MOURNING FAMILIES HAVE MESSAGE FOR YOUTH

'It's OK To Try Things, But Not This. It Gives Nothing'

In the wake of the deaths of two teenagers less than 24 hours apart after
they inhaled butane gas, the families of the boys requested a stark message
be sent to youth: Don't sniff solvents, because the consequences can be deadly.

"The message is that it's OK to try things, but not this," said Edgard
Hernanz, the uncle of 16-year-old Steve Fournier, found dead in the
basement of the family home in Mont St. Gregoire Sunday night.

"This gives nothing. It only kills."

Both families said their boys were just typical teenagers looking to
experiment, not habitual drug users.

Anne Regimbald found her 17-year-old brother, Martin, just after 9 p.m.
Monday, two bottles of butane by his side. Her efforts to revive him, as
well as those of emergency teams, were in vain.

News vans, satellite dishes erected, were parked outside their Brossard
apartment building by 6:30 the next morning.

Visibly shaken, Regimbald, 23, nevertheless agreed to speak to a reporter.

"I want to send a message to young people to beware of solvents before they
take another innocent life," she said. "We have suffered a great loss."

She described her brother as a kind person who liked sports cars and music,
but who also had a quiet, mysterious side.

"Take this picture of him," she said. "It shows him during a happy time."

Families and police said there was no known connection between the boys,
other than their proximity in age and time of death.

Fournier was a country boy who loved riding his BMX bicycle, his uncle
said, more of a sporty kid than a party kid.

Hernanz said police suggested Fournier might have been inexperienced with
butane, which could explain his death.

Anne Regimbald, however, said she knew her brother had tried butane before,
indicating experience was no guarantee of survival.

Hernanz also questioned why butane cans lack any notice that they're poisonous.

"Maybe if Steve had seen a marking like that, a skull and crossbones, he
would have thought twice about what he was doing."

Bikes lay strewn about the deserted family home yesterday, located in a
quiet town 40 kilometres southeast of Montreal encircled by apple orchards
and farmers' fields.

Friends at his high school described Fournier as a great kid with a ready
smile, always quick to comfort others.

Although health professionals have described sniffing solvents as the
second most common high for young people after marijuana, most students
interviewed at Monseigneur Euclide Theberge, Fournier's high school in
Marieville, said they hadn't heard much about butane, more commonly
referred to as lighter fluid.

They had heard about sniffing gas and glue, but most dismissed it as a
foolhardy high, known to destroy brain cells rapidly.

Principal Michel Grise said it was a shock to school officials, as well,
who had never heard of the practice.

A study is being carried out at the school to determine how widespread it is.

Health-care workers were on hand to deal with any problems the children
might have, Grise said, and a poster with Fournier's picture has been put
up, with space for the students to leave a message.

Longueuil police were also taken aback by the death of Regimbald, saying it
was the first known fatality linked to butane on their territory.

"It's very sad that a young guy of 17 dies like that," said Constable
Jean-Pierre Gignac. He advised young people having problems with substance
abuse to seek help at a CLSC or police station.

"We want to say to the young: 'Talk about it.' "

Fournier's mother convinced Hernanz to speak to the media, so that possibly
some good could come from death of the oldest of her four sons.

But after spending the morning going over funeral details, Nadine Fournier
couldn't. "When you have to pick out what type of casket you want, or
decide how you want your son's arms to be positioned in the casket, it
starts to hit you that your son is dead," Hernanz said.

Steve Fournier's funeral will be held at the Mont St. Gregoire Church on
Saturday at 11 a.m.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made for Martin Regimbald.