Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410170029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Yeah, we sell them," she said, pointing to the Ronson butane canisters lined up high on a shelf behind the cashier. "But you'd better be 18 if you want to buy one."
Farther up Brambleton Avenue, E-Z-N manager Margo Shifflett said she asks a simple question when kids shuffle up to the register to purchase lighter fluid in aerosol cans. "Can I see an ID, please?"
And some national chains, like Uni-Mart and 7-Eleven, made the bold decision last year to take aerosol butane refills off the market altogether.
More and more, mini-marts in the Roanoke area are beginning to realize what kids already know. When it comes to inhalants, corner stores have replaced the unlit alleys, deserted playgrounds and empty doorways of the narcotics world.
A stroll down to the convenience store and a handful of change, 97 cents, buys an aerosol can of Glade or Renuzit potpourri spray. Zeus lighter fluid costs a mere $1.95. And Pledge cleaner runs about $2.70 at most stores.
"On the surface, they look like rather innocuous substances," said Dr. Jitendra Desai, medical director of the Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center. "But really, they are dangerous."
Experts say two factors - accessibility and low cost - make inhalants attractive drugs for young people.
"Kids are looking to get high at earlier ages, and inhalants are easy to get," said Sandy Alderson, a substance-abuse counselor with Roanoke County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
There's no law regulating the sale of lighter fluids and most other household products, and inhalants often take a back seat to illegal substances in anti-drug crusades.
"Inhalants don't get the proper attention because I think the major thrust of the drug war has been intervention in trafficking," said Dr. Charles Sharp, an inhalants expert with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "These are legal drugs, so drug trafficking isn't an issue with them."
One inhalant user, a 14-year-old boy who is under treatment for substance abuse at Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center, said he rarely was questioned by clerks when he bought aerosol butane cans.
"They all knew what we were going to do with them, but there's no law against it. What could they do?" he said.
Plenty, say merchants like Shifflett at E-Z-N.
"There was one kid who was real obvious about why he was buying the butane. I stopped letting him buy it," she said. "He got angry, but I told him, `I don't have to sell you anything I don't want to.'''
7-Eleven employees are trained to recognize a wide assortment of problem products. In addition to aerosol butane canisters, Super Glue and certain kinds of hair sprays also have been pulled from the shelves, manager Sue Lipes said. The products that remain are monitored.
"Some we kept, like that Pam cooking spray," she said, "but before we sell it to someone who looks young, we have to ask for an ID."
However, as Lesley Firebaugh, an adolescent specialist with the counseling program New Directions, said, "You could lock up all sorts of things, saying you don't want your kids to get into them, but they'll find something else."
But word gets around, Shifflett said, and the message makes some difference.
"They don't even bother coming in here for it anymore," she said.
by CNB