A MISSED MESSAGE

Warning Signs Of Inhalant Abuse

Parents have done a great job advising their children about the dangers of
abusing alcohol and other drugs, says an official with the Ohio Department
of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. But when it comes to teen inhalant
abuse, the message is not getting delivered, said Stacey Frohnapfel-Hasson,
the agency's chief of communication.

"Inhalant use has fallen through the cracks," she said Thursday. She cited
a Partnership for a Drug-Free America report that indicates the use of
inhalants among middle school-age children increased by as much as 44
percent from 2002 to 2004. A youth risk behavior survey coordinated last
year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows 4.3 percent
of those ages 15 or younger reported having used inhalants within the last
30 days, Frohnapfel-Hasson said. The percentage of use in the last 30 days
was 5.3 percent for ninth-graders, according to the study. Eleven percent
of all school-age students report having used inhalants at least once in
their lives. The figure for lifetime use by ninth-graders was 15.7 percent
and 13.2 percent for children age 15 or younger.

"The kids don't see the risk of inhalants because the parents haven't even
mentioned it," Frohnapfel-Hasson said. "They haven't perceived the risk. As
the perception of risk goes up, the level of use will go down." There are
between 100 and 125 deaths by inhalants each year, said Harvey Weiss,
executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition in Austin,
Texas. The Ohio Department of Health does not have specific figures as to
the number of deaths statewide attributed to inhalant use, a spokesman said
Thursday.

"I talk to about 50 parents a year who lose a child," Weiss said, "and
every parent I talk to says the same thing: 'You know, I talked to my child
about everything I thought they would ever do, but I never thought they
would do this.' "

Weiss said the typical inhalant overdose victim is a good student from a
good family who just made a bad choice. "This is like playing Russian
roulette," he said. "Every time you use an inhalant, it can be fatal.

A lot of the kids are athletes.

Good kids." According to the Web site, www.inhalant.org, 2.1 million kids
ages 12 to 17 have used an inhalant to get high. It also states one in five
children in the United States has intentionally abused a common household
product to get high by the time they reach eighth grade. "Inhalant abuse,
also called 'sniffing' and 'huffing,' usually begins at age 10 or 11,"
according to the Web site. "Children as young as 6, however, begin
experimenting with inhalants.

No one knows for certain how many lives inhalant abuse claims each year
because inhalant abuse deaths often are attributed to other causes." For
more information on inhalant abuse, visit www.inhalant.org. For free
pamphlets on talking to your child about inhalants, call the coalition at
(800) 269-4237.