Drug info - to save a teen


All of our kids and brother's and sisters' kids are going to be exposed to stuff we think we know about but don't...WE need to stop denying it and just take all the advice and info we can to try and teach our little ones to not get into stupid stuff:

Latest Drug in Middle School - Dusting 'Dust OFF'

First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for it's crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn' t allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 amthe next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said so.

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air . It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. IT KILLS YOU.

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE . You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That 's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.

It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want . But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it.There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.

We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked
about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it. April 2 nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus.



FROM SNOPES: [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link.

I've seen this, and it is scary!

I am extremely grateful that my kids have seen the effects of drugs, and huffing, and rather than ignoring such things, are snitches! If they think someone is in danger from this kind of stuff, they will talk, until someone LISTENS!

Thank you Brenda for the warning!

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You're welcome My kids, too, don't touch the stuff and never have.

I'd never heard of this one, though, and that's terrifying!!! I didn't believe it - hence the link to Snopes, who says yup, this is TRUE.

Very scary!!!

Last year, before I pulled my youngest out to home school him, they took three kids to the hospital for this very reason. Our HS here is filled with drug problems. Kids taking grandma and grandpas prescription drugs to school and selling them, huffing, and of course the good ole meth and mary jane problems. Its just too easy to get their hands on now days. And it scares the heck out of me.

Another thing that you have to watch is the canned whipped cream. Every parent should read up on Huffing, or Dusting. Schools should be sending home literature to inform parents of the abuse. But here, the prefer to sweep it under the rug and not make parents aware of the dangers, not educate parents on the signs of usage.

That is one of the biggest reasons I removed my son from the school. There is a permanent DEA officer in the school, payed to be there daily. When you see that, as a parent, then you know that there is a big problem.

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I'd rather have the cop there than not! At least he knows what he is looking for, compared to some of the teachers, who simply do not have time to be looking for it.

I don't blame you for homeschooling though. I thought about it with WIlliam last year, but didn't have the resources available to do it.

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I agree, it is good that there is an officer there, but the problem is, they don't educate parents on what to look for.

Have you heard of skittling? Its still really fuzzy to me what it actually is, but they removed all the skittles from the vending machines in the school. But yet, no parents were informed of the issue. I had to learn this from my own son. And he honestly doesn't know the ways to abuse the skittles. <shrugs>

If there are problems, and new abuse methods popping up, I as a parent want to be informed of them. I want to know the signs and the warnings. But this school doesn't deem it necessary to educate parents. How stupid is that???

Our school has an F in the rating system, and with the drug problems here, I can see why.

My son had a 1.2 GPA before I pulled him out, now its a 2.9. He's not a genious, and has some comprehension problems, but we deal with that. He's doing so much better without the distractions and having to watch his back all the time. I'm glad I made the decision to remove him. This school didn't really meet my standards for education. I felt that it was more of a social place for the kids, and not much learning going on at all.

Actually the program that I have him in is really affordable, I'll PM you with the information.

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Thanks so much for that post...I was not aware or knew nothing about this one....now that I know I will have a talk with my granddaughter and hope she never touches stuff like this....my jeart goes out to the police officer in the post and I realy feel for him losing a child....there is so much "crap" going around and its a scary thought for all of us with children....thanks again for posting and I will pass this one on to others....bless you!

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"Once in every life....someone comes along and I was so in Love...it was almost like a song..."

I love the Truckers Report...my favorite place to be...

What is skitlling? I haven't heard of this. Maybe we should have a thread on New teen talk/drug abuse?
We are dealing with truck drivers who have kids and we need to keep you all up on what the kids are doing so we can look for it

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

Okay, I thought I was pretty hip with all the drug stuff with the kids, but skittling? What the heck is that?

Oh My. This is So Sad. I have never heard of it. It Scares the Pee out of me. Things like this makes me wanna pull my Son out of Public School and Home School him. And he's only in 1st grade.

Thank You for the Post. I'm going to pass it on.

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Mrs_Nash


30 years Young.
Mommy to D.J and Sheridan. Baby # 3 on the way ~ Summer 2009 !!

Wife to Daniel.

I LOVE MY TRUCKER.