INHALANT ABUSE TARGET OF GROUPS, GOV'T

WASHINGTON -- A renewed effort is under way to warn the next generation of
teenagers about the risks of using inhalants such as glue, spray paint or
markers. While an eight-year, anti-drug education campaign has seen a drop
in the number of students who have tried inhalants, new surveys show that
12-year-olds - an age where youngsters first begin to experiment with the
chemicals - haven't gotten the message to stay away that their older
siblings have.

Only 56 percent of sixth graders in a 2002 survey said someone could die
from sniffing such common products as gasoline or hair spray, down from 68
percent a year earlier, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America.

The new campaign includes articles in student magazines and cards to be
handed out at surf, ski and skate shops.

"This is a continual, ongoing education process," said Stephen Pasierb,
president of the partnership, a coalition of communications professionals
that seeks to reduce demand for drugs.

At a Thursday news conference to publicize National Inhalants and Poisons
Awareness Week, March 16-22, federal officials and leaders of private
anti-drug groups said they have seen a decline in using inhalants among
students since their campaign began in 1995. According to the partnership,
the percentage of teenagers trying inhalants dropped from 23 percent to 19
percent over the last eight years, and the percentage using inhalants in the
last year dropped from 16 percent to 10 percent.

But they haven't declared victory yet. Inhalants were blamed for the deaths
of more than 700 teenagers between 1994 and 2001, said Harvey Weiss,
executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition, an Austin,
Texas-based advocacy group.

One of them was Christopher Johnson Bryant, a 17-year-old high school
student in Tennessee who died in 2001 from inhaling two cans of butane he
had bought from a local store. With an enlarged color photo of her son
looking on, his mother urged other students to stay away from inhalants.

"Children just aren't supposed to die before their parents," said Toy
Johnson Slayton, of St. Simon's Island, Ga. "Education and awareness are our
only hope."