast food when the driver decided to make a quick stop at Wal-mart; purchasing cigarettes, gum, and a can of “dust remover manufactured for use on a computer keyboard.”

The accident report released earlier this week by the Ohio State Highway Patrol reveals that the vehicle’s driver, 17 year-old Christie Manchester, “inhaled about four bursts from the can over a short period of time, then got a blank stare on her face, her body became rigid, and the car went off the road and hit two trees.”

Manchester suffered severe head and neck trauma in the collision and was pronounced dead at the scene by rescue workers. Both female passengers survived the accident, as 18 year-old Ellen Becker who was seriously injured in the crash is reportedly in intensive care with “no feeling from her waist down,” while 17 year-old Kaylyn Barco was hospitalized and released early last week.

The cause of the accident “went unexplained for several days until a highway patrol trooper conducted an interview with Barco after she left the hospital,” in which she admitted that just prior to the crash Manchester, who was driving, took several huffs from a can of computer duster.

Barco also disclosed that the can was passed around the car several times for each to get high, telling police that “the next thing she knew they went off the road and hit the trees.”

Additional details into the cause of the accident will be released as soon as investigators finish interviewing 18 year-old passenger Ellen Becker. Ohio State Highway Patrol has yet to receive the results of Manchester’s blood tests, but believe neither alcohol nor speed played a role in the crash.

Televised news coverage of the accident can be viewed online at Fox8 News Cleveland.

Wisconsin Tightens DUI Law

From WEAU News in Wisconsin

Police in Wisconsin have arrested and charged a 42 year old woman with her fifth consecutive DUI (driving under the influence of an illegal substance) after she rolled her truck on a busy interstate highway. Accident reports cite the woman as being heavily intoxicated at the time of the crash and ‘huffing’ computer duster. A passerby who witnessed the accident and stopped to help told police they found the driver still 'huffing' after the crash. She was issued a non-alcohol related DUI as a result of driving while high off computer duster. The woman escaped without injury and was arrested on the scene.

Wisconsin is just one of the many states implementing more aggressive and tighter driver safety laws regarding driving while ‘under the influence.’ DUI charges are now being issued to individuals who operate a motor vehicle while impaired from ANY substance or product.

Binge Drinking and Inhalant Abuse

In this morning’s news alerts, we came across an interesting item regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s new campaign “Let’s Make it a Safe Summer. Don’t Serve Alcohol to Teens.”

Towards the end of the release, an interesting note caught our attention: “Teens who drink are at more likely than nondrinkers to ride with a drinking driver; have unwanted, unintended, and unprotected sexual activity; use tobacco; experience interpersonal violence; consider or attempt suicide; and use marijuana, cocaine, or inhalants.”

Called over to the FTC’ Bureau of Consumer Protection and they were extremely helpful in sending the citation to support this statement. “J.W. Miller et al., Binge Drinking and Associated Health Risk Behaviors Among High School Students, 119 Pediatrics 76-85 (2007).

The table includes “current inhalant use” (which is defined as “sniffed glue, breathed aerosol spray, or inhaled paints one or more times during the past 30 days”)

TABLE 3 (last line) Prevalence and AOR of Risk Behaviors Among US High School Students According to Drinking Status, 2003

• All respondents: 4% current inhalant use.
  
  
• Non-drinkers: 1% current inhalant use.
  
  
• Current Drinkers Who Did Not Binge Drink: 2.7 % current inhalant use. (Adjusted odds ratio: 3.2%)
  
  
• Current Drinkers Who Binge Drank: 8.8% current inhalant use. (Adjusted odds ratio: 12.3%)

The correlation between binge drinking and increased inhalant use is indeed startling.