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National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week

If you think “huffing” is just something the Three Little Pigs had to watch out for, the wolf may come knocking at your door. Huffing, bagging and sniffing are terms for inhalant use, a cheap, legal and easy way that young people in Monroe County get high.

Parents are often out of the loop when it comes to inhalants. Children discuss it and practice it: adults stay in the dark. The week of March 18-24 is National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW), and the Monroe County Alliance for Inhalant Prevention is kicking off a media campaign designed to educate parents and young people about this deadly practice.

The goal? To take the “silent” out of this silent epidemic. Most parents know how to talk to their kids about marijuana, date rape and drinking because they have enough knowledge about these issues, but inhalants are an informational blind spot.

The numbers are startling. Almost one in every six tenth graders in Monroe County has intentionally inhaled everyday products during the last 30 days at the risk of brain damage and even death, reports the 2004 KIP Survey. Over 2 million young people used inhalants in 2004. Inhalant abuse, most common in the 10-12 age bracket, is also considered a “gateway drug,” a student’s first form of substance abuse before “graduating” to other drugs.

Inhalants are as close as the kitchen sink or your child’s classroom. What young people don’t realize is that using any inhalant is like playing Russian Roulette: experimenters can die the 1st, 10th or even 100th time they use. Other effects of inhalant use include brain, respiratory, liver and kidney damage, short-term memory loss and hearing impairment.

We must educate our children about inhalants before they educate themselves. We can protect our children by working together. To receive your free kit to learn more about inhalants, call The Monroe County Alliance for Inhalant Prevention at (270) 487-0622 or log onto www.StopInhalantAbuse.org. You can also contact the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition at 1-800-269-4237 for information on NIPAW activities or inhalant abuse.

Sincerely,

Amy Hutchinson,

The Monroe County Alliance for Inhalant Prevention