Physicians Collaborate on National Inhalants and Poisons Public Health Campaign

More 12–year-olds have used potentially lethal inhalants than have used marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogens combined, according to data released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition's press conference to kick off its 18th annual National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week.

“It’s right under your nose,” said SAMSHA administrator Pamela S. Hyde, one of the panelists participating in the press conference in Washington, DC. Hyde joined panelists in presenting information and personal stories about the dangers of inhaling vapors from common household products. “The things that are being huffed are legal, easy to get, and lying around the home,” Hyde added.

SAMSHA data from the show a rate of lifetime inhalant use among 12-year-olds of 6.9 percent, compared to a rate of 5.1 percent of non-medical use of prescription drugs, a rate of 1.4 percent of marijuana, a rate of .7 percent for use of hallucinogens, and a .1 rate for cocaine use.

Hyde joined panelists R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Deputy Director Timothy P. Condon, NIPC’s Executive Director Harvey Weiss, Dr. Jennifer N. Caudle, a father of a student who died using inhalants, and a teenager in recovery for using inhalants in spreading the basic message: The way to treatment is with prevention and education.

Dr. Condon said, “It’s not hype, it’s not exaggerating. Inhalants can be deadly,” citing his organization’s recent Monitoring the Future survey data that more 8th graders use inhalants than older students and that these younger youth have a lower perception of huffing risk.

Kevin Talley of North Carolina lost his daughter, Amber Ann Suri, from huffing air conditioning free-on about a year ago. “She was a good student, worked and paid her own car payment, was in the JROTC,” Talley said in between tears, “and she died a month before her 18th birthday.”

Dr. Caudle, representing both the American Osteopathic Association and Sanai Hospital in Baltimore, said the organization is urging its 67,000 members to take continuing education programs to help enhance physician awareness of youth inhalant use. Use can cause symptoms ranging from nose bleeds and watery eyes, to gait problems, to cardiac arrest.

“We have to ask the right questions so we can save a life,” Caudle said.

Weiss added, “Recovery is possible, recovery is a reality.”

“You can get addicted after just one use,” said 17-year-old Ashley Upchurch. The high school valedictorian has been sober for two years and has turned her life around, planning on starting college and majoring in nursing this fall. She acknowledges the recovery high school program she attends in Indianapolis for saving her life.

For more information on National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week, and to download helpful tools, visit www.inhalants.org. Click here to watch a CADCA TV show on inhalant abuse entitled, “Household Highs: Understanding Inhalants.”