`HUFFING' A DEADLY TREND FOR TEENS

Inhaling fumes from legal products can cause brain damage or death

ROCK HILL

- -- Kids call it huffing, doing whippets, getting a Texas shoe-shine.

One of every five eighth-graders have tried to get high by inhaling the
fumes of typical household substances such as glue, nail polish remover or
cleaning fluids, according to a 1997 study by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse.

Teens see inhalants as a quick, cheap way to get a rush without using
illegal drugs, cigarettes or alcohol.

But experts say they can be far more dangerous.

Inhalants can cause brain damage -- or even kill -- the first time someone
experiments.

"It is, I think, one of the scariest things for a kid to do," said Ashley
Watts, a teen counselor at the Keystone drug rehabilitation clinic in Rock
Hill. "It can be deadly, immediately."

Two York County teens have died in recent years after using inhalants. And
police say inhaling gasoline may have been a factor in a Rock Hill teen's
death two weeks ago.

The body of 15-year-old Johnny Richard Cochran III was pulled from a pond
in rural Catawba on Feb. 5. Charged with murder are Gerald Robert "Rocky"
Starnes, 17, and Gary Allen Corbett, 16, both of the Catawba area southeast
of Rock Hill.

York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant said the youths killed Cochran after they
got angry at him while sniffing gasoline around a campfire near Starnes'
home on Turkey Lane on Jan. 31.

Bryant wouldn't comment on the inhalant's role in the recent murder, but he
said his officers have seen other cases where youths who have been huffing
inhalants became violent.

"It has been a factor in a lot of out-of-control and domestic-type things,"
Bryant said. "The parents try to talk to them and the kids go wild. The
next thing you know, they're tearing up the home. I consider inhalants a
serious problem. It's bad if they do it."

Inhalants are ordinary household products whose fumes can be inhaled, such
as hair spray, nail polish remover, cleaning fluids, markers, lighter
fluid, paint thinner, gasoline and glue. Sniffing the fumes creates a
temporary feeling of light-headedness by starving the brain of oxygen.

Unlike the effects of narcotics or alcohol, the rush usually lasts only a
minute or less.

But by replacing the oxygen in the lungs with the fumes, inhalants can
cause serious damage, depending on the amount inhaled and the substance
used. According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, side effects
from inhalants include nausea; decreased heart and respiratory rates; liver,

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lung and kidney damage; damage to the nervous system and brain; seizures;
comas; and death.

"It's a very, very dangerous thing to do," said York County Coroner Doug
McKown. "You're literally playing with a stick of dynamite. It could kill
you the first time you do it."

But young teens who don't have access to drugs often try inhalants because
they're cheap and they're there, said Lynn Zimmer, a professor of sociology
at the City University of New York.

Several Rock Hill High School students interviewed Friday said many of
their friends had inhaled glue, antifreeze, nail polish remover and even
correction fluid to get a quick high.

"Just about everybody tries sniffing," said Ahdonnist Morrison, a
16-year-old Rock Hill High sophomore who says he's never used inhalants. "I
know people who sniffed Wite-Out in class today."

Nationwide, roughly one in five kids -- 21 percent -- say they've tried
inhalants by eighth grade, the drug institute study says. That's more than
any other drug except marijuana, cigarettes or alcohol. But most young
people who try inhalants don't use them very often, the study showed.

Of those who've tried inhalants, more than half -- 56 percent -- said
they'd used them only once or twice, and only 15 percent said they'd used
them more than 10 times.

"You have an awful lot of kids who have sniffed glue a couple of times
because they heard it would get them high, but they don't become
glue-sniffers," Zimmer said. "It makes them a little bit woozy, but the
effects are over quite quickly. So no one would usually do it if they have
access to other drugs."

Zimmer said most kids who experiment with inhalants do so between the ages
of 12 and 14.

As teens get older, they tend to use inhalants less. By eighth grade, 21
percent had tried inhalants, but only 13 percent had used them within the
past year. By 10th grade, only 10 percent had used within the past year,
and by 12th grade, only 8 percent had used within the past year.

"There tends to be a short period when young people experiment with
inhalants," Zimmer said. "Almost as soon as they have access to any other
drugs, they stop using inhalants."

Some teens will, however, get addicted to substances like glue and continue
using, she said. Those are often the cases that end with tragic results,
she said.

Two York County teens have died in recent years as a result of using
inhalants:

In November 1994, a 19-year-old York man died from sniffing Glade air
freshener in his Clemson University dormitory room. Thomas Gray Dickson
Jr.'s roommate called paramedics after finding him unconscious in his room.
Investigators found several bottles of air freshener in Dickson's apartment.

In April 1996, a 16-year-old Northwestern High School student was found
dead, slumped over a propane canister in his yard. Assistant York County
Coroner David Chambers said Jonathan Broome, of Twin Lakes Road, was
sniffing propane from the canister to a gas grill and fell over,
unconscious. Chambers said Broome had a history of huffing gas.

Inhalants can also be dangerous if users are smoking while sniffing,
because many inhalants are flammable.

In March 1998, three teen-agers in York were passing around a gallon of
gasoline and sniffing it. They were also smoking, and a lit cigarette
ignited it. A 12-year-old Clover boy suffered second- and third-degree
burns. Two teens were charged with inhaling an intoxicant. The disposition
of their cases was unavailable Friday.

Under S.C. law, it's illegal to inhale intoxicants such as gasoline or
glue, and doing so carries a penalty of 30 days in jail or a $100 fine. The
S.C. Law Enforcement Division says it doesn't keep statistics on how many
people are arrested for inhaling intoxicants.

Detective Joe McCullough, Rock Hill's middle-school resource officer, said
not many cases of huffing get reported, but that doesn't mean kids aren't
doing it.

"We had a problem with the airplane glue in the early '90s, but that seems
to have died off," he said.

He said it's harder to catch kids who use inhalants than who use drugs
because it's not illegal to possess glue or nail polish -- it's only
illegal to inhale them.

Rock Hill High School Principal Niles Chumley said he knows students
experiment with inhalants, but because they don't usually do so on school
grounds, there's not much officials can do.

Students are taught about the dangers of inhalants as part of their health
education course, he said. Fifth-graders also learn about the dangers of
inhalants as part of the D.A.R.E. drug-education curriculum, said Rock Hill
Lt. Lash Leroux.

Those messages have gotten through to some teen-agers, such as Morrison.

"I don't mess with that stuff," Morrison said. "It just kills your brain
cells."

Reach Jonathan Dube at (803) 327-8506 or: jdube@charlotte.com