Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410170097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
\ Mike Gibson had never seen the sort of can that was resting in the unconscious driver's open palm, but he knew it meant trouble.
The Toyota had whizzed past his home on Toddsbury Drive in Vinton a few minutes earlier, shortly after 6 p.m. on July 27. A dark-blue blur in the misty rain, the car swerved to the left and came to a stop in a yard. The wheels kept spinning, and blue smoke poured out from under the tires.
When Gibson ran over to help, he realized the driver slumped in the seat was his neighbor, 17-year-old Jason Ferguson. Although there were no visible injuries, the boy was semiconscious, his eyes rolled up in the back of his head. Something wasn't right.
Then Gibson noticed the can of butane.
Jason Edward Ferguson died that night, but it wasn't the crash that killed him. He died because he'd been sniffing butane, one of many household products that kids are inhaling in search of a quick high. Inhalant abuse isn't a new problem, substance abuse experts say, but it isn't much publicized, either. In the Falling Creek subdivision of Vinton, where Jason lived with his mother and stepfather, few had heard of it.
"Who in a million years would know that a Renuzit can and stuff like that could be a killer?'' said Jason's neighbor, Trixie Averill. "We just kept saying, `What? He did what?' You worry about your kids getting into the liquor cabinet, but you don't think they'll be getting into your cleaning supplies."
\ Huffing, glading, bagging, whippets, kick, Satan's Secret. The street names are obscure, but the products aren't. There's butane and other lighter fluids, Glade or Renuzit air freshener sprays, Scotchguard fabric protector, nail polish remover, cooking spray, glue and about 1,400 other household items.
A caution is stamped on cans: "Use only as directed. Intentional misuse by deliberately concentrating or inhaling the contents can be harmful or fatal." But not everyone heeds the warning. In fact, substance-abuse professionals say inhaling household products for a buzz is frighteningly common, especially among younger kids.
Sandy Alderson works with youths who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system in Roanoke County because of drug charges. In her discussions with them, inhalant abuse surfaces often.
"I've had kids in my caseload who were using eight to 10 cans of butane a day," Alderson said. "It's usually more popular with the younger kids. With the 16- and 17-year-olds I see, they'll say they used inhalants when they were 11 or 13 and then moved on."
According to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one in seven high school students has tried some type of inhalant. The institute also found that from 1980 to 1990, inhalants were the only drug group that gained popularity.
"Inhalants are an initial gateway drug," said JoAnn Burkholder, William Byrd High School's student assistance coordinator. "Kids experiment with them because they don't think they are dangerous."
A recovering drug user at the Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center said that's how his drug problem got started.
"At first, I used butane, sniffed glue and huffed gasoline from a plastic bag," said the 14-year-old boy, who has been in treatment for three weeks. "But butane only gives like a three-minute high, then you have to do some more. It got boring."
The teen, who agreed to share his experiences on the condition of anonymity, said he'd get the inhalants at the corner store.
"We'd buy two cans and steal two," he said. "I'd do them pretty much as soon as I got 'em. It ain't hard. Any stuff in an aerosol can will work."
After a high-gone-bad, he laid off butane - for a while. "I was doing some with a friend and he started freaking out and stuff. He was screaming, and he thought he saw things, like his teeth were falling out and his tongue was black," the boy said, constantly tapping his left leg as he spoke. "I quit butane, but every once in a while, I'd do a couple of cans."
Hallucinations are only one of the possible side effects of inhalant abuse. Users also can feel dizzy and queasy. They may suffer from frequent nosebleeds and respiratory infections.
Because inhalants go directly through the nose to the lungs, the chemicals are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream. The blood carries them to the brain within seconds. In the long run, users risk brain damage, liver toxicity, bone marrow disorders and kidney failure.
"You can experiment with inhalants and get into trouble very quickly," said Dr. Paul Proffitt, a substance-abuse counselor with Mount Regis' Changes, an intensive outpatient treatment program for adolescents and adults. "All of us have different individual body chemistries. There's no telling how someone might react."
