'HUFFING' AND DYING TO GET HIGH

Abuse of Inhalants Again on the Rise

Jessica Manley's future was as promising as any junior high school
student's in northeast Indiana.

The popular 14-year-old Decatur girl had accomplishments few young people
obtain: an honor-roll student, three-sport athlete at Bellmont Middle
School and a leader of her school's faith-based student group.

She talked about becoming a writer or veterinarian.

But Manley's dreams were dashed the night of April 14, 2003, when she died
after using a can of bathroom air freshener to inhale toxins.

Medical workers labored for more than an hour to save her life, but to no
avail.

Manley's death came at a time when studies show growth both statewide and
nationally in the number of middle school students "huffing," a slang term
for the intentional inhaling of gas or vapors to achieve a high.

Huffing Boom

Inhalant abuse among sixth-graders nationwide has jumped 44 percent in the
past two years and 18 percent in eighth-graders during the same period,
according to a study released last month by the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America, based in New York.

About one of every four eighth-graders has reported trying an inhalant at
least once, the study said.

In Indiana, monthly, annual and lifelong use of inhalants among junior high
students declined almost across the board from the mid-1990s to 2002,
according to a study from the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana
University in Bloomington.

But from 2002 to 2003, the figures in those categories for each grade
increased, the study showed.

Barry Humble, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Consortium of
Allen County, said that because inhalant abuse among youths is not as
prevalent or well-publicized as alcohol or marijuana abuse, combating the
problem can be forgotten.

"Our approach to this subject has sometimes been as an afterthought," he
said. "Really, we need to be looking at this subject as dealing with
toxins, ... the term inhalant doesn't conjure up anything really negative
in a person's mind."

His thoughts were echoed by Harvey Weiss, executive director of the
National Inhalant Prevention Coalition in Austin, Texas.

"I think that people are not as aggressive as talking about it as in the
past," he said in a phone interview. "People saw in the past couple of
years declining abuse rates and figured it was being taken care of."

Huffing describes when a person inhales vapors, often from common household
items such as air fresheners, felt-tip markers, cooking spray and spray
paint. The ease with which inhalants can be obtained is one reason they are
so attractive to young people looking for a high.

Inhalants can give the user a brief escape from reality - a feeling of
slight stimulation or lessened inhibition.

Side effects of using inhalants include damage to internal organs, and in
extreme cases, sudden sniffing death syndrome, in which the user dies.

In September 1998, a Butler man was sentenced to 50 years in prison after
he killed his mother. Five years of his sentence was suspended, and he was
placed on probation for five years. A psychiatrist diagnosed the man,
Robert Marcum, with inhalant-induced psychotic disorder and
inhalant-induced persistent dementia. Authorities said at the time Marcum
had been huffing paint.

Although there are no exact numbers, Weiss estimates he hears of about 100
to 125 people who die annually from huffing. In May, a suburban Cleveland
teen-ager died from intoxication of butane.

Inhalant deaths have struck the region since at least the early 1990s. In
1993, a 17-year-old Ligonier boy died from sniffing aerosol propellant. The
year before, two teen deaths in Allen County from inhalant abuse were reported.

In Indiana, it is a misdemeanor to sniff for a high items containing a set
list of numerous chemicals or to use distribute nitrous oxide to get high.

Ben's Story

As a youth, Ben was drawn to the strangely alluring smell of gasoline. He
found it in his family's lawn mower and a container in which they stored
the liquid.

But unlike the occasional sniff a person gets filling a tank or mowing the
lawn, Ben, 18, became a regular inhaler of the flammable, colorless mixture
at age 8. He said in a phone interview he liked the feeling it gave him,
the high.

He was a regular inhaler for a decade. He now suffers painful headaches and
nosebleeds. Nurses have told him the conditions will continue for the rest
of his life.

Ben is not his real name. He agreed to an interview with The Journal
Gazette on the condition that his name be changed to protect his identity.

While many 18-year-olds spend their summer preparing to embark on their
freshman year at college, Ben is in an Indiana treatment facility receiving
help and catching up on credits he missed as he readies for his senior year
in high school. His rehabilitation stint is the result of a downward slide
caused by his prolonged inhalant abuse.

In addition to gasoline, he used permanent markers and nail polish remover
for his high.

The use caused his education to suffer and strained his relationship with
his family.

"When I was doing it, I was just isolated from my family," he said. "I
basically just spent most of my time in my room. I drifted away from my
friends who stayed clean and hung out with my friends who did drugs and
skipped school."

The inhalants were also easy to conceal.

"One time I was in school, and I had a marker up my sleeve and I had a
tissue over it," he said. "(The teacher) didn't know what it was. It just
looked like I was wiping my nose, blowing my nose."

Authorities checked him into treatment four months ago after he ran afoul
of the law, Ben said.

He is looking forward to a future without drugs when he gets out in August,
though he knows the desire to use will be there.

As for advice for a young person who is inhaling or thinking about it, he
said: "I would tell the person what's going on with me right now ... that
I'm going to be 50 years old and always have a headache from it and
nosebleeds from it and it will never stop."

Jessica's Story

Jessica's use of inhalants lasted a far shorter time than Ben's, but ended
in far greater consequences.

She was sitting with her dad and stepmom just before announcing she was
going to bed. She hugged her parents and took off upstairs.

Before going to her bedroom, she stopped in a bathroom, grabbed a can of
air freshener and doused a towel with the spray.

"The towel was so wet it soaked the sheets and mattress," said her dad, Jim
Manley, a 41-year-old real estate appraiser.

About 10 minutes later, Jim and his wife went to bed.

"We were laying there, and we heard this big crash," he said. "We said,
'What the heck was that?'"

They checked on their daughter in her nearby bedroom. She had fallen and
was having a seizure after huffing the air freshener.

"It's not always the bad kids that you have to watch out for," Manley said.
"It's also the good kids. My daughter was a good kid. I never thought I
would have to worry about her."

Jessica was not a longtime abuser of inhalants. Jim Manley said he thinks
it was Jessica's second use of inhalants that ended her life.

Prevention Efforts

After his daughter's death, Manley went to two Decatur schools to educate
middle school students about the danger of inhalants.

"(The students) don't look at it as a drug," he said. "You can buy it off
the shelf at Wal-Mart for a dollar a can and they think, 'What can be wrong
with this?'"

He said he received positive feedback, including one student who was
huffing and not doing well in school because of the inhalants. She talked
to her parents about it and quit using inhalants.

"The lady basically told me I saved her daughter's life," he recalled the
student's mother saying to him after they bumped into each other at a high
school basketball game.

The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition also sponsors National Inhalants
& Poisons Awareness Week during the third week in March.

The program uses youths, schools, media, police departments, health
organizations and civic groups to educate people about inhalant abuse.

A significant problem in combating inhalant abuse is parents thinking
changes in their preteen or teen-age child are simply a phase all kids
encounter, not the possible result of inhalant abuse.

"It's easier for the kid to hide this because parents would look at this
child's behavior and just say it's a stage they are going through," Humble
said. Another hurdle anti-inhalant crusaders have to overcome is the
parental view that their children would never succumb to inhaling vapors.

"If they think that it can't happen to them, they can come down here to
Decatur and I will take them to the cemetery," Manley said. "It can happen
to anybody at any time."