Inhalants sniffing out danger. (Medicines & Drugs).(Brief Article)

Fourteen-year-old Brian loved playing the guitar, listening to music, and playing basketball. He was a good student and had been elected to the student council several times. He also had plenty of friends. One afternoon his mother found Brian stretched across his bed. Something about the way he was lying there worried her. When she tried to wake him up, his skin felt cold and sweaty. She called the paramedics for help. When they arrived, the paramedics said that Brian had had a heart attack.

What Brian's parents didn't know is that Brian had been huffing. He had taken an ordinary household cleaner and inhaled the fumes, hoping to get high. Brian knew that drugs like marijuana and cocaine were dangerous, but hadn't realized that the chemicals in household cleaners were, too. A couple of kids Brian knew persuaded him to try sniffing glue. From glue, Brian went on to sniffing household cleaners.

Brian wasn't angry or upset. He wasn't trying to rebel against his parents or harm himself in any way. He had no idea that the chemicals he was sniffing could cause such serious damage to his body and brain.

When ordinary, legal household cleaners and chemicals are sniffed, we call them inhalants--and they become drugs of abuse. Paint thinners, nail polish remover, certain glues, and oven cleaners are among the products that can be abused by inhaling their fumes.

Inhalants are very dangerous. Some kids who try inhalants die the first time they ...