INHALANT ABUSE BY KIDS IS NEW DRUG-WAR TARGET

Users younger than ever as problem resurges

WASHINGTON - The war on drugs has a new target. While cops and parents
worry about marijuana, crack and heroin, growing numbers of young kids are
doing serious damage to their bodies and even dying from using inhalants,
many of which are commonly found around the house and at school.

"As we look at the nation's drug problem, probably this is the single
biggest cause of unnecessary destruction in our society," Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said
Tuesday.

Inhalants are everyday items that contain toxic gas or liquid, such as
aerosol air fresheners kept under the kitchen sink; butane cigarette
lighters; and Freon. Some teenagers have even poured gasoline into a
plastic bag, put their head inside and inhaled the toxic fumes.

Young people inhale these substances to feel intoxicated. But the effects
of "huffing" or "sniffing" can be lasting and extremely severe. Abuse often
results in death, even for first-time users. Teenagers sometimes suffer
permanent brain, bone marrow, liver and kidney damage, and a loss of their
faculties, Gen. McCaffrey said.

Inhalant use has been a problem for decades but declined after inhalants
were targeted by drug fighters in the late 1980s. But now they are roaring
back and the users are younger than ever.

In 1996, there were about 805,000 new inhalant users, up from 382,000 in
1991, according to a National Household Survey on Drugs last year.

One in five teenagers has used inhalants to get high, according to the
National Institute on Drug Abuse. That number is almost identical to the
percentage of eighth-graders who have smoked marijuana.

Perhaps even more shocking than the number of young people experimenting
with lethal inhalants is the percentage of parents who believe their sons
and daughters would never deliberately use inhalants. More than 90 percent
of parents asked in the 1997 survey refused to believe their children had
ever abused inhalants.

Dr. Rick Heiss, from Bakersfield, Calif., defined the problem at a news
conference Tuesday.

Dr. Heiss caught his teenage son Wade inhaling gas in a shed behind their
house in late 1995. When confronted, the boy was embarrassed and
apologetic. He said he was sorry, agreed that what he'd done was foolish
and promised never to do it again.

Two weeks later, just before Christmas, Wade was found dead on his pool
deck after inhaling poisonous fumes. His family watched, devastated, while
his father tried in vain to breath life back into him.

"It's never too early and seldom too late to talk to them about it," Dr.
Heiss said. "This is a battle and a problem best fought before it starts."

"Talk to your children while they still listen; while you are still their
primary influence; before they turn to their peers for acceptance."

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson