GETTING A HANDLE ON 'HUFFING'

Forum Targets Abuse Among Middle-Schoolers

ENFIELD - Somewhere in Enfield not so long ago, a middle school girl
was inhaling propellants from an entire can of hairspray every night
until the chemicals caused her to pass out until the next morning.
John F. Kennedy Middle School police Officer Mark Rochette said the
girl admitted to her bedtime ritual during a six-month investigation
that found more than four dozen middle school students regularly
engage in "huffing" - or inhaling propellants from aerosol products to
get high.

But huffing problems aren't limited to Enfield, or middle-schoolers.
According to national studies from 2001 and 2003, 12 percent to 17
percent of students in grades 8 through 12 admitted to using such
aerosol inhalants.

Teens use them because they are cheap and available: such inhalants
ranked fourth in popularity with teens behind alcohol, tobacco, and
marijuana, with junior high-schoolers the most frequent abusers.
Rochette detailed the dangers of huffing as well as the abuse of
over-the-counter medicine - also a problem at the middle school -
during an hourlong forum Thursday at the Enfield Youth Center at the
Angelo Lamagna family center on North Main Street. The forum had been
announced for several weeks through fliers and newspaper articles, but
only one parent showed up to get more information on the growing drug
problem.

Resident Emelia Salas has twin 10-year-old boys who will attend John
F. Kennedy in less than two years. "Right now I'm on superalert
because I've got all these things in my house," she said Thursday. "I
knew very little about this." Salas - who heard about the forum
through the youth center, where her kids go after school - said she
wants to learn all she can about the pressures facing today's teens.
"Nobody ever said it was easy raising children or teenagers," she
said. "There's so much exposure out there.

You want to be ahead of the situation." Salas said she keeps a close
eye on her sons' activities and doesn't allow them to be in their
bedroom behind closed doors.

She said her sons often complain when she goes through their
rooms.

But if that's what it takes to keep them safe, she'll continue to do
it. Rochette said he was disappointed in the poor turnout for the
forum, but that it was not unexpected. "You can't get parents to show
up for anything,' he said. "Every parent thinks it's going to be
someone else's kids." Youth center coordinator Christie Amsden, who
spearheaded the effort for Thursday's presentation, said she and
Rochette are working to possibly hold a similar forum at a public
library during summer in hopes of attracting more people from
different parts of town. Amsden said she also was hoping for a better
turnout, but few of the youth center's monthly family events are
well-attended. "Families are busy and kids have sports," she said,
later emphasizing the importance of parents being informed about what
their kids are doing in their spare time. Rochette said widespread
huffing and the abuse of over-the-counter medications first became
evident at the middle school about six months ago during an
investigation into students using marijuana. Dozens of students have
since come forward to admit that they abuse household products, or
have turned in their friends. In April, JFK Principal Timothy Neville
banned all aerosol products from school grounds, and Rochette said he
has not heard of a single huffing incident at the school since.
Students at all Enfield public schools are also not allowed to carry
any type of medication, whether it be allergy pills or cough drops.

All medication must be administered through the school nurse, a policy
that has been in place for more than a decade. Rochette said the most
common ways to abuse aerosol products are to breathe the propellants
out of a bag or soda can, or to soak paper towels or hair "scrunchies"
- - fabric-covered hair elastics - with the product, then stuff it in
their mouths to breathe in the vapors. Commonly abused products are
hairsprays, air fresheners, deodorants, and spray paint. Another
method, known as "bagging," also is on the rise, Rochette said. Teens
are sealing plastic or paper bags around their heads and breathing all
the air until just before the point of suffocation. The teens or their
friends then spray in the aerosol product in to the bag, and teens
breathe the vapors to get high. Huffing can cause brain, liver, and
kidney damage - and even death.

When a person inhales propellants, the chemicals encapsulate the
oxygen in the bloodstream, preventing it from reaching vital organs.

Rochette likened the effects of huffing on the body to drowning.
"Sudden sniffing death" can occur, even during the first huffing
incident, if a surge of adrenaline causes the oxygen-starved heart to
fail, sending the person into immediate cardiac arrest. Signs of
inhalant abuse include sores around the mouth, red and runny eyes and
nose, anxiety, dazed appearance, hallucinations, bad breath, and loss
of appetite. The recommended treatment for abusing inhalants is 30 to
45 days of detoxification, Rochette said, adding that the nearest
detox center for inhalant abuse is in Vermont. Abusing cough and cold
medication is also popular among the middle school set. Abusers take
up to 24 pills at a time, often known as "doing squares," Rochette
said, to get high from stimulants in some over-the-counter products.

Others go after the alcohol-based medications. Three JFK girls were
taken by ambulance last month to the Connecticut Children's Medical
Center after overdosing on a common cough and cold medication.
Rochette said one girl with no history of seizure activity suffered a
grand mal seizure as an effect of the medication. Rochette said police
are working to possibly charge the three girls with criminal
misdemeanor chargers, though he declined to say what those charges
might be. "This stuff is scary," Rochette said, adding that many
parents have the same reaction upon finding out their kids have
experimented with huffing or over-the-counter medication. "They all
said, 'We never thought our kid would do it.'"