Inhalants: Extent of Use and Complications
About 12 1/2 million ADOLESCENTS in this country say that they have sniffed INHALANTS—usually volatile solvents such as spray paint, glue, or cigarette lighter fluid—at least once in their lives, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in its 1997 MONITORING THE FUTURE study, a national survey of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students (also called the HIGH S CHOOL SENIOR SURVEY). In fact, results from a number of surveys suggest that among children under 18, thelevel of use of inhalants is comparable to that of stimulants and is exceeded only by the level of use of MARIJUANA, ALCOHOL, and CIGARETTES.
The abuse of inhalants, which include a broad array of cheap and easily obtainable household products, is frequently viewed by the public as a relatively harmless habit and not in the same high-risk category as drugs such as alcohol, COCAINE, and HEROIN. Some people tend to view inhalant "sniffing," "snorting," "bagging" (when fumes are inhaled from a plastic bag), or "huffing" (when an inhalant-soaked rag is stuffed in the mouth) as a kind of childish fad to be equated with youthful experiments with cigarettes. But inhalant abuse is deadly serious. Sniffing volatile solvents, which include most inhalants, can cause severe damage to the brain and nervous system.
This page contains 201 words.
Inhalants: Extent of Use and Complications article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,548 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Inhalant Article
