(Note: Fourteen-year-old Kyle Williams, son of Jeff and Kathy Williams of Painesville Township, Ohio, died on March 2, 2005 from the effects of inhaling the contents of a can of Dust-Off compressed-air cleaning spray.

Below is the second half of a message written by Kyle's father, police officer Jeff Williams, who first posted it on a support Web site for grieving parents, where it inspired readers to copy the text and forward it to others. Mr. Williams also shared his story in a March 10, 2005 column by Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)

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. Its just compressed air. It cant hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle's death
Kyle was wrong. It's not just compresses air. It also contains a propellant. I think its R2. Its 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. Kyle was right. It cant hurt you. 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. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your 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 eye's were still open.

The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. 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.

Its easy to say hay, its my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always effected. 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 cant 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 wont talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I cant 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 know about it.

April 2nd 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. I know Kyle is in heaven but I cant help but wonder If I died and went to Hell.

Jeff

(Note: Fourteen-year-old Kyle Williams, son of Jeff and Kathy Williams of Painesville Township, Ohio, died on March 2, 2005 from the effects of inhaling the contents of a can of Dust-Off compressed-air cleaning spray.

The message below was written by Kyle's father, police officer Jeff Williams, who first posted it on a support Web site for grieving parents, where it inspired readers to copy the text and forward it to others. Mr. Williams also shared his story in a March 10, 2005 column by Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)

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 its 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. Makes them promise they wont.

My wife Kathy is a nurse and we have 3 children. Kyle was the oldest at 14. The other two are 12 and 13 years of age. Kyle loved football and played for his school. I went to every one of his games. He didn't always play much since it was his first year but I didn't care. He also loved playing games on his computer or his playstation. Kyle had so much potential. He could do anything he wanted to.

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 them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my 2 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. At 11 PM my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 530 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was sitting 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.

~Lao-tzu

(from JoinTogether.org)

Front Cover of State Estimates of Persons Aged 18 or Older Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Illicit Drugs Data from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicate that 17.0 percent of youth aged 12 to 17 used cigarettes in the past year, 32.9 percent used alcohol, and 13.2 percent used marijuana. Parents are encouraged to communicate with their children about drugs and alcohol, and some research has examined the extent to which parents are aware of their children’s drug and alcohol use. Studies focusing on the general population have found high levels of parent awareness of adolescent cigarette use, but awareness of alcohol use is low; findings on parent awareness of adolescent marijuana use are mixed.

The following are brief findings in the report:

Youth substance use in the past year was generally higher within one-parent households than within two-parent households for both mother-child and father-child pairs and was generally highest among youth in father-child pairs within one-parent households.
Parent awareness of youth use of cigarettes and alcohol in the past year increased with the youth’s increasing age among both mother-child and father-child pairs.
Rates of parent awareness of youth substance use in the past year were generally higher among mothers in mother-child pairs than among fathers in father-child pairs and were generally highest among mothers in mother-child pairs within one-parent households.

Download NSDUH Report:
Parent Awareness of Youth Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana PDF (313 KB)

Animal Study Hints at Greater Teen Susceptibility to Addiction
May 2, 2008

(Research Summary from JoinTogether.org)

Adolescent rats given cocaine were more likely to return to the place where they got the drug than adult rats, suggesting that younger drug users may be more likely to be motivated by drug-related cues than older users, Biology News reported April 21.

The younger rats also returned to the drug-administration site after a small dose of cocaine was administered after the drug-linked preference was discontinued. It took researchers 75 percent more trials to extinguish the conditioned place preference of the adolescent rats, and the young rats were 40 percent more likely to reinstate their place preference than adult rats when a low "priming" dose of cocaine was administered after a 24-hour delay.

"Adolescent vulnerability to addiction involves robust memories for drug-associated cues that are difficult to extinguish," the researchers from McLean Hospital in Massachusetts wrote.

The study was reported in the April 2008 issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.
This article summarizes an external report or press release on research published in a scientific journal. When available, links to the sources are provided above.