Once, twice, three times, it doesn't matter how often users breathe in the fumes, Proffitt said. They gamble with death every time.
There were about 75 confirmed cases nationally of "sudden sniffing deaths" last year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse's records, but an inhalants expert with the institute said inhalant-related deaths are much higher. "Five hundred or 600 a year is a very probable estimate," Dr. Charles Sharp said.
Dr. David Oxley, deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, said he's seen about 50 cases of inhalant deaths in his 22 years of work in the Roanoke area. Almost all of them were young people, he said, and the most recent was Jason. The coroner's report ruled that the Vinton teen died of cardiac arrhythmia, an interruption of the heartbeat, brought about by the inhalation of butane.
\ Jason Ferguson should have been a senior at William Byrd High School this year. He was described as a "polite" boy by adults who knew him there, including Mike Gibson, who found Jason unconscious in his car.
"I never had a clue that Jason was doing any of this stuff. He seemed to be an all-American boy," said Gibson, who coached Ferguson in tennis his freshman year. "He was respectful and always on time for practice."
Until last year, Ferguson was active in several sports, including football, soccer and baseball. He was a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, one of his friends said, and he liked all kinds of music, except country. He had an after-school job as a sales clerk for a mail-order company. He kept busy.
"Jason never liked to just hang out at home," his friend said. "He was upbeat, and he went with the flow."
Family acquaintance Marilyn Cockfield said few suspected Ferguson was using inhalants.
"I don't think Jason was the kind of kid people think of as a drug user," she said. "He was very bright, always in accelerated classes. He had lots of friends and lived in an affluent neighborhood. He'd just gotten a new car. Things were going well for him."
But things weren't great. He'd started cutting classes in 10th grade, and the problem got worse his junior year. He dropped out of extracurricular activities, one of his friends said, because he was "burned out." Ten days before Ferguson died, he wrecked his new car, sliding into a ditch.
Somewhere along the line, he started experimenting with inhalants. "We'd heard of some incidents," his friend said. The teen had been seeing a therapist with Mount Regis' Changes, trying to address the problems, when he died.
Ferguson's death has hit those close to him hard. Both his mother and father have put their homes on the market, hoping to leave the painful memories behind. Scores of students attended the funeral, and Ferguson's friends work to overcome their grief.
There is hope, though, that Ferguson's death will be a reminder.
"There's always been an effort to educate here," said JoAnn Burkholder, the student assistance coordinator at William Byrd High School. "It's ongoing. But sometimes people are better prepared to hold on to it. When something this devastating happens to a community, people become more open and more aware."
Cockfield said the tragedy made her more informed. "I didn't know anything about inhalants until Jason died," she said. Now she does. "We have to make these kids understand. Every time they use inhalants, they're putting their finger on the death button," she said. "It's like Russian roulette."
\ ABUSE OF INHALANTS\ WHAT THEY INHALE
Experts say there are more than 1,400 abusable products on the market. Among them: butane and other lighter fluids, room odorizers, nail polish remover, nitrous oxide, spray paints, gasoline, hair spray, fabric protectors, paint thinners, Halon (fire extinguishers), refrigerants, correction fluids, markers and glue.
SIGNS OR EVIDENCE OF A PROBLEM The high generated by inhalants lasts only
minutes, so chances are parents and friends will not notice this state. But there are other signs: burns around the nose and mouth; frequent respiratory infection and nosebleeds; glassy eyes, a chemical odor from clothing, sweat and breath; loss of appetite; headaches; paint and glue smears on face and hands; tubes of glue; aerosol cans or caps from household products; plastic and paper bags.
WHAT TO DO
In an emergency, do not confront the person. Phone 911 and maintain calm communication with victim. Monitor breathing continually and perform CPR, if necessary. Hold suspected abused products or substances for identification by paramedics.
In nonemergency situations, again do not confront the person. Open communication with the individual is critical. Contact a substance abuse professional for assistance.
Information provided by the International Institute on Inhalant Abuse
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB