A FATHER'S WARNING HIT HOME FOR MANY

My name is Jeff. I am a police officer for a city which is known
nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs.

At one point, we were 2 in the nation in homicides per capita.

I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and
general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the
line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with
him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no
way to bring drugs into my house.

Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this
is so you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taught in schools about drugs.

My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs.

Makes them promise they won't.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one
in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers.

They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I
bought a 3 pack of Dust-Off. Dust-Off is a can of compressed air to
blow dust off a computer.

A few weeks later when I went to use them, they were all used. I
talked to my kids and my 2 sons both said they had used them on
their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for
wasting the $10 I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the
computer store.

They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a
single jumbo can of Dust-Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st I left for work at 10 p.m. At 11 p.m. my wife went down
and kissed Kyle goodnight.

At 5:30 a.m. the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up
for school, before she left for work. He was sitting up in bed with
his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few
times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like
this and pretend he fell back asleep.

He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell
over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can
coming out of his mouth.

He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands.

Kyle was dead. I am a police officer and I had never heard of this.
My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found
out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant
from the can of Dust-Off was in his system. No other drugs.

Kyle had died between midnight and 1 a.m. I found out that using Dust
Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. It gives them a
slight high for about 10 seconds.

It makes them dizzy.

A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this
about a month before.

Kyle showed his best friend.

Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed
air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle was wrong.

It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant. . . .
It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. . . . When
you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with
oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed.

It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. . . . It's not
cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong .
. . It's Russian roulette.

You don't die later.

Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're
breathing it in. If not, you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the
hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died.
Why his eyes were still open. Kyle complained a few days before he
died of his tongue hurting.

It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite.

If I had only known. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can
never be fixed.

The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run
from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm
supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One
won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room. . . .
And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this.
I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe
because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them. April
2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th
birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room
couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the
bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I died
and went to hell.