It all started when I was about 5-6 years old and was the time I told my dad that I know that he smokes bud. At this time our family lived in a little town and there were about 100 people that live there. I started school at 5 years old. My mom was not around for most of my life. My sister took care of me for most of it until she moved out. Me and my brother did not have a bond. We would cause hell by riding dirtbikes around and that is all that I did with him. He moved out when he was about 15... the same age that I am now. My sister moved out when she was about 16 years old. I am the baby and I am proud of it and I started to smoke when I was about 8 and then I started to drink around the age of 10 or 11. My mom and dad got a divorce about 4 years ago and the first year I lived with my dad and then I moved in with my mom and gramma. That's when I started to get into trouble. I was 13 the first time I ever go into trouble with the law. It was an assault on fops and destruction of property. I went to juvie and then I got put on probation. But during that time I got into another problem with the law. I got a possession charge at school so I got put on probation for longer. Then I went to outpatient treatment and I passed that and then I got off of probation. I stayed clean for about one and a half years and then I got a domestic violence charge on my gramma and then I was getting urine tests and they were coming up with cocaine and bud in my system so I got put in to juvie again. Then I said I wanted to go into inpatient. So I stayed in juvie for a long time and then I came to Daybreak.

Click and >>Watch the Movie

Source: Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Departments of Health, Social and Health
Services, Community, Trade and Economic Development, and Family Policy Council, Healthy Youth Survey - 2006.

APRIL 21, 2008 NO. 008-022

Study shows that paying for chemical dependency treatment improves health outcomes and saves taxpayer dollars too

Olympia -- New research by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) shows that providing more Medicaid and General Assistance (GA) funds for chemical dependency treatment is saving taxpayers between $149 and $287 per month in medical costs for every adult who receives treatment.

Approved by legislators in 2005 and funded by assumed cost savings in medical and long term care, medical savings per treated patient are exceeding the original budget assumptions:

· For adult Medicaid Disabled patients, medical savings are estimated to be $287 per treated patient per month, compared to $199 in the original appropriation.

· For adult Medicaid Disabled patients, nursing home savings are estimated to be $137 per treated patient per month, compared to $58 in the original appropriation.

· Actual medical savings for GA-Unemployable patients are estimated to be $149 per treated patient per month, compared to $117 in the original appropriation.

Other savings in criminal justice and child welfare costs have not yet been estimated. The full report is available at http://www.dshs.wa.gov/pdf/hrsa/dasa/TxExpUpdate.pdf

“State and local agencies have worked hard to provide quality treatment to more people with this disease,” said Doug Allen, Director of the DSHS Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. “Now the research proves that investing in treatment not only creates healthier families and safer communities, it saves tax payers thousands of dollars in medical costs.”

Prior to 2005, 74 percent of Washington’s youth, and 69 percent of adults, were denied treatment because of limited state funding and long waiting lists that forced many potential patients to give up on treatment. With the new funding, the study calculated that 4,211 more people were able to receive prompt treatment in the first two years.

The state-funded treatment is available to Medicaid-eligible residents of the state, including the elderly, disabled, those who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and low-income teens.

"Now that more people can get the treatment they need, it’s crucial that their family members, friends, employers and health care providers are aware of the warning signs, and help them begin treatment”, added Allen.

The public can find help on how to intervene at www.intervenenow.org.

~Ram Dass

4,462 deaths reported in 2005, a nearly six-fold increase since 1999

(An AP story updated 12:34 p.m. PT, Thurs., April. 17, 2008 reported on MSNBC.com)

LACONIA, N.H. - When her 20-year-old son stumbled home one night last October, Gail DeLucca told him to go to bed and sleep it off. "I love you, Ray," she called up the stairs, figuring she would wait until morning to lecture him about drinking.

But it wasn't alcohol that made her son so woozy. It was methadone, and it killed him.

Raymond DeLucca was one of 168 people to die of drug overdoses in New Hampshire last year. That was more than the number killed in car crashes. More than half the drug deaths involved methadone, and an alarming eight of them happened in Laconia, a city of about 17,000.

"After about the fifth one, we had a meeting and said this is crazy," said Police Chief Michael Moyer.

Nationwide, methadone deaths are increasing at a faster rate than any other drug-related deaths, the National Center for Health Statistics reported in February. According to the most recent data available, the number of methadone deaths nationwide rose from 786 in 1999 to 4,462 in 2005, a nearly six-fold increase. By comparison, fatal cocaine overdoses rose 63 percent, from 3,832 to 6,228.

Drug often stolen, sold or shared
Though it is best known as a prescription drug that curbs heroin addiction, methadone has been increasingly prescribed as a pain medication, and officials say it is those pills that have led to the increase in deaths.

In many cases, the drug is being stolen in transit between manufacturers and pharmacies. Also, patients with methadone prescriptions are selling or sharing their pills.

In some states, including Maine and New Hampshire, methadone has become the leading cause of drug-related deaths, overtaking even cocaine and heroin. That is prompting some police and prosecutors to get tough.

In Vermont, a woman was charged last month with giving methadone to a friend who slipped into a coma and died. In New Hampshire, four people have been charged in connection with DeLucca's death, and a task force is investigating Laconia's seven other deaths in hopes of bringing charges.

