INHALANTS NEW FOE IN U.S. DRUG WARS

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.

`As we at look the nation's drug problem, probably this is the single
biggest cause of unnecessary destruction in our society,' Gen. Barry
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 and butane
cigarette lighters left on the coffee table. 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 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, McCaffrey said.

Inhalant use has been a problem for decades but declined after
inhalants were targeted by drug fighters in the late 1980s. 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 is the percentage of parents who believe
their sons and daughters would never deliberately use inhalants.

Dr. Rick Heiss, from Bakersfield, Calif., defined the problem at a
news conference here Tuesday. Heiss caught his teenage son Wade
inhaling gas in a shed behind their house in late 1995. When
confronted, the boy was apologetic. He 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,'
Heiss said Tuesday. `This is an epidemic of ignorance we are facing in
our nation.

`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: Patrick Henry