GRIEVING PARENTS TELL WHAT STATISTICS DON'T

Reports Show Teens Abusing Inhalants

Washington - Eyes were welling up even before Jeanette Smith of Avon Lake
propped up the photo of her dead son, Jimmy, with his charming smile, and
took out the blue and gray shirt that, she said, had to be "cut off of his
lifeless body."

Her place in the program made it difficult for the crowd not to tear up.

First came the officials from the government and nonprofit groups. They
were holding a Washington news conference Thursday to decry an uptick in
teens - and pre-teens - sniffing or "huffing" inhalants such as glue, shoe
polish and computer spray cleaners to get high.

Officials from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration said their surveys indicate 8.6 percent of children ages 12
or 13 have tried inhalants.

The nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America presented a dramatically
different number: 22 percent of students in grades six through eight have
tried inhalants at least once, and 16 percent did so in the past year.

Government officials conceded that the surveys use different methods and
get different results, but they said all show a consistent upward trend.

Besides, their presentation in support of National Inhalants and Poisons
Awareness Week made its point in the end not with talk of single or double
digits, but with real examples of what can happen from huffing.

They presented a 17-year-old from Bryan, in northwest Ohio, who said she is
in rehab in Indiana because of her own inhalant use. When she saw the word
"toxic" on a substance, Jessie Stotz recounted, "I just thought it meant a
better high."

Nobody had told her it could be deadly or cause permanent brain damage, she
said.

"In school, they don't teach you not to inhale glue," she said. "They teach
you to stay away from alcohol and marijuana."

Turning to Jeanette and James Smith, she said through her own tears, "It's
really hard to see parents who have lost their child because of this. It's
really hard for me to understand why I got to live and why others didn't."

Then it was time for the Smiths, the final speakers.

"We are the last to talk," Jeanette said, holding a framed 8-by-10 photo of
Jimmy, "because this is where it ends."

Jimmy Smith was a junior at Avon Lake High School, a handsome teen who
played trumpet in the band, built and networked computers and planned to
someday enter the priesthood.

He also huffed butane, though no one knows how long it had gone on, his
father said.

On May 16, 2004, a Sunday and a week after his 17th birthday, he died from
the butane, leaving his parents, two younger brothers and a sister to grieve.

His father recalled pulling up to the house to see the garage door open,
his wife trying to breathe life into their son.

"And that's something that you wouldn't want any parent to ever have to go
through," James told the audience. "It cuts through you like a knife."

He and Jeanette talked to their children about drugs, alcohol, premarital
sex, "about all the things you would talk about," James said. But they
hadn't talked about inhaling products that can be bought at the supermarket
or gas station.

"Please," Jeanette implored, "make a commitment today to make a difference
- - to teach our kids and parents respect for life."