"In past years on an overdose death, no, we would not usually have done a really thorough investigation," Moyer said. "Now we treat it more like a crime scene when we go to one of these."

Gail DeLucca said she realizes that her son wasn't blameless — she knew he had a drug problem — but she wants the others involved to be held accountable. The methadone that killed him was obtained illegally from a friend who had bought it from a local couple, she said.

"It was a bad choice, and he paid for it with his life," she said. But "the other people made a bad choice in selling it, and now it's their turn to pay for what they did."

Methadone combined with other drugs
Though methadone isn't the leading cause of drug deaths in Vermont — the painkiller oxycodone, often sold under the brand name OxyContin, holds that distinction — nearly three-quarters of the 80 drug-related deaths last year involved the class of drug to which both oxycodone and methadone belong.

The problem isn't limited to the northern New England — Utah, Kentucky and Washington, for example, had similar methadone death rates — and experts say there is nothing particular to the Northeast that is contributing to the trend.

"We are simply at a point in time where in New England and the Eastern Seaboard, methadone is the drug with 'street cred' right now, whereas methamphetamine leads the pack elsewhere," said Dr. Thomas Andrew, New Hampshire's medical examiner.

Methadone is cheaper than other prescribed painkillers and is easily diverted to the black market.

Though methadone does not itself produce a high, it is often combined with other drugs in hopes of creating one. But for someone who has a low tolerance, even low doses can be dangerous. Methadone is particularly hazardous because of the slow way in which it is metabolized.

"It takes a while for its action to be perceived by the patient, and in this age of instant gratification — 'Hey, I still hurt' — they grab a second one or even a third one, and by the time everything kicks in, they wake up dead," Andrew said.

The medical examiner is pushing for electronic prescription monitoring to prevent people from getting multiple methadone prescriptions from different doctors and pharmacies.

About 30 states have such programs, including Maine and Vermont, but New Hampshire rejected the idea three times recently. Opponents consider it an invasion of privacy and an invitation for police fishing expeditions.

In Laconia, the police chief's task force is focusing on educating schoolchildren and other members of the public about methadone, displaying a big "Eight Is Enough" banner with pictures of some of the victims. No one has died of a methadone overdose in the city since DeLucca in October.

Parents are used to hearing their teens speak in code - from the trendy catchphrase of the week to the popular acronyms used for text messaging and online chatting. But one term that might come up more frequently this time of year is "420" (pronounced "four-twenty").

Those familiar with popular drug culture might recognize the code as a reference to the annual pot-smoking holiday on April 20 (or 4-20). There are many theories explaining the origin of the term and the date - from the supposed number of active chemicals in marijuana to an alleged police crime code for drug arrests to the time of day a group of California teens congregated to smoke up in the 1960s.

Whatever the actual origins of 420, many teens now know April 20th as the day to smoke marijuana. So parents should be especially mindful of monitoring for drug use on this day in particular.

Learn more about the risks of marijuana.

Marijuana: Then and Now

So you tried pot at some point in your life and think you'll feel like a hypocrite telling your teen not to use? Get over it. It's important to talk about your experiences to help your children learn from them. Be honest and emphasize that this discussion is about your child's future and not about your past. Marijuana today is more potent than it was a generation ago and more kids are using it at a younger age, when their bodies and minds are still developing. Talk to your teens. Kids who learn about marijuana and other drugs from their parents are less likely to use them.

Tell your teens how to say no, even if you didn't.

from The Anti-Drug.com

In 2006, a majority (53.9 percent) of American adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 20 had used an alcoholic beverage at least once in their lifetime. Young people aged 12 to 20 consumed approximately 11.2 percent of the alcoholic drinks consumed in the United States in the past month by persons aged 12 or older. Research shows that underage drinkers tend to consume more alcohol per occasion than those over the legal minimum drinking age of 21.

The following are brief findings from the report:

Combined 2005 and 2006 data indicate that an annual average of 28.3 percent of persons aged 12 to 20 in the United States (an estimated 10.8 million persons annually) drank alcohol in the past month.

Past-month alcohol users aged 12 to 20 drank on an average of 5.9 days in the past month and consumed an average of 4.9 drinks per day on the days they drank in the past month.

Underage drinkers aged 12 to 20 consumed, on average, more drinks per day on the days they drank in the past month than persons aged 21 or older (4.9 vs. 2.8 drinks).

from http://www.samhsa.gov/

Kids Who Have Money to Spend on Drugs More Likely to Do So
March 26, 2008

Research Summary

The more disposable income kids have, the more likely they are to use drugs, according to a report from the Australian National Council on Drugs.
The Melbourne Herald Sun reported March 26 that students who had AU$21-$60 in weekly disposable income were more likely to report past-year drug use than those who had less than AU$20 to spend weekly. And those with more than AU$60 week in disposable income were twice as likely to have used drugs than those with AU$20 or less to spend.

