DOCTOR TAKES DRIVE AGAINST INHALANT ABUSE TO TELEVISION

When Dr. Richard Heiss lost his 12-year-old son, Wade, three years ago, he
didn't mince words explaining how it happened.

Wade Heiss died from purposely inhaling air freshener from an aerosol can.

Within weeks of his son's death, Heiss was visiting schools in a personal
campaign to educate children and parents about the dangers of inhaling
ordinary home products to get high.

Heiss' story and the impact it had on a group of Bakersfield teen-agers
will be featured Friday in a nationally telecast show about teen-age drug
abuse.

"The Teen Files: Drugs" will air at 9 p.m. on UPN Channel 45.

Representatives of Arnold Shapiro Productions in Studio City contacted
Heiss after reading his story and invited him to be part of the report on
teen drug abuse.

Producer Karen Haystead Duzy said it was vital to include inhalant abuse in
the show, hosted by Leeza Gibbons.

"A lot of education on inhalant abuse is very new and hasn't been in
schools and far reaching," Haystead Duzy said.

"We couldn't use this hour without discussing it."

Television crews taped Heiss in January as he spoke to about a dozen
teen-agers from continuation schools who were familiar with inhalant abuse.

Heiss began by explaining that inhaling various substances directs poison
to the brain and suppresses the respiratory tract. Then, the students were
taken to the morgue.

Heiss and his son, Rick, later told the students about finding Wade
collapsed in the jacuzzi and how he lost all brain activity.

"It was a real hard time for us -- two days before Christmas," Heiss said.
"Not a day goes by that I don't think about him or talk about him."

The story had an impact on the students, Heiss said.

"They all cried. They hugged and hugged," he said.

Heiss hopes the television program will make parents realize they need to
talk to their children about inhalant abuse.

"The primary problem is parental denial," he said.

Parents are willing to tell their kids to be careful about other things, he
said, but they don't talk to them about the dangers in the home.

"Kids want to know about these things. With lack of information, they
wouldn't know any better. They'll believe their friends," Heiss said.

"It gives them that buzz. They believe they're being grown up."

Given good information, Heiss believes, students are more likely to make
the right choices.

"I don't think kids deliberately want to kill themselves. They love life,"
he said. "None of them think they're actually going to die of anything."