Most people think that drugs are something you have to buy on the street, but you needn’t look any further than underneath your kitchen sink. Inhalants are substances whose vapors can be inhaled to produce a mind-altering effect. They can be found in such items as:
- Volatile solvents (ex: paint thinners, degreasers and glues)
- Aerosols (ex: hair spray and vegetable cooking oil)
- Ases (ex: ether, nitrous oxide and propane)
- Nitrates (ex: cyclohexyl nitrite, amyl nitrite and butyl nitrite)
Inhalants are often inhaled in one of several ways which include:
- Sniffing
- Snorting or spraying the inhalant directly into the nose or mouth
- Putting the inhalant into a bag or other container and then inhaling it
- Putting the vapor on a rag
- Inhaling nitrous oxide from balloons
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), inhalants are often among the first drugs that young people use. People use inhalants because they are cheap, can be purchased legally, and are easy to obtain. It’s frightening to think that any child can go underneath their kitchen sink when their parents aren’t home and engage themselves in a form of drug abuse. That is why it is important for parents to sit down and talk to their children at an early age about the dangers of drug abuse. In NIDA’s 2005 Monitoring the Future study, 17.1% of 8th graders, 13.1% of 10th graders, and 11.4% of 12th graders said they had abused inhalants at least once.
While the immediate effects of inhalants might seem harmless to the abuser, the effects can be damaging. Once the vapors from inhalants enter your body, some of the chemicals are absorbed by parts of the brain and nervous system. With the exception of nitrites, which increase the size of blood vessels and relax the muscles, all inhalants slow down the functions of the human body. Some of the short term effects seen include: increased heart rate, hallucinations, losing consciousness, nausea and/or vomiting, loss of coordination and slurred speech.
Other dangers included with inhalants is the fact that because they are so incredibly easy to get and are most often found in household items, a lot of people fail to realize how addictive they are. Like many drugs, most people who become addicted to inhalants develop into long-time users which puts them at risk for long time effects such as: brain damage, muscle weakness, depression, headaches and nosebleeds and loss of smell.
Younger people are likely to use inhalants more than any other age group, and this is due, in large part, to lack of parental influence/involvement or isolation from his/her community. Young adults who have parents that aren’t home a lot are more likely to get into trouble and have an increased risk of using inhalants or any other form of drug. Parents need to step up to the plate and intervene before it’s too late.