Researchers suggested that parents give their children less weekly pocket money -- approximately AU$1 for every year of their age. "We have known for a long time that children with a higher disposable income are more likely to try drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, simply because they can afford it," said adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg. "Parents should give pocket money to children in three lots: one lot to spend, one lot to save, and one lot to give to charity," he said.

"Once you have a framework, you can talk to children about what they shouldn't spend their money on. For example, teenagers should not be spending money on alcohol," agreed Joe Tucci of the Australian Childhood Foundation.

from JoinTogether.org

Inhalants: 2006

Inhalants are substances whose vapors or gas can be sniffed or inhaled to produce mind-altering effects and whose chronic use may cause irreversible damage to the brain, kidneys, and lungs. Found in a range of inexpensive and readily available household, office, industrial, and automotive products, inhalants include substances such as hair spray, shoe polish, glue, gasoline, lighter fluid, spray paints, and other aerosol sprays. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) have shown that the primary abusers of inhalants are adolescents aged 12 to 17.

The following are brief findings found in the report:

* Adolescents aged 12 to 17 accounted for 8 percent of admissions to substance abuse treatment in 2006; however, they represented 48 percent of all admissions reporting inhalants.
* Females comprised a larger proportion of adolescent admissions reporting inhalants than of adolescent admissions not reporting inhalants (41 vs. 30 percent).
* In 2006, 45 percent of adolescent admissions reporting inhalants had a concurrent psychiatric disorder in contrast to only 29 percent of their counterparts who did not report inhalants.

Download Complete Report

Have you noticed changes in your child's behavior? Or does he or she have friends that you suspect might be abusing prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) drugs? Whatever the reason - don't ignore the issue at this critical time.

The problem is more common than many parents think. More teens are abusing prescription drugs than any illicit drug except marijuana. In 2006, more than 2.1 million teens ages 12 to 17 reported abusing prescription drugs. And among 12- and 13-year-olds, prescription drugs are the drugs of choice.

>>READ MORE on TheAntiDrug.com

(Note: Joe is a man in his early twenties, in early recovery, reflecting on his life and disease.)

Realizing my problem was a prolonged, excruciating journey. The amount of embarrassment I caused myself and my closest friends was horrendous. Though my band was more forgiving of sloppy shows, I was not so forgiving of myself. I would drown the memory of a bad show, or public display of idiocy, as I like to call it, with a bottle of rum; the vicious cycle continues, and with force. So many nights I would be tormented with terrible, gut-wrenching memories that I would then turn around, get plowed and dig yet another hole. One night in particular, I had a south African friend tell me I drink too much, and when a Swazi tells you you drink too much, man have you got a problem. But of course I didn't listen, I was deaf to all comments and complaints for so many years. Eventually, though, I was lucky enough to realize all those accumulated voices were right, I had a serious problem, and I had to do something about it.

Moving home after five years gone, I started to remember things. I began to remember what I used to be like. I remembered long forgotten dreams and goals, I remembered what it was like to be healthy. At this point I was haggard, both mentally and physically. The years of drinking and drugging were catching up to me and I knew that if I didn't quit now, all I had to look forward to was deep depression and probably death.

- Japanese proverb

(Note: Joe is a man in his early twenties, in early recovery, reflecting on his life and disease.)

Alcoholism is cunning, baffling, powerful thing. After drinking "responsibly" for a number of years, I truly believed that I was healthy, sane and as productive as anybody else. I was gravely mistaken. Do normal people go to visit their friend in Olympia, roll a car three times, get out, dust off, and hitchhike back to town for more drinks? I certainly thought so; seemed like a grand idea. That was one of the stupidest things I've ever done, and looking back on it now, sober, I can hardly believe that it was me. But it was. I would do some really crazy, stupid stuff, just for kicks. Bored? Yeah. OK, let's get wasted and start a funk parade in the middle of town at two in the morning! Great! Though this is a fond memory, it is still one that reminds me that I was certifiably insane for a good number of years. Such activities are rather frowned upon by authorities, and, of course, authorities are rather frowned upon by drunk, high freaks roaming the streets in the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say this didn't turn out well, but that's not the point. The point is that alcohol and drugs turned me into a flipping idiot. Realizing this was very difficult, and not at all a convenient, one-time epiphany.